On April 29 Galina Bandazhevskaya received permission to visit her husband – a radiology professor of international renown Yuri Bandazhevsky, former rector of the Gomel medical university, who’s currently held in the Minsk hard labor colony.

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Third secretary of the US embassy in Minsk Mr.Terner met today with Tereza Lasovskaya – a mother of many kids, dismissed from her job as deputy head of the Minsk regional organization of parents of many children for upholding the People’s March “For Better Life!”. The mother of four determined to engage in the action of protest against the state’s lack of care about families with many kids, most of whom are now dwelling in misery. Shortly after the end of the action, Tereza was told that she’s fired for political reasons. After that the young woman got hospitalized with micro brain hemorrhage.

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Procuracy office Stanislav Novikov, in charge of the Law on press’ observance by journalists, held a clarification talk with the “Narodnaya Volya” journalist Marina Koktysh. Their conversation lasted a couple of hours. The NV correspondent was told that she had allegedly violated a bunch of articles of the Law on press, when quoting the court speech of the former director of the Minsk Tractor Plant Mikhail Leonov.

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Public organizations, exposed to the Ministry of justice discrimination last week, ran a press-conference, at which they disclosed the details of the lawsuits, instituted against them, on the basis of which the authorities can well thwart their activities.

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The ambassador of France in Belarus Stephan Shmelevsky rendezvoused with the Grodno journalists Pavel Mozheiko and Nikolai Markevich, condemned for alleged libel of Alexander Lukashenko. The meeting was held on April 28 evening within the framework of a two-day visit by Stephan Shmelevsky to the Grodno region, which lasted for two hours. The ambassador underscored that their conversation with the journalists was held within the framework of instructions, which he received from his government, noting that one of his missions in Belarus is to follow the human rights and freedom of speech situation development here.

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Valentin Baranov went on a hunger-strike of protest against the arbitrary verdict. Judge Elena Tereshkova arrested him for 14 days for his part in the March 23 rally.

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Minsk authorities denied a range of political parties in implementing festive events, marking the Labor Day. BelaPAN quotes the leader of the Party of communists of Belarus Sergei Kalyakin as saying that communists pleaded with the Minsk city hall to let them march on May 1 from the Oktyabrskaya square all the way to the Victory square and ended in the Gorky Park. However, the authorities denied them this right and even didn’t propose to traditionally assemble at the Bangalor square.

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Students and listeners from China, North Korea and Vietnam are studying at the foreign military department of the Belarusian Military Academy, said deputy chief of the Academy colonel Valery Belko in the National press-center. According to him, most foreigners are trained to become artillery specialists. The Belarusian academy accumulated great experience in training foreign GIs. Meantime, the CIS soldiers don’t pass training courses in the Belarusian academy. Meantime, certain countries, such as Kazakhstan and Armenia, have closely considered this opportunity.

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Middle East Newsline agency from London reports that Syria illicitly sends out of the country the companions of the toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Their destination point is Belarus, Lebanon and Northern Africa. Western special services and sources in the Lebanon opposition report that the regime of the president Bashar Asad commanded the Iraqi officials to in no time depart Syria, shortly afterwards USA voiced first threats to Damascus. The sources confirm that the Iraqi nationals, including Saddam’s wife Sajida and her three kids, received travel documents and boarded flights en route to Libya and Belarus, while the rest flew to the neighboring Lebanon.

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Promotion of the Belarusian organic fertilizers, especially peat, is a promising area in the sphere of exterior trade relations with the Persian Gulf countries, deem the experts of the Belarusian government.

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On April 30 Alexander Lukashenko met with the head of the National Bank Petr Prokopovich. Particular attention at the meeting was attracted to the results of the 14th session of the Inter-bank currency council, held in Polotsk. They reached agreements on many issues, dealing with the unification of the bank system in Belarus and Russia, as well as the common crediting policy. Meantime, the participants of the meeting never came to one opinion on the sole emission center.

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The Minsk Tractor Plant delegation visited Iran on April 24-27. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry reports that in course of the visit the Belarusian delegation was welcomed in the Iranian Ministry of trade, held a series of negotiations with the Iranian partner “BemZiKala” and familiarized themselves with the tractors’ assembly line, which is under construction there.

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Expectedly, on May 14 the mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov will arrive on a working visit to Minsk. RIA “Novosti” was told by the head of the information-analytical apartment of the Belarusian Cabinet of Ministers Nikolai Tolstik that Luzhkov intends to hold negotiations with the country’s leadership on the cooperation development between Moscow and Belarus. According to the Belarusian pundits, the sides have an opportunity to enhance Belarusian export to Moscow by $500mln a year.

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