The Delegation of the European Commission to Belarus is pleased to announce that Mr Ian Boag who is resident in Kyiv, Ukraine, following appointment by the European Commission to his post will visit Belarus from 10 to 11 March 2005 to present copies of his credentials to Mr S. Martinov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. The ceremony is scheduled to take place on 11 March 2005, 11 am.

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One of “Zubr” coordinators Yauhien Afnagel was arrested hour ago by police officers. The guy was stopped and searched in the center of Minsk. They found national white-red-white flag and detained him. At the moment Afnagel is in police station.

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The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, will hold a press conference in Vienna on Friday to present his report on the media situation in Belarus.

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In 2005 the Gerd Bucerius Prizes “Eastern Europe’s Young Press” are to be given to representatives of mass media of Russia, Belarus and Georgia, the DW-World informs. The prize is awarded to newspapers for high-quality and independent work of journalists.

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Belarusian printing-houses refused to print the new issue of Hrodna-based newspaper “Birzha Informatsii”. It happened after the 3-month term of newspaper’s publishing suspension by Information Ministry ended. The editorial office is to suspend publishing the paper version of the newspaper and will continue to publish the newspaper in internet.

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Around half of all market vendors in the provinces and 30 percent in Minsk stayed out on Tuesday as a nationwide open-ended walkout entered its eighth day.

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Reporters Without Borders has called on those investigating the murder of Veronika Cherkasova, who was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Minsk on October 20, 2004, to explore the possibility that it was linked to her work as a journalist instead of concentrating on the theory of a crime of passion and trying at all costs to implicate her family.

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Striking market vendors plan to deliver their appeal to US President George Bush to the US embassy on March 9, Aleksandr Lapotko, deputy leader of the Perspektiva business association, told BelaPAN.

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A group of US lawmakers has introduced legislation to promote democracy around the world. The bipartisan bill would create an office of democracy movements and transitions at the State Department, and would establish separate so-called regional democracy hubs at various U.S. embassies to coordinate the promotion of democracy. The bill calls for $700 million in funding for the effort within the next four years, world news agencies reported.

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Latvia does not have a strategy of its own for building relations with Belarus, its policies are in line with the general policy of the European Union, Rihards Piks, the country’s foreign minister and a member of the European Parliament (EP), said on March 4.

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Former Minister and Ambassador Mikhail Marynich started to serve the term in the medium-security colony number 8 in Vorsha. Information about Mikhail Marynich’s transfer to Vorsha’s colony, was confirmed to Radio Svaboda by Uladzimir Kouchur, head of the penal jurisdiction department of the Interior Ministry of Belarus. Why the colony number 8 had been chosen for former minister’s imprisonment, was not explained. The colony number 8 is considered one of the worst in the country.

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Former head of the presidential administration`s Property Management Department Halina Zhuraukova, sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment, is ill at the present, tells Interior Minister of Belarus Uladzimir Navumau in his interview.

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Two old and shabby railway cars with windows covered with barbed wire will become the main exhibits of the museum to commemorate Nazi victims, which is being created in Minsk as part of the activities on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Victory.

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