Belarusian participant of Eurovision-2010 to be chosen by special focus group

As ERB has found out, a nation-wide voting will not be organized this year and our singer will give a performance in Oslo without any previous promotional tours

Unlike last year’s selection tour, accompanied with a song contest “Eurofest”, viewers’ voting and wide-scale promotional tours, the Belarusian representative will be chosen according to a simplified scheme this year. The press secretary of the Belarusian State Broadcasting Company Svyatlana Kraskouskaya-Smalonskaya has informed ERB that a special focus-group will consider applications and chose the winner.

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Russia expects new concessions from Belarus in exchange for oil?

Moscow might close eyes to the formalities associated with the ratification of Belarus-Russia oil supplies deal, says Dmitry Butrin, an observer with the Russian business daily Kommersant.

A demand to ratify an agreement on the supplies of the Russian crude oil is just a formality, reckons the journalist from Kommersant. It is legally suffice to Russia that the agreement was signed.

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Deputy: Capital punishment is not more humane than life imprisonment

Deputies do not think that capital punishment should be abolished as soon as possible and refer to the results of the referendum of 1996. European officials stress that the future of capital punishment should not be decided at a nation-wide referendum because it is an issue of political will.

"The terms of a life imprisonment may not be more humane than a death penalty”, - claimed a deputy of the House of Representatives Hanna Lyavitskaya during a round-table discussion “European values” in Minsk on February 4 and 5. Belarusian officials, non-governmental organizations and representatives of the European Council took part in it.

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19th century building demolished in Minsk (photo, video)

The architecture monument has been destroyed by the Minsk Heritage, although the Ministry of Culture ordered to disassemble the bulding "manually".

The Minsk Heritage destroyed this architecture monument quietly -- in the evening of the last Saturday, when officials who could have theoretically stopped this illegal action had a day-off. The struggle for this 19th century building on Revolutsionnaya Street 24a in Minsk was in full swing for almost 6 months. Along with the building, 19th century frescos were also destroyed.

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Opposition ignores territorial and constituency commissions?

The opposition parties have delegated 58 people to 1495 territorial electoral commissions and 186 people to 367 constituency commissions ahead of the local elections.

This made representatives from various state agencies to point to a low activity of the opposition during the local elections, despite the fact that the formation of constituency commissions and nomination of candidates for the seats at local councils is yet to be carried out.

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Who needs Union of Poles?

The official wing of the Union of Poles in Belarus thinks that Poland is not interested in a strong organization of compatriots in our country. It also considers the Polish government’s initiatives like the Card of the Pole to be detrimental and anti-Polish.

Belarusian Poles are on different sides of the barricade with their historical motherland. Moreover, Poland has actually left its compatriots in the East and split them into enemy camps with the help of state initiatives like the Card of the Pole. The head of the legal department of the official wing of the organization Eduard Kalosha claimed it at a press conference in Minsk on February 5.

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Russian nuclear specialists eye Belarus as platform for experiments?

The designers of the Belarusian nuclear power plant do not know exacatly how safe the would-be station in the Astravets district will be and where the nuclear waste will be processed.

Andrei Azharovsky from the Moscow-based Ecozaschita (Ecodefens) told the European Radio for Belarus that one should not trust the promises of Rosatom company regarding the processing of nuclear waste from the station. The experts stressed that the type of the future station is experimental, with no such analogues around the world. Correspondingly, there are no enterprises that are able to process the nuclear fuel waste from the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

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Even commission members have no electoral code text

The members of the Minsk City Electoral Commission: "We were told the codes would be provided after printing. But they have not arrived yet"

Central Elections Commission chairperson Lidziya Yarmoshyna recently seemed to be surprised that representatives of the opposition lacked education. She maintained they were filing their complaints to the wrong agency. Under the new Electoral Code, complaints should be sent to courts. The oppositionists who were denied membership at the territorial electoral commissions allegedly do not know the new code and file their complaints to the Central Election Commission, under the old code.

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Council of Europe's secretary general names Belarus among top priorities

Council of Europe's Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland has told a delegation of civil society from Belarus about our country's significance for his organization. Previously, Council of Europe's Secretary General did not hold such meetings.

The meeting took place on January 27. The Belarusian delegation comprised Belarusian Helsinki Committee chairman Aleh Hulak, Assmbely of NGOs' chairman Siarhei Matskevich and NOVAK think tank and pollster director Andrei Vardamatski.

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Mikhalevich promises to surprise voters with creative presidential campaign

Ales Mikhalevich begins his presidential campaign as an independent candidate.

Ales Mikhalevich, former deputy chairman of the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, today launched his presidential campaign bid in Minsk.

Ales Mikhalevich: “Our campaign will be run by Belarusians only. It will rely on Belarusians and for Belarusians. Our team will comprise highly-educated representatives of a new generation of the Belarusian society. They are the people who grew professionaly in the independent Belarus”.

According to Mikhalevich, he will rely on urban youths as his main support base.

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