Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski to the State Department on Wednesday, praising his country as a “fierce fighter in the defense of freedom.” Appearing with Rice at a brief photo session before a luncheon meeting, Kaczynski said the goals of both countries can be summed up in one word: “freedom.”

---

A former rival to Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko, opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, has called on the European Union and the U.S. to ignore the results of a referendum on establishing the Union State of Belarus and Russia if the vote ever takes place, the Interfax news agency reports.

---

The chair of Brest city branch of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party Hramada Hanna Kanius received a letter from Brest Leninski Borough Department of Internal Affairs, signed by its chair Iury Karpinchyk. Mr Karpinchyk informed Hanna Kanius about the circumstances of detention of a large group of social-democrats who were going to cross the Ukrainian border. According to him, the reason for the detention was information from an anonymous that one of the passengers was trafficking drugs. As a result the police detained the group of activists for more than three hours and searched their personal belongings. Naturally, no drugs were found. That’s why the chair of the BDIA offered his apologies to Hramada activists concerning this case.

---

The primary unit of the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio-electronic Industry has filed an application for its registration for the fourth time. The first time the trade union activists tried to get the organization registered at Barysau factory of Automobile and Tractor Electric Supplies, but the primary unit fell apart because its members were made redundant.

---

Today the deputy Aliaksandr Chyhir has been tried. The judge Natallia Charapukha stated that according to the law it was the regional prosecutor who was to decide on the case and therefore the case would be passed to him.

---

The chair of the deputy group Respublika at the Belarusian parliament of the previous convocation Siarhei Skrabets has applied to the prosecutor’s office, asking it to grant parole. The former deputy has been sentenced to 2,5 years of jail for alleged defraud of credits from the state. The decision of the prosecutor’s office will be known in the second half of September.

---

On 11 September the reporter of Bobruyskiy kurier Volha Maryiasina applied to the police on the errand of the editorial office in order to specify the information about a road accident at the outskirts of Babruisk. The road police asked her to phone to Babruiski City Police Department, to the senior inspector of the internal affairs department of Babruisk City Executive Committee Ihar Shalyhin. On finding out who was calling, lieutenant-colonel Shalyhin refused to give any information, referring to the order of the CEC not to cooperate with Bobruyskiy kurier.

---

All structures of the united democratic forces will participate in the action “Big Jeans Festival”. This decision was taken yesterday at the session of the Council of united democratic forces in Minsk. “Big Jeans Festival” is to take place on September 16. The event including a meeting and a concert is to start at 4 p.m. on Bangalore Square. “Big Jeans Festival” is also an action of solidarity with families of the abducted Belarusian politicians and with Belarusian prisoners of conscience.

---