Today at the consultation with members of the Republican Council of rectors of higher education establishments the issue of studying Belarusian language in educational institutions of Belarus has been touched upon by Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In particular, he said: “It’s no good at all when some high schools have one lesson of Belarusian and 6 lessons of English a week”.

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A People`s writer, a scientist and public figure Ivan Navumenka died in the age of 81. The funeral is to take place today in Kalvaryja (Calvary) cemetery in Minsk. The funeral honours are to start at 1 p.m. in Karl Marx Street 36/21.

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In Hrodna a deputy chairman of the United Democratic Party Uladzimir Chyrvonenka and the head of the city branch of the Belarusian Popular Front party Syarhei Malchyk have been denied registration as candidates for deputies on directly opposite reasons.

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A former deputy of the Supreme Soviet Uladzimir Nistsyuk and a well-known human rights activist Aleh Vouchak have been registered as candidates for deputies of local councils. They have been nominated by Belarusian Social Democratic party (Hramada). A former deputy of the "chamber of representatives", one of the leaders of the deputy group "Respublika" Valery Fralou hasn’t been registered. The official reason for registration denial was "a bad quality of signatures submitted to the election commission," U. Nistsyuk said.

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German diplomat Holger Kramer has been denied a Belarusian visa. Holger Kremer worked in Belarus as a first secretary of the Embassy from 2000 to 2004. Now the diplomat works in Berlin, in the central office of German Foreign Ministry.

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The party of Communists of Belarus (PCB) has registered 50 candidates for deputies in the imminent local elections. BelaPAN news agency was informed about that by the secretary of the central committee of the PCB Alena Skryhan. As said by Alena Skryhan, members of the party had managed to register 245 initiative groups for nominating a candidate. "However, at the last congress we decided to recommend our candidates to withdraw from the election race. Most of the party members have fulfilled that recommendation. Those who haven`t, explain their denial by a wish not to let down their voters," Alena Skryhan said. She added that 50 persons are still going to take part in local elections.

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On December 18 in Baranavichy (Brest region) an activist of the initiative group in support of Alyaksandr Milinkevich in presidential election, the chairman of the city branch of the public association "Francis Skaryna Belarusian Language Society" (BLS) Viktar Syrytsa was detained.

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Canada imposed unilateral trade sanctions on Belarus on Monday to pressure it to respect human rights and democracy. Any exports to Belarus will now require a Canadian export permit, and these will generally be denied except for humanitarian items like food, clothing and medicine.

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