• Piano player floats over Vilnius, Lithuania

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    A stuntman and his cardboard piano are lifted by a hot air balloon over Vilnius on August 10, during the Piano.lt summer festival.

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    A stuntman pretends to play the piano in the air as he and his cardboard instrument are lifted by a hot air balloon over Vilnius on August 10.

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    A stuntman pretends to play the piano in the air as he and his cardboard instrument are lifted by a hot air balloon over Vilnius on August 10.

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    If you didn't know the Piano.lt summer festival was starting, this might get your attention. Don't be fooled though, the piano isn't real like the one we saw in May, high above Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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  • 'Hill of Crosses' built by Catholic pilgrims over two centuries draws in many

    Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

    A local man prays in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary surounded by crosses on the "Hill of Crosses" (Krizu Kalnas), in northern Lithuania at the pilgrimage site near Siauliai on Sept. 3. Crosses, giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought by Cathilic pilgrims to the site over nearly two centuries.The exact number of crosses is unknown, but 2006 estimates put the number at arround 100,000.

    Janek Skarzynski / AFP - Getty Images

    A newly married couple poses on the "Hill of Crosses" (Krizu Kalnas), in northern Lithuania at the pilgrimage site near Siauliai on Sept. 3.

    Janek Skarzynski / AFP - Getty Images

    Children play on the "Hill of Crosses" (Krizu Kalnas), in northern Lithuania at the pilgrimage site near Siauliai on Sept. 3.

     Check out this video on the troubled history of the 'Hill of Crosses'.

    October 2006:
    Lithuania's national treasure, the Hill of Crosses, has a troubled and mysterious history. The Soviets repeatedly tried to destroy it. Now, it's become a symbol of the nation's struggle and spirituality.

    The Hill of Crosses -- a small mountain of approximately 100,000 crosses -- is a curious phenomenon. No one manages or organises it -- it just is. The Soviets razed it again and again, only to have the crosses reappear. As Prof Viatanis Rimkis explains: "During the struggle for our freedom, the crosses became a weapon that was invincible."

    Produced by ABC Australia
    Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

  • Vilnius City Municipality via AP

    Vilnius mayor acknowledges distributing digitally altered tank photo

    Our original PhotoBlog post from August 3 contains the altered still. The video is unaltered.

    AP reports:

    This two picture combination shows on top, a frame grab taken from a video produced for the Swedish television show "99 Things To Do Before You Die" and distributed by the Vilnius City Municipality, showing Arturas Zuokas, the 43 year old mayor of Vilnius, accompanied by one of the show's producers riding along with the mayor as he drives a military vehicle over a car parked illegally on a main street in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday Aug. 2, 2011. The image below, shows a still photograph of the same scene, also distributed by the Vilnius City Municipality, only the producer has been digitally removed. The area inside the red circle, in the image on top, (the circles were added by the AP), shows the television producer in a blue shirt. The area in the red circle in the image below shows where the producer has been removed. Zuokas acknowledged Tuesday Aug. 16, 2011 distributing the deliberately altered picture to The Associated Press and other news organizations, which was intended to dramatize his anti-parking campaign, an image that then was published in newspapers around world.

    msnbc.com corrections file

  • Mayor crushes illegally parked Mercedes with a tank in Vilnius, Lithuania

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    Update August 17, 12:30 p.m. ET: This photograph was digitally altered removing a person that was on the armored personnel carrier. The photo was handed out by the mayor's office and distributed by The Associated Press and other news organizations. For a full explanation and to see both versions of the image read here.

    Vilnius City Municipality via AP

    Arturas Zuokas, the 43 year old mayor of Vilnius drives over a car parked illegally on a main street in Vilnius city center with a military vehicle, August 2, 2011. The mayor took the drastic action after becoming infuriated with motorists parking their luxury cars illegally around the city..

    The photograph just moved today, but you can read the story and watch the video on the crushing that happened yesterday here.

    The Mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, hops in an APC and runs over an illegally parked Mercedes in his Public Service Announcement to show he is cracking down on parking violators. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.

  • Yum! Floor to ceiling 'Chocolate Room' in shopping center in Lithuania

    By Elena Grothe

    What a treat. Check out the scrumptious images and read the full AFP report below. 

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    Roses made entirely of chocolate are pictured in the "Chocolate Room", a 183-square-foot room made of chocolate from floor to ceiling, on Feb. 14, in a shopping center in Vilnius.

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    The "Chocolate Room", a 17-square-metre (183-square-foot) room made of chocolate from floor to ceiling, is seen on Feb. 14 in a shopping center in Vilnius. Lithuanian shoppers had a sweet Valentine's Day visual treat in the form of an entire chocolate room, but will have to wait to actually taste a piece of the walls and decor, organisers said. Seven artists used 661 pounds of chocolate to create it.

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    A table and table-setting made entirely of chocolate are pictured in the "Chocolate Room", a 17-square-meter room made of chocolate from floor to ceiling on Feb. 14 in a shopping center in Vilnius.

    Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images

    A chocolate cat sits on a chocolate chair in the "Chocolate Room", a 17-square-metre room made of chocolate from floor to ceiling on Feb. 14 in a shopping center in Vilnius. Lithuanian shoppers had a sweet Valentine's Day visual treat in the form of an entire chocolate room, but will have to wait to actually taste a piece of the walls and decor, organisers said. Seven artists used 661 pounds of chocolate to create it.

    Lithuanian shoppers on Monday had a sweet Valentine's Day visual treat in the form of an entire chocolate room, but will have to wait to actually taste a piece of the walls and decor, organisers said.

    "We wanted to create something special for Valentine's Day. The chocolate room looks just like a traditional Lithuanian sitting-room," Frederikas Jansonas, spokesman for the Akropolis shopping mall in the capital Vilnius, told AFP.

    The 17-square-metre (183-square-foot) room is made of chocolate from floor to ceiling, and also contains chocolate furniture and interior decorations such as candlesticks, pictures and books.

    Seven artists used 300 kilogrammes (661 pounds) of chocolate to create it.

    "Everybody who sees a full-size chocolate room will have no doubt. It's the best place for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner," sculptor Mindaugas Tendziagolskis said in a statement.

    For now, however, the curious can only look, not touch or taste.

    The room will be on view until March 8 -- International Women's Day -- when it will be broken up and the chocolate distributed to visitors, Jansonas said.

     

  • AP

    A firefighting vessel, bottom, tries to extinguish a fire on the car ferry Lisco Gloria in the Baltic Sea, on Saturday, Oct. 9. The maritime emergencies center in Cuxhaven said that an explosion apparently occurred on the Lisco Gloria at about midnight. The Lithuanian-flagged ferry had more than 200 people on board and was traveling from the German port of Kiel to Klaipeda, Lithuania. German authorities said that all passengers and crew members have been rescued.

    Havariekommando via Getty Images

    In this handout provided by the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (Havariekommando) the Lithuanian passenger and car ferry Lisco Gloria is pictured burning following an explosion on board in the early hours of Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010 in Fehmarn, Germany. The ferry carrying 236 passangers was en route from Kiel to Klaipeda in Lithuania when an explosion occurred on the ferry's upper deck around midnight, Germany's Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said. All passengers and crew have been evacuated and returned to Kiel on board of another ferry. Around 20 people were injured, three badly enough to be taken by helicopter to hospital .

    Night and day

    Both scenes look terrifying to me.