Ljubljana, 16 March (STA) - The youth section of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) has called on the Former Slovenian President Milan Kucan to explain why he received Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is on a private visit to Slovenia this week. Holding a news conference on Tuesday, Jernej Pavlin, president of the Slovenian Youth (MSi) and a NSi candidate for the June European elections, also wanted to know why and who at the Slovenian Foreign Ministry has approved issuing an entry visa for Lukashenko. As the MSi is convinced, Lukashenko`s visit and his meeting with Kucan are being major faux pas of Slovenia`s foreign policy, which are bound to tarnish the country`s reputation ahead of its EU and NATO entry. The commercial POP TV reported on Monday evening that Lukashenko was paying a private visit to Slovenia at the invitation of the manager of Riko, a Ljubljana-based producer of prefabricated houses.

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A Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State Steven Pifer arrives to Minsk, said a source in diplomatic circles in Minsk to Interfax. The US Embassy refused to comment on the fact of the visit, and on the aims and program of the visit, however, it was said that on March 19 his news conference is planned.

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The Department of Financial Investigations opened a criminal case against chairperson of the Belarusian Helsinki committee Tatsiana Protska and a accountant of he organization Tatsiana Rudkevich. They are accused of tax evasion for 78 million rubles (more than $35, 000). The tax inspection checked the financial activities of the BHC earlier, and they were fined and faced other economical sanctions worth a total of 385 million Belarussian rubles (about $180,000).

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The financial investigations department for Minsk and the Minsk region has opened a criminal case on tax evasion charges against a number of officials from the Belarussian Helsinki Committee human rights organization.

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This decision to leave was made on March 17 on the session of the enlarged presidium meeting of the Council of the Radio Electronics Industry Trade Union in Minsk. As BelaPAN was informed by one of the leaders of the independent trade union movement Alyaxandar Bukhvostaw, who was present at the meeting, the decision to leave the Federationof Trade Unions of Belarus was passed unanimously. “The TUFB has not been an organization which advocated the rights of the workers for a long time already”, he said. Bukhvostaw said that soon the independent trade union of the automobile and agriculture machine-building headed by him would join the trade union of the radio electronics industry.

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