The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE January, 28, 2003 http://charter97.org/eng/news/ --------------------------------------------------------- "GAZPROM" OFFERED LUKASHENKA CREDIT AS ULTIMATUM 16:22 28/01/2004 Bilateral Russian-Belarusian talks on gas supplies in 2004 failed one more time yesterday. Head of the board of directors OAO "Gazprom" Aleksey Miller and OAO "Beltransgaz" general executive Petr Petuh stayed on their previous positions with an agreement to meet in a couple of days. Most likely, "Beltransgaz" needs a pause for negotiations with President Lukashenka. In the last four days there were two telephone talks between President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian colleague. However, Minsk did not leave his claims for reduced prices for gas, but did not agree on "Gazprom's" offer to buy "Beltransgaz". http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/gasprom --------------------------------------------------------- 4 KILLED IN BELARUS SCHOOL ROOF COLLAPSE 16:20 28/01/2004, Associated Press The roof of a school gymnasium in Belarus collapsed Tuesday, killing three students and a teacher, officials said. Eleven students were injured. The roof gave way during a physical education class in the three-story middle school in the village of Krasnopolye, 185 miles southeast of Minsk, officials at the Emergency Situations Ministry said. http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/school --------------------------------------------------------- "NARODNAYA VOLYA" IS A SUBJECT TO A 100 MILLION FINE 16:16 28/01/2004 As the editors' office of the independent Belarusian newspaper "Narodnaya Volya" found out, on January 15 two suits were submitted to Leninsky court of Minsk from OAO "Alliance-media", the founder of the newspaper "The Observer", and Sergey Atroschenko, the editor-in-chief. Each suit asks for the penalty of 50 million rubles, as the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports. The reason for the suits is two articles published in the newspaper. http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/nv --------------------------------------------------------- "THE MPS" NOT LET IN PACE 16:26 28/01/2004 On January 27 the Legal Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe confirmed Christos Pourgourides' report on the missing people in Belarus. The proposal not to admit the Belarusian "MPs" to the PACE sessions was also supported, as Radio Freedom reports. http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/pace --------------------------------------------------------- RELIGIOUS SITUATION IN BELARUS WORSENING 16:24 28/01/2004 The civil initiative "For the Freedom of Worship" carried out a monitoring of the situation after the new law on religion has been passed. According to the results, the authors of the periodical "white book" came to the conclusion that the Belarusian authorities use religion in pursuing their political goals. http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/sit --------------------------------------------------------- AVERAGE SALARY IS $115 16:20 28/01/2004 It is easy to get lost in "the average data". For instance, from October to November the average salary seems to be increasing, but not substantially. But in December the data rises substantially. "It can be easily explained: by the end of the year all the enterprises try to manage the debts, payments are made more actively and the average salary rises distinctly. Something like that is observed during holiday time,"-as they explained at the Ministry of Statistics. According to the data, in comparison to November 2003 in December we got by 25,000 rubles more, specifically 300, 000. If in January the enterprises will pay salaries by the principle: in a new year without debts and new debts in a new year, it might be that "the average income" will decrease again in January 2004. The average yearly salary is a more trustworthy data. For 2003 it made up 254,000 or $115, as "Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus" writes. http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2004/01/28/115 --------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE December, 28, 2003 http://charter97.org/eng/news/ -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=media.charter97&email= http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com