Police officers in Brest have found a famous 18th-century Saint Nicholas icon that was stolen from a church in the western city last week. The icon, which is only 19 centimeters high and 20 centimeters long and is considered by many churchgoers as "wonder-working," has been found inside a left luggage locker at the city's central
railroad station, a source with the Brest regional police department's press office told BelaPAN.
Police have reportedly proceeded with the inquiry to detect and capture the thieves. The icon, a major attraction for pilgrims flocking to the church in Brest, was placed on an altar stand four years ago. Thieves reportedly attempted to steal it shortly after but parishioners helped police seize them.
The Brest Dairy Plant, better known under its brand name Savushkin Produkt, is soon expected to be accredited to the ISO 1400-2000 environmental management system standard.
Not long ago, the company underwent an examination by experts of the Ekologiyainvest organization controlled by the environmental protection ministry. The experts concluded that the dairy fully meets the standard.
As Marina Chumakova, one of the experts, told BelaPAN, the Brest Dairy Plant had already been accredited to the HACCP standard for quality and the ISO 9001-2001 quality management system standard. After receiving the ISO 1400-2000 certificate, it will become the only processing enterprise in the Brest region accredited to the three leading international standards, she added. In the first 11 months of the year, the Brest Dairy Plant reportedly exported more than $15 million worth of products, an almost threefold rise on the same period of 2003. Three enterprises in the region, Kovry Bresta (Brest-based carpet maker) and the machine tool and auto components plants in Baranovichi, have been certified with the environmental management system standard.
An 18th- century Saint Nicholas icon described by churchgoers as "wonder-working" was stolen from a church in Brest earlier this week.
The icon, which is only 19 centimeters high and 20 centimeters long, is likely to have been taken out between morning and afternoon liturgies when there were few people in the church, the press office of the
Brest regional police department told BelaPAN.
The icon, a major attraction for pilgrims flocking to the church in southern Belarus, was placed on an altar stand four years ago. Thieves reportedly attempted to steal it shortly after but parishioners helped
police seize them. An inquiry has been opened into the theft.
Mongolia's consular office is expected to open in Brest in January, an official with the Brest regional government's Economy Committee told BelaPAN.
The Brest Regional Executive Committee reportedly considers the possibility of providing an office for the Mongolian diplomatic mission, which will be headed by Boldbalatar Haltarhuu, who has already
arrived in Brest. There has never been Mongolia's permanent diplomatic representation in Belarus. The two countries used to settle issues through the Mongolian ambassador to Russia. The decision to open the consular office in Brest is linked to Mongolia's lively trade with the
European Union. There are three foreign consular offices in Brest, those of the Polish, Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Minsk.
Numerous Christmas/New Year's parties are to be held for children in the Brest region this week. The regional government has allocated a total of 80 million rubels, 20 million more than the previous year, for the organization of New Year's festivities and purchases of gifts for children,
Nikolai Tarasyuk of the regional education department told BelaPAN on Tuesday.
"Top-ranking officials of the regional executive committee, other regional government agencies and organizations have already started visiting boarding schools and orphanages to hand children New Year's
gifts. Apart from candies, they bring televisions, computers, video recorders, refrigerators and other household appliances. Disabled children and children in foster, large and low-income families will not be
left without attention too. New Year's parties will also be organized for this category of children," Mr. Tarasyuk said.
A charitable New Year's party for 230 orphan children is scheduled to take place this week in the Baranovichi Children's Art House. Similar receptions will be given by the Brest and Pinsk City Executive Committees and by many district executive committees. The region's main New Year's party for children, to be held in Brest's Youth Art Center on December 28, will be attended by Konstantin Sumar, chairman of the regional executive committee.
Almost 500 children across the region have been invited to the party.
At the end of the week, 95 children of the Brest region will leave for Minsk to attend a national government-funded New Year's party. Aleksandr Lukashenko and other top-ranking government officials
are expected to attend it.
Over 30 companies based in the Brest region will showcase their products at a fair that will be held in Moscow between December 16 and 19. As a source with the regional government told BelaPAN, products from Brest manufacturers are in brisk demand in the Russian capital. In particular, the Santa Bremor fish-packing plant supplies its
products to over 3,000 stores across Moscow, while some 500 retail outlets in the Russian capital buy foodstuffs from the Brest Dairy Plant. Ideal chocolate, Gefest kitchen stoves and products from the
Pinskdrev woodworking company also are in high demand among Moscow customers. The fair will feature products by the Belkelme footwear maker, the Ostromechevo farm, the Pinsk Bakery, as well as by a number of other manufacturers.
Trade between the Brest region and Moscow totaled $332.1 million in the first 10 months of 2004, a rise of 34.4 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.
A large shipment of contraband vodka worth of some $1200 has recently been seized in Brest in a joint operation conducted by economic and road police officers.
As Viktor Vasilevsky of the Brest city police department's press office told BelaPAN, 552 bottles of vodka without tax stamps were carried on an Audi 100 car. The driver, who has proved to be a 32-year-old resident of Brest, has been charged with an administrative offense. According to Mr. Vasilevsky, since the beginning of the year, the Brest police have seized more than 50 tons of liquor valued at some 120 million rubels ($55,000).
Experts say that a former nuclear facility in Brest is safe enough and can be used for any purposes after contractors have completely removed radioactive earth from it.
The facility, named Zapadny, served as a transshipping station for natural uranium on its way from the former East Germany to the Soviet Union for enrichment, Ivan Luzhinsky, a departmental chief with the Brest Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, told BelaPAN.
The facility was actively used in the 1950s and 1960s to reload uranium from standard European into Russian railcars that had a wider gage. Some of the ore spilt on the ground in the process and was pressed down by heavy machinery, forming a 1.5-meter layer. In an effort to decontaminate the site, contractors removed a total of 7,000 cubic meters of contaminated earth, bringing it to a burial ground some 3.5 kilometers away from the village of Struga near the town of Malorita.
More than one billion rubels was provided out of the central and regional budgets for the project. Some 20,000 cubic meters of contaminated earth was removed from another facility, code named 802, in Brest and buried in the storage site earlier this year. The hazardous soil was scattered on clay and covered with another layer of clay and a layer of clean earth. Authorities say that the burial ground will pose no threat to local residents' health. The site is expected to be constantly examined by experts.
The Brest regional government has tasked all unprofitable farms with breaking even next year.
As a source with the Regional Executive Committee's agriculture department told BelaPAN, the number of unprofitable farms has been drastically reduced in 2004, while the region's overall agricultural
production has increased by 12 percent.
In particular, the region has for the first time in 15 years reported one million tons of grain gathered during the fall harvesting campaign, as well as has obtained the projected figures with respect to the production of flax and fodder crops. The output of milk rose by 16 percent in the first 10 months, with the average per-cow milk yield increasing by 337 kilograms. A considerable output growth also was reported by most of the region's animal farms and poultry plants.
Experts link the improved performance to the ownership reform that most state-run farms have undergone in the region. The region's 224 collective and state farms have been reorganized into cooperatives, 44 transformed into stock corporations, 23 merged with larger farms and two privatized.
A judge of Brest's district court ordered the confiscation of a large Russian-bound shipment of audio and video systems that was carried in three trucks from Holland.
The shipment, estimated at $770,000, was seized by customs and KGB officers at a checkpoint in Baranovichi after an examination established that the value of the goods had been considerably
understated in the accompanying documents.
"According to the documents, one of the trucks was carrying home and car audio systems worth $25,000. However, 2,820 VCRs and televisions of different brands valued at a total of 850 million rubels
were discovered in its cargo compartment," Sergei Radyuk, spokesman for the KGB Brest regional office, told BelaPAN.
According to the official, unreported goods also were discovered in two other trucks.
28 December 2004