Negotiations between Brest authorities and participants of the hunger strike are open-ended. Today the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee Milkhail Yukhimuk has visited the apartment of entrepreneur Liubou Razanovich. After a conversation the hunger striker told that he denies medical aid.

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Two persons were detained yesterday after a protest near Belarusian Consulate in St. Petersburg, in Bonch-Bruevich Street, 3. the rally was held in support of activists of Russian youth movement Oborona Niklay Zboroshenko and Ekaterina Vinokurova, convicted a week ago.

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A Russian youth public association Oborona continues collection of signatures under an address to the Foreign Ministry of Russia in relation to the illegal arrest of two Russian citizens, Ekaterina Vinokurova and Nikolay Zboroshenko in Minsk. Today the Russian Youth Human Rights movement Groza has joined the protest. As we have informed, Niklay Zboroshenko has announced a hunger strike of protest in the Belarusian prison.

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The rally in support of Niklay Zboroshenko and Ekaterina Vinokurova, activists of the Russian youth movement Oborona, serving an administrative arrest in Minsk prison, is to take place near the Belarusian consulate in St. Petersburg today.

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A Belarusian delegation is taking part in the Second International Defense Exhibition of Land Forces (IDELF-2006) held in Moscow on August 2-6, Interfax was informed by a press service of the Belarusian defence ministry.

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There`s talk of making Canada`s trade relations with Belarus as frigid as their bilateral relations, but exporters say the move is inappropriate and will only hurt Canadian companies. The government has taken steps to impose trade restrictions on Belarus after months of criticism over the former Soviet state`s human rights record and the recent sentencing of the country`s opposition leader to five and a half years in prison.

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The Brest executive committee has been doing and is doing everything possible for an early solution of the problem of taxi drivers on hunger strike. It was told by a deputy chairman of Brest regional executive committee Vyachaslau Myatlitski to the BelaPAN.

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A collective complain about illegal actions of the police has been submitted by five Mahilyou dwellers to the head of the regional internal affairs department and the regional prosecutor on August 2. The report contains a description of a groundless arrest of those citizens on July 27 in the evening by a police patrol, and their forcible taking into a police department.

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The Foreign Minister of Latvia Artis Pabriks has recalled Latvian Ambassador in Belarus Maira Mora, LETA agency informs. The head of the Foreign Ministry wants to discuss with the diplomat the relations between the two neighbouring countries. As said by Mr. Pabriks, the consultations are to take place in the near future.

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Three months ago the committed for protection of the repressed Solidarity was established. According to the committee’s public report of 31 July, the number of persons who have already applied to it is 678. We should remind that the committee was established by a number of well-known Belarusian human rights activists and public activists in order to support those who were repressed for publicly expressing their views and started working on 5 April.

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A bipartisan measure has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to continue support for the promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Belarus, as well as to encourage the consolidation and strengthening of Belarus` sovereignty and independence.

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Yesterday a Belarusian-Latvian diplomatic war entered a new stage. The Latvian Foreign Ministry declared the first secretary of the Belarusian Embassy in Riga Dzmitry Krayushkin non grata person, requiring him to leave the territory of Latvia within 24 hours. Mr. Krayushkin, who had been fulfilling the duties of a press secretary of the Embassy, and clarifying to the Latvian media the official opinion of Minsk concerning the scandal with a Latvian diplomat in Minsk accused of distributing pornography, fell a victim to that scandal himself. He is the first Belarusian diplomat expelled from Latvia, Kommersant-Ukraina informs.

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