The movie “I Remember…” (director Sergei Sychov) and documentary “The Chernobyl Cross” (director Anatoliy Alay) is shown in the Chernobyl-affected regions, culture ministry official Vladimir Kuprienko told BelTA. The first night of “I Remember…” dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy and a meeting with the film crew took place in Gomel. By April 30 the film will be sown in Gomel, Mogilev and Minsk oblasts. The idea behind “I Remember…” is that a...

The Belarusian agricultural companies have sown spring crops on 209,4 thousand hectares or 20 per cent of the total square, head of the plant growing department of the agriculture and foodstuffs ministry Viktor Kornev told BelTA. According to him, some 520 thousand hectares or 47.5 per cent of the total square had been sown by the same time last year. This year’s sowing efforts should be accelerated 4 times to complete the campaign by May 1. This will be possible as all regions of the...

Electricity tariffs for private households will go up starting May 1, 2006, chief specialist of Belenergo personnel management department Vladimir Korduba told BelTA. According to Council of Ministers resolution #506 of April 13, one kilowatt-hour of electric power will cost Br67,7 for households supplied with electric ovens and Br93,4 for all the rest. Vladimir Corduba noted that the increase in tariffs does not overpass the annual 5-dollar limits of electric power price growth. The...

Modernisation of the national power engineering industry will require over USD 5 billion, Belarusian premier Sergei Sidorskiy told the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus today. He said, USD 2.5 billion will be spent on retooling and enlarging the installations and another USD 2.5 billion – energy-saving measures in other branches of the national economy. Sergei Sidorskiy emphasised, the power engineering industry should concentrate on increasing the national...

Gomel region has completed vaccinating barn-door fowl against bird flu. Viktor Kuropatov, head of the vet agency of the regional administration's agriculture and food department, the vaccination was carried out in 973 settlements. According to Viktor Kuropatov, as planned, they vaccinated over 700,000 specimens of barn-door fowl at private households, which are located within three kilometres of poultry factories and water ponds. Over 1 million doses were bought for the first total...

The national technology transfer centre has opened a branch office at Gomel-based SANTEP OJSC, which specialises in crockery and sanitaryware. Alexander Uspenskiy, director of the national technology transfer centre, informed BelTA, the branch office is meant to assist in retooling of enterprises, increasing the quality of the merchandise, mastering new products and expanding the sale area. To reach the goals, the branch office has a database on foreign and domestic inventions and...

Mikhail Lila from Mozyr won a first-degree diploma at the international festival “Golden Phoenix” in Moscow. The young singer won the Pop Vocals nomination among 9-11 year olds, head of the culture department of the Mozyr town council Feliks Galyuk informed BelTA. Apart for the prize and the golden cup Misha received an invitation to take part in the international contest “Young King and Young Queen” in Sochi and also in the program about children’s art “Constellation of...

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe representatives of Minsk international ambassadress club visited Gomel region. Club head Nina Arutyunyan told BelTA, the tradition of visiting Chernobyl-polluted areas was started last year. Then the foreign ladies visited Bragin district. This year they visited Chechersk district. Twenty-five people went on the tour, including spouses of ambassadors of Armenia, Russia, China, the USA, Germany, France, Palestine, Moldavia,...

The Gomel-Raton free economic zone /FEZ/ has signed a cooperation agreement with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the association of manufacturers and entrepreneurs of South-West district of Moscow, BelTA was informed in the FEZ. The documents were signed during a visit of the Gomel oblast administration and representatives of business circles to Moscow last week. During a visit Gomel-Raton hold a presentation of its investment projects and commercial opportunities. FEZ...

BelTA correspondents in Mogilev and Gomel oblasts Oleg Foinitskiy and Sergei Kholodilin have been given special awards at the republican contest “Life in Defiance of Chernobyl”. The awarding ceremony was held at the public press-center of the House of Press in Minsk. Timed to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, the contest featured journalists of the printed mass media and photo correspondents. It was organized by the information ministry and the Chernobyl committee. The...