There exists serious danger that the executive might follow the old pattern and unconstitutionally extend its mandate, reads the statement of the Free Belarusian Trade Union, circulated on Monday. Fears arose after Lukashenko spoke of election observers as "guerillas", while chair of the Central Electoral Committee Lidya Ermoshina declared that public NGO representatives wouldn`t be accepted into the election committees.

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Svetlana Zavadskaya, wife of an ORT correspondent Dmitry Zavadsky, missing since last summer, addressed the world community, asking them to help her find her husband. Svetlana`s appeal was published in Swedish at the web-site www.vitryssland.nu. Following is its full English translation. Svetalana also addressed Lukashenko and Putin with the same request, but says that the authorities will hardly be of any help.

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Defamation lawsuit, initiated by president Lukashenko, continued on February 5. The suit was brought against opposition activists, who insisted on psychiatric examination of Lukashenko during their January 16 rally in Borisov. February 5 two action participants - Alesya Yasuk and Alexander Abramovich - all of a sudden turned from witnesses into suspects. They refused to provide testimony, as far as they do not believe in the professional objectivity of the agents of Borisov`s procuracy.

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First deputy Minister of Defense, chief of the country`s General Staff Mikhail Kozlov was dismissed upon Lukashenko`s personal directive February 5. According to "Interfax", Kozlov will be transferred to the reserve. It may well happen that February 6 they will appoint a new first deputy Minister of Defense.

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Belarusian Foreign Minister Khvostov will hold another meeting with the head of the AMG OSCE group in Minsk Hans-Georg Wieck. As officially reported, "the sides expect to discuss the poignant issues of future cooperation". Recently, the contacts between OSCE AMG and the Belarusian FM have become regular - the Belarusian side blames OSCE AMG for training terrorists, financing opposition, to which AMG responds with notes of protest.

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State`s overall salary indebtedness before the companies of the Mogilev region reached 1bln. rubles. This was announced February 5 at the morning session of the Mogilev region council. It was pinpointed that around 70% of the debt falls on the agriculture.

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