Andrew Carpenter said it in his interview to Radio Svaboda. According to him, all necessary papers for prolonging his accreditation were sent to the Foreign Ministry on time. However, there has been no answer – either positive, or negative. The term of accreditation of the interim head of the Advisory and Monitoring group expires on July 1.

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A range of Belarusian opposition political parties intend to initiate the implementation of the third Vienna technical conference on Belarus, said the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko. He assumes that this will be a concerted initiative of the parties that are members to the Consultative council of opposition political parties.

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Action against the construction of a place to bury the radioactive waste in the Brest district was carried out by the activists of the ZUBR youth movement. Overnight on May 27 they placed on the bulldozers, parked near the road works site, calls to the workers to halt their works, reports BelaPAN. The posters featured monsters, who pose a question to the workers: “Worker do you want to bring up such kids?” Opposition activists hang a radioactive danger sign on the near-by trees.

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Belarus and Africa will collaborate in various industrial spheres. The issue was raised during the recent meeting of the Belarus Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov and the ambassadors from Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. As said by the FM’s spokesman Pavel Latushko, the ambassadors confirmed Africa’s interest in the Belarus’ scientific works and joint participation in the economic projects.

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According to the Ministry of information and statistics, by May 20 the salary payment indebtedness fell to 24,1bln rubles, including in the Mogilev region – 3,9bln, Brest – 6,4bln, Vitebsk – 2,8bln, Minsk – 4,1bln, Gomel – 4,2bln, reports “NEG”. As a result of the passed administrative measures, the situation seems to have improved. But that’s a temporary phenomenon.

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Belarusian market of cellular communication is leading among the CIS countries in the number of clients which grows very fast, said Robert Dashian, sales manager of the joint-venture Velcom (mobile digitall communications). As said by him, last year increase of Velcom’s clients as compared to the number of clients in 2000 has made 275%, in May this year as compared to the same period of the last year – about 250%. At present Velcom has 182 thousand clients. “Not a single country of the CIS has such rapid increase”- said the expert.

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According to the sociological poll, carried out by the Independent Institute of social, economic and political research (NISEPI), half of the polled people claimed ready to leave abroad for permanent residence.

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The United Civil Party protests against confrontation of the Belarusian authorities with the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring group in Belarus. The UCP’s view is that the AMG OSCE in Belarus should carry out its functions in the framework of the mandate determined by the OSCE. Ambassador Heiken should start his work as a head of the AMG OSCE without any hindrances. And the subject of termination of the AMG OSCE activities in Belarus can be brought up only after the country fulfilled the four requirements of the OSCE and overcame constitutional and political crisis.

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Monday saw another court session on criminal lawsuit, opened against the former country’s Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir. At the May 27 process the floor was given to the witnesses on the episode relating to the “Belagroprombank” and $1mln, transferred to the Canadian construction company. As you remember, during the May 20 session the representative of the plaintiffs – “Belagroprombank” – said, his words coming as a shock to the jury, that the bank has no complaints to Chigir.

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The United Civil Party intends to appeal in the Supreme Court against the written reprimand, issued against them by the Ministry of Justice for Anatoly Lebedko’s article “Where’s the monies?”, published on April 27 in the “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper. The UCP Political Council believes that the Justice Ministry exceeded its authority and pleads with the Supreme Court to cancel the written reprimand and pass a private definition of the low level of qualification of the Justice Ministry employees. The UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko considers the Justice Ministry actions as “the planned psychological attack, called to paralyze the activities of the party and its leadership”.

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Belarusian Prime Minister Gennady Novitsky characterized the situation with the pensions’ payment as flagrant. Head of the Cabinet laid personal responsibility over the timely payment of pensions upon the member of the Cabinet’s presidium, the Minister of finance Nikolai Korbut. Moreover, the Premier entitled the Minister of labor and social protection Antonina Morovaya to present to the government by July 10 “exhaustive proposals on the cardinal solution of this problem once and forever”.

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April indebtedness before the education sphere workers in Belarus exceeded 23bln200mln rubles. Greatest is the indebtedness on May 23 in the Vitebsk region – 4bln860mln rubles, Gomel region – 4bln733mln, Mogilev – 4bln695mln, Minsk region – 4bln372mln. These are followed by the Brest region with 2bln409mln debt and Grodno – 2bln220mln. No salary debts before teachers have been recorded in the city of Minsk. It could well happen that in the near future the situation in the sphere might deteriorate even more. This is caused by the end of the academic year and the need to pay vacation money.

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Vitebsk company “Machine-making plant of Komintern” ceased its existence. In compliance with the order of the Ministry of industry the plant became a structural subdivision of another similar Vitebsk company. According to its chief engineer Beletsky, such a decision was passed by the Ministry in order “to rehabilitate the situation, which the company faced over the last couple of years”.

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The majority of the infected are children. According to the latest polls data the intestinal disease had been found in the bloodstream of some 500 Soligorsk residents. Cases of infection were registered in 12 schools and 22 kindergartens. 243 persons had been hospitalized in the district hospital. In order to accommodate all patients the infection department had to get extra bunks. The medical investigation revealed that the source of the virus spreading was the production of the local dairy factory.

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