Lebanese authorities freed from custody two men, who sought to deliver to Iraq via the territory of Lebanon military head-sets and spare parts for tanks. Now both will have to pay fine for the illicit attempted transit through the territory of Lebanon of military equipment. The men, whose names are kept confidential by police, were captured in the airport of Beirut after it turned out that they were transporting military equipment to Iraq.

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The New Year for the Federation of trade unions of Belarus commenced with a dismissal of six journalists of the trade union’s mouthpiece – newspaper “Belarusky Chas” – Irina Germanovich, Alexander Dubravin, Vladimir Dzuba, Alexander Egorov, Sergei Yuriev and Ales Khmelnitsky. The journalists, stripped of their work, consider it to be another initiative of the FTU leader Leonid Kozik.

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On Tuesday the Lebanese media initiated a scandal, touching upon the interests of both Russia and Belarus. Today in the airport of Beirut they seized 12 tons of cargo with “tank intercom head-sets and radio equipment” for Iraq, reports the Arabic newspaper “Al-Hayat”. According to the newspaper, the cargo was transported by air from Belarus two days ago. However, the newspaper’s heading read “Beirut police seizes in airport Russian military equipment en route to Iraq”.

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In his dispute with the OSCE, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko temporarily yielded to his opponents’ claims. After Lukashenko banished OSCE personnel from the country last year, thus attaining his ultimate goal, he in no time stated his readiness to allow another on-ground mission’s presence on the territory of the country. This was agreed by Belarus and OSCE on the very last day of the year.

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On Tuesday more evidence have been found against Lukashenko, whom western special services have long called implicated in illicit arms deals with Iraq. Having opened up the containers, en route from Belarus to Iraq via Beirut, the Lebanese policemen found in them military liaison devices and helmets for the tank crew.

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UN resident-coordinator Nil Bune has been working in Belarus since 1999. Previously he represented the organization in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Pakistan, Butane, Sudan and Sri-Lanka. According to Mr.Bune, Belarus’ condition may improve only if she makes use of the western countries’ experience and implements structural reformations in the economy.

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