Lithuania, the last Baltic nation outside the currency union, has finally been given the green light to join the euro area, after its bid was turned down 8 years ago. The country could adopt the single euro currency on January 1, 2015.

The European Commission and the European Central Bank accepted Lithuania's application on Wednesday.

"Lithuania's readiness to adopt the euro reflects its long-standing support for prudent fiscal policies and economic reforms. That reform momentum, driven in part by Lithuania's EU accession ten years ago, has led to a striking increase in Lithuanians' prosperity: the country's per capita GDP has risen from just 35% of the EU28 average in 1995 to a projected 78% in 2015," Olli Rehn, the European Commission Vice-President responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, said in the statement.

The ECB looked at eight European Union countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and Croatia. Only Lithuania met all the criteria to join.

Lithuania first applied for membership on January 1, 2007. It was rejected, as inflation was above the EU's target by 0.1 percentage point, and expected to go higher. In 2008 it grew to hit 12.5 percent.

The Council will make a final decision on the matter in the second half of July, after EU officials and state heads meet at the European Council from June 26-27. Then the council will also agree on a set conversation rate for Lithuania's currency the litas to the euro. Eighteen countries already share the currency, a requirement for all member states except for the UK and Denmark.

In order for a country to adopt the euro, it needs to tie its currency to the euro for a two-year period, as well as keep debt below 60 percent of GDP and inflation within 1.5 percentage points of the three lowest rates among the euro zone.

The European Commission said that inflation, the key stumbling block to Lithuania joining the eurozone previously, has been overcome.

In the 12 months leading up to April 2014, Lithuania's average inflation rate was 0.6 percent, well below the reference value of 1.7 percent, and will likely remain below this level in the coming months, the ECB report said.

The Ukrainian government has canceled the huge annual Victory Day military parade in Kiev that commemorates the capitulation of Nazi Germany on May 9th. The government will only offer a prayer service for the victims of World War II and wreath-laying ceremony because they are supposedly worried about the potential for violence. But the real issue is that during World War II the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the west collaborated with Nazi Germany and the eastern Ukrainians fought for Russia. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler regularly spent time in his eastern front military bunker at Vinnitsa in Ukraine. By the end of World War II, 6.85 million Ukrainians were dead. During the Victory celebrations over the next three days, Russia and the West will continue to face off in their new Cold War.

The German invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa that began on June 22, 1941. On the eve of Barbarossa, about four thousand Ukrainians, operating under German Wehrmacht orders, sought to cause disruptions behind Soviet lines. After fighting for the German during the invasion, Ukrainians collaborated with their German occupiers by participating in the local administration, in German Schutzmannschaft police and serving as concentration camp guards.

The winner of the presidential election race was not declared officially and the counting was still going on when US President Barack Obama already recognized Petro Poroshenko as the new leader of Ukraine no matter there were many doubts about the election results being trustworthy.

First of all the decision to launch the preterm election was taken by the Ukrainian parliament under the barrel of a gun. The members of parliament were literally made get inside the hall and vote. Those who opposed the procedure were beaten up, their family members threatened. In some cases electronic cards were taken away to ensure the needed result.

Is Ukraine being destroyed by the West's mainstream media? How does Europe refer to democracy in terms of the current situation in this country? Is the West interested in 'European values' for Ukraine? Or is the US just improving its 'crisis management' skills there? And what should we expect from the meeting in Normandy? CrossTalking with Diana Johnstone, Eric Draitser and Uli Brueckner.

Head of Petr Poroshenko's campaign office in one of the districts of Ukraine's Vinnitsa region of was found dead on Thursday, according to Interfax.

The man's body with a gunshot wound to the head was found in his own car on one of the city of Nemirov's streets around 12.30 pm local time on June 5, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Government intelligence agencies have direct access to telecommunication companies' infrastructure which allows them to spy and record phone calls leaving no paper trail, the UK's largest mobile phone company Vodafone has revealed.

The British operator said wires have been attached to its phone networks in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe, as well as around the world, the Guardian reported. Governments similarly connect to other telecom groups, reportedly allowing them to listen to or record live conversations. In some cases, the surveillance agencies can also track the whereabouts of a customer.

"For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying," Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti told the Guardian. "Snowden revealed the internet was already treated as fair game. Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin - our analogue laws need a digital overhaul."

Russia has just announced a hugely strategic decision that may alter the regional power matrix and bug India at a time when the just-installed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was looking to deepen ties with Moscow.

Sergey Chemezov, head of Russian state-run technologies corporation Rostec, announced on Monday that Russia has lifted an embargo on supplying weapons and military hardware to Pakistan. He also said that Moscow is negotiating the delivery of several Mi-25 helicopter gunships to Islamabad. "The decision was taken and we are negotiating the delivery of helicopters," the Voice of Russia quoted Chemezov as saying.

I've heard from several Chinese American friends (now US citizens), who lived in China in 1989, that the student leaders behind the Tiananmen Square protest/massacre (April 14 to June 4, 1989) were supported by the CIA.

Oh, come on, I thought, another conspiracy theory!

However, my curiosity was stirred, so I spent hours hunting the internet for clues that this might be true. I discovered several coincidences that raised an eyebrow.

The U.S. Ambassador in China at the time, James Lilley (April 20, 1989 to 1991), was a former CIA operative who worked in Asia and helped insert CIA agents into China. President H. W. Bush served as Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (1974 - 1976) , then went to serve as Director of the CIA (1976 - 1977).

Why did President H. W. Bush replace Winston Lord as ambassador to China (1985-1989) during the early days of the Tiananmen Square incident with a former CIA agent? After all, Lord spoke some Chinese and was a key figure in the restoration of relations between the US and China in 1972. Wasn't he the best man for the job during a crisis like this?

It has been my recurrent effort on this blog to try to explain the likely reasons why Russia has not intervened so far in the war between Banderastan and Novorossia. I notice that those who see signs of "betrayal" or "sellout" by Putin are long on accusations but very short on specifics. Unlike the excellent article which I recently posted as a "must read", the folks who are busy accusing Putin of betrayal stop at the very short term: send guns, send men, impose a no-fly zone, strike this or that unit, etc. Fine. And then what? It is that "then what?" which our armchair patriots systematically shy away from. Besides "then what?" the other issue which these armchair strategists shy away from is "what if?". What if the Bandera freaks really open up with everything they have, out of spite or out of retaliation, and what if they really flatten Kramatorsk, Slaviansk or an entire neighborhood of Donetsk? What if the dead at this point turn from tens or hundreds into the many thousands? Those who mistakenly believe that the junta forces have already used "massive artillery strikes" should look up the concept "огневой вал" which is often translated as "artillery barrage" which, while not incorrect, does not even begin to convey the meaning that it has in Russian military doctrine. Rather than to give figures, just take a look at these:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has alleged US involvement in a plot to oust his government and assassinate him. The South American leader said there are hundreds of emails that prove members of the State Department were part of the conspiracy.

Venezuela has opened an investigation into a supposed plot to overthrow the government and assassinate President Maduro, reports Venezuelan state news broadcaster TeleSur. Authorities have alleged the plot was hatched by members of the Venezuelan far right with the support of the US State Department.

"We will ask the State Department for an explanation of the evidence that implicates high-level functionaries in a plan to assassinate the president of the Bolivarian Republic," said Maduro during his weekly radio show 'En Contacto con Maduro'.

Maduro went on to say the investigation had revealed new information about the plan to oust the Venezuelan government. He alleged that the plot not only threatened his life, but also the foundations of the Venezuelan constitution.