Three farms in the Pinsk district have started harvesting grain crops, being the first to do this in the Brest region. This year the harvest season began in the Pinsk district a week earlier than in 2001.
The district's farms are to reap the crop from more than 30,000 hectares. The main problem is an acute shortage of harvesters. The farms have one combine for 254 hectares on the average compared with 100 to 130 hectares in previous years.
Other districts in the Brest region are expected to start gathering the grain crops within the next few days. This year, the regional government has set the local farms the task of gathering one million tons of grain. This target was set in the previous three years, but the region never
managed to get in more than 800,000 tons.
The four Belarusian victims of the July 1 plane crash over Germany, the Shislovsky family, were buried in Brest on Sunday.
The bodies of 43-year-old Brest-based businessman Oleg Shislovsky, and his 40-year-old wife Lyudmila were identified at the beginning of this past week, and the bodies of their two daughters, 17-year-old Olga and
15-year-old Yuliya, somewhat later.
The Shislovskys were flying on Russia's Barcelona-bound Tupolev 154 plane that collided with the DHL Worldwide Express' Boeing 757 over Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border, killing 71. There were 12 crew and 57 passengers on board. Among the passengers, there were 8 adults and the rest were children.
It was by accident that the Shislovskys took that plane. They traveled by train from Brest to Moscow to fly to Spain by another plain. But their train was three hours late, as it collided with a UAZ van in the Kobrin district, Brest region. All the six passengers of the UAZ were killed in
the accident. Apart from this, in Moscow, the family had a problem in obtaining Spanish visas, that is why they failed to catch their plane and had to take the Bashkirian Airlines jet that crashed a few hours after.
On July 2, officers of the Brest police's passport and visa department notified the father of Oleg Shislovsky, Viktor, about the possible death of his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters. The father and Oleg's close friend saw the scene of the crash but did not directly participated in the identification. The remains of the Shislovsky family were delivered to Brest Saturday afternoon. They were buried at Brest's Ploska cemetery, after a service at the Holy Resurrection Church. By the Brest authorities' decision, the Shislovskys were buried in the central part of the cemetery, not in the area on the outskirts where burials are usually allowed. Representatives of the city government attended the funeral.
A Belarusian government delegation held a meeting with representatives of Poland's National Security Bureau (NSB) in Brest on July 8.
The delegation included Gennady Nevyglas, state secretary the Security Council of Belarus; Aleksandr Shpilevsky, chief the State Customs Committee; Aleksandr Pavlovsky, chief of the State Border Troops Committee; Vladimir Naumov, minister of internal affairs; Vladimir Savchenko, chairman of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee; and representatives of the foreign ministry and other concerned agencies.
NSB President Marek Siwiec, led the Polish delegation, which also included Tomasz Makowski, governor the Lublin province, and the heads of regional security agencies. The agenda included cooperation between the two nations' border control, customs and law-enforcement agencies under the conditions of Poland's forthcoming accession to the
European Union. Participants discussed measures to combat terrorism and border crime, improve the legal framework of cooperation, and expand regional contacts. The delegations visited the Kizhevatov border outpost, the Brestgruzavtoservis terminal and some border crossings.
A Belarusian government delegation held a meeting with representatives of Poland's National Security Bureau (NSB) in Brest on July 8.
The delegation included Gennady Nevyglas, state secretary the Security Council of Belarus; Aleksandr Shpilevsky, chief the State Customs Committee; Aleksandr Pavlovsky, chief of the State Border Troops Committee; Vladimir Naumov, minister of internal affairs; Vladimir Savchenko, chairman of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee; and representatives of the foreign ministry and other concerned agencies.
NSB President Marek Siwiec, led the Polish delegation, which also included Tomasz Makowski, governor the Lublin province, and the heads of regional security agencies. The agenda included cooperation between the two nations' border control, customs and law-enforcement agencies under the conditions of Poland's forthcoming accession to the
European Union. Participants discussed measures to combat terrorism and border crime, improve the legal framework of cooperation, and expand regional contacts. The delegations visited the Kizhevatov border outpost, the Brestgruzavtoservis terminal and some border crossings.
Vasily Dolgolyov, chairman of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, has extended condolences to the relatives and friends of the Shislovsky family that died as a result of the July 1 collision between two planes
over Germany. The regional government has announced that a special bank account will be opened within the next few days to accumulate donations for the Shislovskys' relatives. Oleg Shislovsky, a 43-year-old Brest-based businessman, his 40-year-old wife Lyudmila and his daughters, 17-year-old Olga and 15-year-old Yuliya, were flying on Russia's Barcelona-bound Tupolev 154 plane that collided with the DHL Worldwide Express' Boeing 757 over Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border, killing about 70, mostly children. It was by accident that the Shislovskys took that plane. They traveled by train from Brest to Moscow to fly to Spain by another plain. But their train was three hours late, as it collided with an UAZ van in the Kobrin district, Brest region. All the six passengers of the UAZ were killed in the accident. Apart from this, in Moscow, the family had a problem in obtaining Spanish visas, that is why they failed to catch their plane and had to take the Bashkirian Airlines jet that crashed a few hours after.
On July 2, officers of the Brest police's passport and visa department notified the father of Oleg Shislovsky, Viktor, about the possible death of his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters. He left for Germany on July 4 to identify the bodies. The mother, Polina, was not informed,
as she was being treated for a heart disease in a hospital, a local source said.
Six people died on the afternoon of June 29 at a rural railroad crossing not far from the town of Kobrin in southwestern Belarus when their light truck collided with a passing passenger train en route from Prague to Moscow.
The truck ignored a red light, passed other vehicles and apparently tried to make it across the tracks before the train, which traveled at nearly 60 mph, police officials said. The truck driver, a local man born 1979, and his five passengers aged between 19 and 42 were killed in the collision. The line did not reopen for traffic until about 2.5 hours later.
Four officers of a district police department in Brest, two officers of the Brest regional office of the Committee for State Security (KGB) and three
civilians are suspected of gang extortion, the Brest Regional Prosecutor's Office told BelaPAN on Monday. The Office said that the group is suspected of an attempt to obtain $3,000 by force in the Kobrin district last week "for services in selling goods," but stopped short of
elaborating on the details. Although the suspects have not been arrested or formally charged, the officers have already been dismissed and the Regional Prosecutor's Office has instituted a criminal case.
Olga Nevdakh, a 22-year-old student of the Minsk-based Modern Knowledge Institute, born in Drogichin, Brest region, was named Miss Belarus 2002 in the third national beauty pageant, the final stage of which was held at the Palace of the Republic in Minsk on June 30.
The final stage, in which 17 contestants took part, began with a speech by Belarusian ruler Aleksandr Lukashenko, who noted that the contest for the first time was held under "strict patronage of the state."
"Someone sought to turn the contest into a competition of money, but this eventually ended in a failure," Mr. Lukashenko said. According to him, he had decided to place this event under the government's control because the "sacred affair should not be turned into a dirty business."
The Belarusian ruler called on the judges to be "absolutely impartial."
In his special presidential directive, Mr. Lukashenko defined the national beauty pageant's purposes as "aesthetic and spiritual education of youths, the development of national dress culture and the
popularization of Belarusian fashion."
17 July 2002