Belarus - Ukraine Trains are on schedule

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) - Trains (click here) from Ukraine to Belarus run as scheduled on 20 February, BelTA learnt from the press service of Belarusian Railways.
“There have been no delays in the departure of trains heading for Kyiv,” the company said answering BelTA’s question on possible changes in the timetable in connection with mass riots in Kyiv.
Currently 11 pairs of Belarusian Railways’ international trains are used to service the Belarus-Ukraine line. These trains link Belarus with Kyiv and major administrative and regional centers in Ukraine. Transit trains from Chisinau, Kyiv, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk run through Belarus to St. Petersburg.
On 20 February the Belarusian Embassy recommended that Belarusians in Ukraine abstain from visiting places where protests are being staged. 

20 February 2014
The system of finished product control (click here) is running at full capacity in Belarus. This has been announced at today's press conference by Minister of Agriculture and Food Leonid Zayats. In his opinion, the agricultural industry lacks highly skilled professionals; however, there are educational institutions aimed at raising professional skill levels. It is planned to use new approaches in milk production to reach 10 million tons of milk per year by 2015.
According to the Minister, agro-industrial complex development is a very promising area. Dairy products and meat sold abroad bring tens of percent profit margins.

20.02.14
MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) intends to contact the Eurasian Economic Community Court in view of Russia’s claims concerning the poor quality of Belarusian meat and dairy products, BelTA learned from Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats on 20 February.

Russia’s complaints about the quality of Belarusian agricultural products have been quite frequent in mass media recently. Belarus has repeatedly stated and the Agriculture and Food Minister underlined it one more time on 19 February that Russia’s concerns had been caused by attempts to falsify Belarusian foods. In particular, attempts to falsify tinned meat made by the agricultural company Agrokombinat Snov have been registered. Unprincipled manufacturers make well-known Belarusian brands suffer, discrediting the latter and negatively influencing the trust in Belarus. “We are forced to go to court to protect our manufacturers,” said the Minister....

By EDDIE PELLS 
AP National Writer
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia 
February 17, 2014 (AP) 

This was a high five Anton Kushnir will never forget. (click here)

Five spins into the frosty night air followed by a near-perfect landing gave Kushnir the gold medal Monday and wrapped up a sweep of aerials gold at the Sochi Olympics for Belarus.

He won it three nights after Alla Tsuper, who recently moved to Belarus from Ukraine, took the women's gold.

"We managed to repeat the success," Kushnir said. "I don't know actually how this happened but I got the gold medal."

Kushnir won with the biggest trick going in the game right now — the "back double full-full-double full," which is five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while he soars 50 feet (15 meters) off the ramp.

He earned a score of 134.5 for the trick to beat David Morris of Australia by more than 24 points....

From the Associated Press

February 14, 2014, 11:34 a.m.

SOCHI, Russia — Alla Tsuper of Belarus (click here) pulled off a stunning Olympic gold-medal win in women's aerials.

Tsuper drilled 98.01 in the finals to beat a field that included defending Olympic champion Lydia Lassila of Australia and two-time Olympic medalist Li Nina of China.

Xu Mengtao of China won silver while Lassila earned bronze.

The 34-year-old Tsuper had never finished higher than fifth in four previous Olympics. She plans on retiring after the Games to spend more time with her young daughter and hoped to go out “on a high.” 

Tsuper went first during the four-skier final round and drilled her acrobatic leap. Nina and Lassila both botched their landings and when Mengtao struggled to hold on at the end of her jump, Tsuper began celebratin.


 

By DAVID PACE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 17, 2014, 11:28 AM

SOCHI, Russia — It was Belarus (click here) day Monday at the Sochi Olympics.
A Belarussian woman made Olympic history by becoming the first female ever to win three biathlon titles at the same games, and one of her teammates captured the men's freestyle skiing aerials competition to complete a gold-medal sweep on the event.
Anton Kushnir nailed a near-perfect landing after a "back double full-full-double full" jump — five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while soaring 50 feet off the ramp and into the night sky.


MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – The registration (click here) of local election candidates is finishing in Belarus on 20 February, BelTA has learnt.
A total of 22,784 candidates have joined the race for 18,816 seats at the local councils of deputies. The candidates were nominated by political parties, labor collectives and by means of signature collection. The average competition in a constituency is 1.2. The competition for the seats in the Minsk City Council of Deputies will be the toughest with the average of 4.7 potential candidates seeking a seat there.
Candidates will be able to start campaigning from the moment of registration up to 22 March. The early elections will take place on 18-22 March. The election day is scheduled for 23 March. 

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) is expanding the network of emergency or temporary accommodation for people whose personal safety is threatened (like domestic violence victims or human trafficking victims), BelTA learnt from the Labor and Social Security Ministry of Belarus.
 
There are 148 regional social services centers in Belarus, including two municipal social support centers for families and children in Minsk and Gomel. As of 1 January 2014, these centers operated 133 social adaptation and rehabilitation facilities and 74 shelters. There were 31 shelters in Belarus as of 1 January 2011, 41 shelters as of 1 January 2012 and 50 shelters as of 1 January 2013. Thus, the number of shelters is increasing year to year. As for the regional distribution of shelters, Mogilev Oblast used to have the biggest number of temporary housing. Now Vitebsk Oblast has as many temporary and emergency accommodation facilities. Shelters were opened in all the districts (25 in each region). Last year 150 people approached these facilities for assistance (124 people in 2012)....

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – In January 2014 (click here) Belarus’ GDP totaled Br49,851.7 billion, 1.1% down from January 2013, BelTA learned from the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.
In January 2014 the industrial output dropped by 7.1% to Br52.23 trillion. The share of innovative products in the total volume of shipped products amounted to 15.1%.
In January 2014 the fixed-capital investments stood at Br9.17 trillion, 99.6% as against January 2013.
In 2013 Belarus’ GDP reached Br636.8 trillion, 0.9% up from 2012.
As of 1 February 2014 the finished goods inventory amounted to Br31.84 trillion, 78.2% of the average monthly industrial output.
In January 2014 Belarus’ agricultural output lost 2.8% in comparison with January 2013 to land at Br5.16 trillion.
In January 2014 the wholesale trade turnover rose by 3.4% to Br36.8 trillion. The retail trade turnover gained 13.6% to reach Br21.6 trillion. 

MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – It is important to prepare (click here) the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty on time. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement as he met with members of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Chairman of the EEC Board on 19 February, BelTA has learned.

In line with the agreement reached by the presidents of the Customs Union member states the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty is supposed to be ready by 1 May 2014. The Union itself should become operational as from 1 January 2015. “Concrete deadlines have been set and I wouldn’t like breaking them,” noted the Belarusian head of state.

“It is very important because once due to the work to establish the Union State of Belarus and Russia, even more so, the Commonwealth of Independent States our peoples had inflated expectations or maybe normal ones but we failed to meet these expectations. Therefore, people are now concerned about the possibility of our failing of the project. If we shift the timeframe, if we fail to meet the deadlines, the people will not be happy about it,” said the Belarus President....