Belarusian procuracy intends to announce on May 11 the details of ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky`s disappearance case. Police sources informed us that the investigation procedures are over by now. So far, no case files materials were made public. A few "Almaz" servicemen and Lukashenko`s security guards are reportedly acting at the process as suspects. Tomorrow at 11a.m. the National press-center will host a press-conference of the deputy prosecutor general Mikhail Snegir and head of the investigation group on Dmitry Zavdsky`s case Ivan Branchel.

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Supreme Secretary of the "union state" of Russia and Belarus Pavel Borodin will set off today on a working visit to Minsk. Tomorrow he`ll hold talks with Lukashenko and premier Ermoshin. Their working meeting with Lukashenko was originally supposed to coincide in time with the 18<sup>th</sup> session of the "union state" parliamentary assembly. The session was first scheduled for May 11-12 in Grodno, but was later put off for an indefinite period. Sources in the state secretary`s apparatus claim that despite significant health deterioration, Borodin will fly on May 16 to Geneva to be interrogated in Swiss procuracy next morning.

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The press-center of the Polish Foreign Ministry told the BNS agency that nobody consulted with them on the issue of laying a railroad from Grodno to Kalinigrad via the territory of Poland.

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That`s the core essence, contained in the CC response to the appeal of the Belarusian trade union of research and culture, concerning start of the collective lawsuit on the increase of employees` wages: "Under the first part of the article 61 of the Belarusian Labor Code, the organizations, financed from the budget and existing on state donations, are paying salaries on the basis of hourly and monthly calculations, defined by the Belarusian government or the entitled body. As far as the Labor Code doesn`t mention the state as a potential side in the collective process, the Constitutional Court concludes that the problem of raising employees` incomes can be tackled via the General agreement, whose signatories are under art.359 of the Labor Code national associations of trade unions and employees, along with the government."

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Major root-cause of the existing straits stems from the sales problem. Grodno stores are crammed with all sort of vodka, so that domestic brands are simply no longer competitive, reports BDG. Moreover, company`s director Vladimir Dubko was quoted by "Vecherny Grodno" as saying that the plant is operating at a loss.

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During the festive assembly, commemorating the Victory Day, Alexander Lukashenko noted that Belarus made it through a couple of wars in her past: the first one being the Second World War, second - the Chernobyl disaster, third - the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Then the man added the following: "At present they seek to impose on us the forth war, similar to the one in Yugoslavia. They are using great resource and exert wild unprecedented pressure from outside. To achieve their goals they hired five homegrown traitors." (He obviously meant five prominent Belarusian opposition politicians, who said they would compete with Lukashenko at the elections - Y.S.News).

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Alexander Lukashenko`s negative rating rose from 16% (last August) to 26,2% (this April), reported head of the "Novak" laboratory Andrei Vardomatsky during May 8 presentation of the results of the latest opinion poll.

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Delegation, made up of renowned Belarusian opposition members, is currently on a visit to Norway. Charter`97 international coordinator Andrei Sannikov, chair of the Belarusian journalist association Zhanna Litvina, BPF chair Vintsuk Vyachorka, head of the "Vesna" human rights center Ales Belyatsky and leader of the Center for legal assistance to media Mikhail Pastukhov are holding these days a series of meetings with the Scandinavian officials, human rights defenders and press.

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Dmitry Fedorchenko, one of the May 7 picketers of the Minsk region committee, was fined 20 minimum wages. The action was dedicated to the second anniversary since the vanishing of the former Minister for Internal Affairs, general Yuri Zakharenko. The unsanctioned picketing was orchestrated by five activists from the Belarusian social-democratic party. Five minutes after the thing got started the dissenters were apprehended by police.

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No progress was recorded during the meeting between deputy Premier - Foreign Minister of Belarus Mikhail Khvostov and leader of the OSCE Advisory-Monitoring Group Hans Georg Wieck. Their meeting took place on May 7 in Minsk, but the sides failed to reach consensus on issues, related to Lukashenko-OSCE conflict, reported BelaPAN on May 8.

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Activists of the youth movement ZUBR opened signature collection in the Krayevo village near Vitebsk. People are offered to sign the message of the following content: "We, citizens of Vitebsk, uphold the aspiration of the youth movement ZUBR to enhance the performance of the local public transport during the summer season through the attraction of people`s attention to this problem." The village, accommodating dachas of half of the urban inhabitants, saw a great number of signatories under the text of the appeal - the only diesel train, that brought them to their summer cottages, got recently taken off the schedule. ZUBRs, encouraged by their first success, plan to launch similar signature collection in Vitebsk too. Analogous actions are being carried out in Borisov and Slonim.

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