Vika Maroz is not subject to international adoption, said the director of the National center of Adoption by Education Ministry Natallya Paspelava at a press-conference in Minsk on April 5.

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Belarus is seeking to diversify its oil supplies to ensure energy security, but will not use it as leverage against Russia, the country`s president said Wednesday. Earlier this year, the neighbors were embroiled in an energy dispute after Russia doubled the natural gas price to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters and Minsk responded by introducing a transit levy of $45 per metric ton for Russian crude pumped to Europe via Belarus.

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For more than 15 years Catholics of Minsk are trying to get back St. Joseph church and a monastery which had been taken from the believers in 1863. These buildings are monuments of architecture of the 17th century. An archive of literature and arts of Belarus was placed there in Soviet time. Military commandant’s office was placed in the buildings of the monastery. The plan of reconstruction of the complex includes a full reconstruction of the monument of the 17th century as a hotel complex which is to consist from restaurants, underground parking, a pool and other entertainment spots. The repossession of the buildings by its legal owner, the Catholic church, or cultural and historical meaning of the buildings are not mentioned.

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The Belarusian Radio and Electronics Workers’ Union (REWU) plans to mark May Day, the Day of the International Solidarity of Workers, by a demonstration and a meeting. The trade union has submitted an appeal to Minsk city executive committee, www.praca-by.info reports. Activists plan to gather near the Academy of Science at 11 a.m. and march in a column down to Bangalore Square where a meeting would be held. The application for holding celebrations on May 1 has been also submitted by the steering committee of the Union of Left Forces, told one of the leaders of REWU Alyaksandr Bukhvostau.

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The regime continues bringing pressure on the convicted leader of the Young Front organization Zmitser Dashkevich. As he had written in a letter to his parents, he was transferred for harder works. As written by him, the reason for that was that KGB officers had read on internet that he was helped by other prisoners, and that sewing bags was too easy. Later KGB officers ordered the administration of the colony to transfer the young man to a different party and give the hardest work for him, he wrote in his letter.

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Today, on 4 April, the judges of Minsk Savetski borough court Aksana Reliava and Liudmila Savastsian announced the verdict on the administrative cases brought against the well-known politician Viachaslau Siuchyk and the chair of Belarusian People’s Front Party Vintsuk Viachorka. In both cases the defendants were found guilty in ‘petty hooliganism’, but left unpunished because of insignificance of the violation.

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“Fear is a primeval emotion, an intrinsic human emotion originating in the instinct for survival. It’s the perfect target for manipulating people’s minds.” So writes Daria Kostenko, a Belarusian journalist, in March Diaries, her personalized account of her nation’s political turmoil. Recalling incidents of regulated violence and persecution, her memoirs feature prominently in “You Vote, I Decide. Belarus Elections 2006,” a multimedia exhibition focused on the protests that coincided with last You Vote, I Decide. Belarus Elections 2006.

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Belarusian newspapers wrote about beating up a private Dzmitry Vasilkou in February. The incident took place in the Military Academy near Minsk. Warrant officer Shutau forced Vasilkou to clean snow, and to put it mildly, overplayed in his "can-do" spirit. Military commandment had to admit that fact. A beaten-up and bloodstained guy who was running away from his commander through the wood in direction of a road, was picked up by a driver near the border of the city in the urban district Uruchcha.

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Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated on Wednesday that Belarus wants to normalize relations with the EU, but do not see proper signals from Europe. A day before an opponent of the president with two previous convictions was placed to a remand prison again, BBC informs. The oppositional leader and political writer Andrei Klimau is charged with public appeals to change the constitutional order of the state.

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No procedural actions are carried out against Andrei Klimau, arrested on April 3. The BelaPAN agency has been informed about that by the wife of the politician Tatsyana Leanovich. As said by her, when her husband called her last time, he said that he was denied services of a lawyer. “It has stricken a warning note. Andrei usually defended himself. It is not the first prosecution against him, but he had never insisted on granting him a lawyer. If he said he hadn’t been given an attorney, it means he had demanded a lawyer. And most likely it means that some illegal methods of influence were used against him,” T. Leanovich.

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