Ordinary worker from Pinsk Alexander Vasiliev was condemned for gathering signatures under the collective appeal to Lukashenko. The man was charged with organizing an unsanctioned picket, punishable by ten days of administrative arrest. In his letter the Pinsk resident demanded explanations from Lukashenko: how on earth can Belarusians feed their kids under the existing circumstances? Lukashenko recommended them to work harder at the recent All-Belarusian assembly. Vasiliev was detained six times for collecting signatures (around two hundred) under the address. Finally, the law-enforcers forwarded his case files to court.

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CIS Committee for statistics drew conclusions of the CIS member-states` economic development in the first quarter of the year 2001. During this period the growth of production was recorded in all CIS affiliated countries, except Georgia (the committee possesses no data on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). The greatest production rise was witnessed in Ukriane (17,4%), Tajikistan (13,9%), Kazakhstan (11,1%) and Kyrghyzia (11%). In Russia the economic upsurge amounted to 3,3% of the production growth. Belarus finishes bottom of the table with 2,2% increase.

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Belarus won`t dispatch its troops to Central Asian region, but will render military and technical assistance to the CIS countries there, "Interfax" quotes PM Vladimir Ermoshin as saying at the Wednesday press-conference in Minsk. The government, he said, "will implement the decisions, passed at the Erevan summit of the heads of states - signatories of the Treaty on CIS collective defense". Ermoshin pinpointed that Kyrghyzia`s request to give her a hand in military cooperation "is being presently elaborated in the country and the concomitant decision will be passed at the top level."

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Open dissatisfaction of Belarus leading diamond exporters, provoked by the VAT amendments by Lukashenko, took on extreme forms. Ahead of the document`s appearance (it`ll enter into power on June 1) the council of the "Crystal" company determined to give up the fulfillment of the inter-state Russia-Belarus program on the consignment of diamonds to this company, reports BDG.

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Belarusian users of Internet are faced with newly opened horizons, said first deputy director general of "Beltelecom" Nikolai Strukov during his May 30 meeting with press. In March this year the company signed a contract with the Russian company "Metracom", as a result of which our country received access to a quicker downloading Internet. Both the quality and the speed of the services provided are now higher than before. To ensure the reliability of connection, they opened three channels: via Russia, Canada and USA.

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Precisely two years ago 53 people, mostly young ladies, were crushed to death in the "Nemiga" underpass. The responsible ones haven`t been named yet. The investigation procedures are still underway. But the parents of the killed children have no soothing. They have never been told who`s to be blamed for the tragedy. They weren`t allowed to erect a decent monument at the place of the incident or build a temple there. They detest hearing someone`s loud laughter in the underpass or even worse - dirty swearing. Another person, not welcomed there, is Lukashenko. The stampede occurred during his rule and it is his officials, who hide away the truth from the families of the perished kids. They`d been denying registration permit for almost six months for a public organization - the Center of social protection "Nemiga-99". Now the parents are desperate to build a temple on the place of the happening.

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A group of Belarusian journalists, representing both independent and state media, will fly today to Vienna. There the delegates will visit the OSCE headquarters and meet with the OSCE official for media Mr.Fraimut Duve. It is one and the same Duve, who was strongly recommended by the Belarusian authorities to put off his scheduled visit to Belarus from late March to late April and who himself refused to come in April, for the Belarusian side denied entry visa to his aide. At the meeting with the Belarusian reporters Mr.Duve hopes to compensate his lack of knowledge about the situation in Belarus ahead of the presidential ballot.

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Yesterday the council of the lower chamber of the Belarusian "parliament" approved the draft ruling, under which the presidential elections in the country would take place in September 9. The "MPs" will consider the project on June 7. Only a few believe it may not get approved.

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Heads of CIS member-states will consider at their May 31 Minsk summit the perspectives of military cooperation for the period 2001-2005, "Interfax" reported on Monday from the Cabinet of Ministers of Belarus.

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Technical issues of Belarus` acquiring first share of the Russian state loan worth $30mln were successfully handled at Moscow`s meeting between Belarus Minister of Finance Nikolai Korbut and Russia`s Minister of Finance, Vice-Premier Aleksei Kudrin. BELTA reports from the Belarus Ministry of Finance press-service that they also discussed possibility of obtaining in the first half of the year the second part of the funding, worth $70mln.

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Index of consumer prices on all goods and services rose in April by 3% as compared with March 2001. BELTA was informed by the Ministry of statistics and analysis that the greatest increase occurred within the public transportation industry - 11%. Cost of the energy consumption and space rent remained pretty much on the same level. Public services soared by 4%, meat and poultry - by 3%, bread and diary - by 2%.

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"Civil Forum" youth organization collected 35 thousand signatures against the involuntary assignment of university and college graduates. Half of the signatures were gathered not by the "CF" activists, but rather by students who joined in the motion.

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