The bodies of 11 Belarusians killed in last week's air crash in Somalia were delivered to Belarus on Friday evening by a plane of the Homyelavia airline.
The An-12 plane landed at the Minsk National Airport at 18:05 p.m. It took off from an airport in the United Arab Emirates at 9 a.m. on Friday.
The plane also brought 10 Belarusian citizens stranded in the war-torn African country after their plane was hit with a projectile on March 9.
The bodies and the survivals of the previous accident were brought to the United Arab Emirates from Somalia aboard a Russian plane earlier this week.
An IL-76 plane belonging to Belarus' state-run Transaviaexport crashed after taking off from the main airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu on March 23.
The plane is believed to have been shot down by rebels fighting against the Somali government, their Ethiopian military allies and the African Union force since the beginning of 2007.
Transaviaexport had sent the group to Somalia to retrieve equipment from its other plane hit by a ground-fired projectile two weeks before.
That plane was on a flight from Uganda in the framework of an African Union peacekeeping mission under the aegis of the UN Security Council. The crew managed to land the aircraft and all those aboard - nine Belarusians and six Ugandans - survived the accident. However, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
Russia does not refuse to provide a stabilization loan for Belarus, Ambassador Aleksandr Surikov said at Friday's news conference in Minsk.
"One and a half billion dollars was officially requested," said Mr. Surikov. "However, media outlets now speak of a billion. The cash deficiency for purchasing gas and oil has apparently decreased."
The ambassador emphasized the need "to work" to obtain the loan. According to him, it is above all necessary to "substantiate the repayment of the loan." "There could be the government's guarantees or the repayment of the loan could be guaranteed by a property complex. Words of honor don't work here," Mr. Surikov said, stressing that Russia's budgetary loan could be issued for one year at an interest rate of one-fourth of the central bank's rate. "There also could be bank stabilization loans," he added.
On February 22, the Belarusian government asked Moscow for a $1.5-billion stabilization loan, citing the need to plug holes in the budget caused by a hike in energy prices. A week later, Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin said that Moscow would decide on granting the requested loan within two months.
An aircraft of the Homyelavia airline with the bodies of 11 Belarusians killed in last week's air crash in Somalia aboard took off from an airport in the United Arab Emirates at 9 a.m. on Friday and was scheduled to land in Minsk at 6 p.m.
The An-12 also carried 10 Belarusian citizens stranded in the war-torn African country after their plane was hit with a projectile on March 9, a representative of the Belarusian embassy in the United Arab Emirates told BelaPAN.
The bodies and the survivals of the previous accident were brought to the United Arab Emirates from Somalia aboard a Russian plane earlier this week.
An IL-76 plane belonging to Belarus' state-run Transaviaexport crashed after taking off from the main airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu on March 23.
The plane is believed to have been shot down by rebels fighting against the Somali government, their Ethiopian military allies and the African Union force since the beginning of 2007.
Transaviaexport had sent the group to Somalia to retrieve equipment from its other plane hit by a ground-fired projectile two weeks before.
That plane was on a flight from Uganda in the framework of an African Union peacekeeping mission under the aegis of the UN Security Council. The crew managed to land the aircraft and all those aboard - nine Belarusians and six Ugandans - survived the accident. However, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
Belarusian companies will extract oil in Azerbaijan, Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski told reporters in Baku before flying back to Minsk on March 29.
"We were provided with every opportunity to choose conditions for cooperation," he said when commenting on the results of his talks in Azerbaijan. "It is most likely that there will be separate ownership in oil production."
Mr. Sidorski said that Azerbaijani companies will be allowed to process their oil at Belarusian refineries and export the products. According to him, oil would be shipped in tank cars by rail.
In addition, he said, the Minsk Automobile Factory (MAZ) is expected to will start up a truck assembly plant in Azerbaijan. "We'll supply equipment and major units and components to Azerbaijan to assemble trucks," Mr. Sidorski noted. According to him, some 1000 trucks will be assembled annually, with Belarus creating nearly 3,000 new jobs in Azerbaijan.
Currently, there is a joint tractor assembly plant in Azerbaijan, which is expected to increase its output to 1000 tractors in 2008.
The sides also agreed on Belarusian sugar exports to Azerbaijan.
Apart from this, Belarus is to export meat, dry milk and other agricultural products to that country. Azerbaijan is reportedly interested in such products and satisfied with the prices and the offered amounts.
A Belarusian national exhibition would be held in Azerbaijan between May 2 and 5.
Two plants that will make environmentally friendly fuel from plants are to start operation in Babruysk, Mahilyow region, and Hrodna this year, Vasil Pawlowski, deputy minister of agriculture, told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.
One such plant already operates in Navayelnya, Hrodna region.
"The entire world is switching to environmentally friendly fuel. In addition, we need to look for other energy sources because of increasing oil and diesel fuel prices," Mr. Pawlowski said.
The official noted that domestic plants could use locally grown rape crops to make bio-ethanol. Some 147,000 tons of rape seeds was produced in the country the previous year. The government projects this year's yield to increase to 200,000 tons this year and to 600,000 tons by 2010.
Some experts raise objections to the development of biofuels made by producing ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from maize, sugar cane, or other plant matter. They argue that it would increase pressure on valuable arable land and might push food prices up. They also say that using ethanol rather than gasoline reduces total emissions of carbon dioxide by only about 13 percent because of the pollution caused by the production process. They also say that the grain required to fill the gasoline tank of some cars with ethanol is sufficient to feed one person per year. //BelaPAN
Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Wednesday that Belarus' "talks with the West" were not intended to damage relations between the country and Russia.
He suggested that Moscow was worried about what he called talks between Belarus and the European Union and attempts by the United States to improve relations with Belarus.
He dismissed the concern. "Why shouldn't we talk to our western neighbor? We have a huge monster, Russia, in the east who we are building relations with, but the EU accounts for 50 percent of our trade. We have economic interests there."
He however added that Belarus would move to build relations with Russia on a "decent" basis as soon as common sense prevailed in Russia. //BelaPAN
The Belarusian and Latvian foreign ministries will hold a round of consultations in Minsk on April 3 at the level of deputy ministers, Andrey Papow, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, said at Thursday's briefing.
The Belarusian delegation to the meeting will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Varanetski, and the Latvian delegation by Edgars Skuja, the ministry's under-secretary of state.
During the consultations, participants are expected to exchange information about the development of the internal political and socio-economic situations in Belarus and Latvia, discuss the state and development prospects of bilateral political relations, the expansion of trade and economic and investment cooperation, the improvement of the legal basis for bilateral relations, and cooperation in the transport sphere, as well as the most efficient use of cooperation between provinces.
According to the Belarusian foreign ministry, in 2006, trade between the two countries increased by 38.9 percent to $537.9 million, which was the highest level in the last 15 years.
Belarusian exports to Latvia reportedly went up 43.2 percent to $462 million, which resulted in an export surplus of $350.1 million.
A total of $150.9 million worth of Latvian capital was reportedly invested in the Belarusian economy in 2006.
There are currently 186 enterprises involving Latvian capital in Belarus, including 147 companies in Minsk, with 40 founded last year.
The standing committee on agriculture and food-processing industry in the Moldovan parliament has protested against the recent establishment of a Belarusian-Moldovan company that will export wine to Belarus.
The company was set up by the Moldovan Agrovin Bulboaca wine producing company and the Belarusian State Food Industry Concern (Beldzyarzhharchpram) in an attempt to resume wine supplies to Belarus that halted in late 2006. The proposal to establish such a company was put forward by the Moldova-Vin winemaking department of the Moldovan agriculture ministry.
Earlier reports had it that Maldbelvin had already concluded supply contracts and planned to export some 100,000 decaliters of wine material a month.
A member of the parliamentary committee told BelaPAN that the lawmakers opposed the conditions on which the joint company had been set up.
He said that they feared that the enterprise would "monopolize" the export trade in wine with Belarus. "This violates the constitutional rights of other producers and the principle of free competition that has been declared in Moldova," he added.
The Moldovan Union of Wine Producers and Exporters also expressed concern about the establishment of Maldbelvin, local media outlets reported. They quoted the head of the union, Georgy Kozub as saying that the joint company wanted to sell wine at a price of $0.40 per liter. "After paying excise and value-added tax, Moldovan producers will have $0.28 left for one liter, which is less than a kilogram of grape costs," Mr. Kozub said.
The Slovak foreign ministry has called on the Belarusian authorities to release former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin and opposition activists who were jailed after a key opposition demonstration held in Minsk on March 25.
The ministry issued the statement on Monday, two days before a round of consultations between the Belarusian and Slovak foreign ministries.
It expressed disappointment with what it called pressure put on opposition activists ahead of the "peaceful" demonstration.
It stressed that such actions ran counter to Minsk's declared intention to intensify relations with the European Union. "This can block the possibility for Belarusian citizens to take part in the European Neighborhood Policy," it said.
The ministry reiterated that respect by the Belarusian authorities for human rights and fundamental freedoms was essential to the development of cooperation with the EU.
The round of consultations, to be held in Bratislava on March 28 and 29 at the deputy minister level, is to focus on political and economic ties between the two countries, cooperation within international organizations, the development of legal framework for bilateral cooperation and preparations for events to be held in Slovakia this fall to celebrate Belarusian culture. //BelaPAN
The sports ministry expects the Belarusian team to get into the top 20 in the medal chart at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
While talking to reporters in Minsk on Tuesday, Deputy Sports Minister Dzmitry Shychko said that Belarusian athletes had won 15 medals both at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and 17 medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The official predicted that roughly the same medal haul would allow the Belarusian team to enter the top 20 at the coming Olympics in China.
US, German, Russian, Australian and Chinese athletes are tipped to grab most medals at the Olympics. Apart from this, hot and humid weather conditions are likely to give East Asian athletes an edge, the official added.
Twenty-one Belarusian athletes have already won Olympic berths. A total of 159 Belarusian athletes have enjoyed special government support ahead of the Olympics.
Speaking in October 2006, Sports Minister Alyaksandr Hryharaw said that the Belarusian team should win some 20 medals at the Beijing Olympics. //BelaPAN
31 March 2007