RETURNING LITHUANIAN EMIGRES SERVING IN SENIOR GOVERNMENT POSTS.

President Valdas Adamkus yesterday appointed the Lithuanian-American Skirma Anna Kondratas to the post of presidential adviser for social affairs. She previously served as United States Assistant Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department in the George Bush administration. Another Lithuanian-American, the retired U.S. Army Colonel Jonas Kronkaitis, has been selected to become the commander of Lithuania’s armed forces–having been suggested by Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis. Adamkus himself is a Lithuanian-American and the first emigre from a captive nation to have become its president upon liberation (BNS, January 6-7).

LATVIA TEMPTED TO BREACH AGRICULTURAL FREE TRADE PACT.