Yesterday Minsk was visited by the delegation of the Vietnamese Defense Ministry, headed by the commander of air defense and air force of the National army major-general Nguen Van Than. “Izvestia” reports that in course of the visit the sides plan to discuss the perspectives of bilateral military cooperation.

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On November 10-16 Charter’97 organizing committee’s member Ludmila Gryaznova visited Sweden upon invitation of Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation of the Swedish Conservative Party. At the seminar of the “Women’s Academy”, organized by the Foundation, in which female members of the right-wing parties and democratic organizations of North and Baltic states took part, Ludmila Gryaznova delivered a report on the political situation in Belarus. During the Academy’s work there took place her meetings with the Foundation’s chairwoman Margaret fon Uglas and deputies of the Swedish parliament Eva Biorling and Geran Lindbland. Moreover, there were also held meetings with the journalists from the leading Swedish newspapers.

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In view of this, president of the National Academy of sciences of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich deems that “compensation of losses, provoked by brain-drain from Belarus, can be a matter of discussion in the European or international organizations”, said Myasnikovich at the October 16 press-conference, reports BelaPAN.

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Belarusian procuracy finished investigation into the criminal action, unleashed against two officials from the Fund of presidential programs, who are now charged with power abuse, entailing a large-scale damage.

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Investigative committee of the Department for financial investigations of the Committee for state control of Minsk and Minsk region instituted legal action against deputy chief of the department for crediting individuals and deputy head of the security sector of the “Belarusbank’s” affiliate #510. They are charged with inflicting $178thsd damage upon the bank.

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Permanent representative of Belarus in the United Nations Organization Sergei Ling was dismissed from his post out of his own free will. The official said that answering the journalist’s questions on Thursday at the briefing in the Foreign Ministry, “Mediafact” was told by the press-secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Pavel Latushko. According to Latushko, Ling’s request is explained by the deterioration of his spouse’s health. The man has already made his way back to Belarus.

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Tensions in the relations between OSCE mission and official Minsk are escalating and passions are running high. The authorities deem that the OSCE diplomats are assisting opposition. In course of the last year all foreigners, employed in the mission, left Belarus, the only exclusion being Alina Josan. They were all denied prolongation of visas and accreditations. Alina Josan’s accreditation period expires on October 29. In late September the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that it would open negotiations on the matter with the OSCE soon. Portuguese representative Seishash Costa was supposed to engage in them too.

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The European Union once again issued a strong-worded statement, regarding the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus. RIA “Novosti” reports that Denmark produced a special statement on the matter. The country is acting as current EU chairman. Denmark called on Alexander Lukashenko “to stick to his international commitments as far as the freedoms of press and speech are concerned”.

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The official Belarusian delegation, headed by deputy head of the presidential Administration, is currently on a visit to Iraq (Oct.14-16). The Iraqi news agency IHA reports that in the Baghdad international airport “Saddam” the Belarusian delegation was welcomed by the Minister of finance Hikmat al Azavi and Minister of military industry Abdel Huveish, who had recently visited Belarus himself.

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On October 16 the “house of representatives” upheld the inquiry, filed by deputy Valery Frolov to the prosecutor general of Belarus Viktor Sheiman, on the course of investigation into the disappearances of Lukashenko’s main critics. 56 parliamentarians voted in favor of the move.

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Numerous cases of thefts at the agricultural companies were revealed by the Minsk agricultural department’s controlling bodies. BELTA correspondent was told by its head Leonid Kunitsky that over the nine months of this year the authorities unearthed a 5bln rubles loss of material values and embezzlement.

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Alexander Lukashenko signed on October 16 an order to dismiss Sergei Ling from the post of the Permanent Belarusian Representative in the United Nations Organization, which the official occupied since August 2000. Up until then the man served as the Prime Minister of Belarus, where he replaced on November 18, 1996 the former country’s Premier Mikhail Chigir.

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