Over the past two weeks the procuracy instituted 297 legal actions and sanctioned the arrest of 697 citizens, BelaPAN was told in the country’s procuracy press-center. The prosecutors bombarded the courts with 2.130 criminal cases against 2616 suspects and upheld in courts the state accusation under 1592 cases.

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The “Baltika” company won’t sign the investment agreement with Belarus the way it had been proposed by the country’s government. Gazeta.Ru reports that the Petersburg brewers will offer to Lukashenko’s administration to revise certain provisions of the document.

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Leadership of the United Civil Party addressed with an open letter the teachers and rector of the Gomel state university Mikhail Selkin. The UCP urges them not to assist the security services in the recruitment and exertion of psychological pressure on the students. The authors of the letter remind of the recent demise of a 24-year old Gomel resident Andrei Zaitsev in December 2001, reports BelaPAN. His relatives and friends claim that the reason for the tragedy was an attempt at his recruitment into KGB by one of its agent.

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According to the press-center of the Belarusian procuracy, there had been instituted criminal action against the “Vittorg Ltd” directors (Vitebsk) under art.243/2 “Tax-evasion”. The lawsuits were filed upon the findings of the tax inspections’ examinations. According to the detectives, the company’s director never registered in 2001 146thsd vodka bottles, entailing an infliction of large-scale damage upon the state – around 60mln rubles.

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The prosecutor general of the Geneva canton Bernard Bertossa intends to retain over $200thsd from the size of the bail, submitted by the lawyers of the Russia-Belarus “union’s” press-secretary Pavel Borodin. The man was quoted as so saying in an interview to “GaZeTa”.

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Ukraine passed a temporary 74% anti-dumping tariff on the import of the Belarusian roofing material. The trade sanction will be in force during the four months until the government releases a concomitant ruling on its termination.

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A fancy way of fighting the workers’ protests was invented by the authorities of Pinsk. They offered the protesters to pay rent for the space, which they occupy during their rally. So the trade union meeting, initiated at the local stadium by the Pinsk residents Alexander Morgol and Sergei Kostukevich, may never see light.

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According to the Ministry of statistics and analysis of Belarus, the salary indebtedness in February augmented by 37,7bln rubles or 214% in 28 days. Since the beginning of the year the salary debts rose by 279%. Given this dynamics continues, by summer the debts will exceed 100% of the salary fund size. Almost half of all debts fall on agriculture, which finds itself in the direst of straits ahead of the forthcoming spring sowing.

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A month prior to the Protest March “CAN’T LIVE LIKE THAT NO MORE!” the Charter’97 press-center ran on its site an on-line conference with a Protest March organizer Yuri Khaschevatsky. The famous filmmaker, laureate of the Berlin cinema festival award, prize-winner of the Russian Sakharov’s Union of writers’ award and winner of the grand-prix of the Human Rights Watch cinema festival in New York, answered within 3 hours more than 70 questions. Read the full transcript of the on-line conference HERE.

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The national organizing committee for celebrating the Freedom Day held a press-conference, commemorating the 84th anniversary of the Belarusian National Republic. Remarkably, the event attracted popular Belarusian musicians: Lyavon Volsky (NRM band’s leader), Vyacheslav Koren (ULIS), singer Dmitry Sidorovich. “We do care what type of flag or anthem we have and what future lies ahead of us. That is why we will be in the Yanka Kupala park on March 24,” – said Vyacheslav Koren.

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The board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists appealed to the prosecutor general of Belarus Viktor Sheiman with a statement in which it “requires to single out BAJ member Dmitry Zavadsky’s disappearance case into a separate procedure and hold additional investigation in order to establish the truth.” Association members believe that the court, having accused Ignatovich’s group of kidnapping the report, sought to hide the real organizers of the crime.

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The party is held responsible for the alleged disparity between the look of its official stamp and letterheads and that of the approved sample. Under the Law on political parties, two reprimands received within one year may result in the party’s shutdown.

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High percentage of barter operations among all foreign trade transactions this year remains one of the most acute problems, encountered by the Mogilev region’s economy. Last year the region council’s leadership ordered the manufacturers to reduce the volumes of barter operations to 30%. And although its share over the year curtailed by 15,7%, it still remains on the 36,9% level.

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