Activists raising funds for family of Mikhail Zhyznewski

Activists in four countries raising funds for family of Belarusian protester killed in Kyiv.
Activists in four countries have launched a campaign to raise funds for the family of Mikhail Zhyznewski, a 25-year-old Belarusian who was shot dead by police during a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in Kyiv earlier this week.
People in Belarus, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have been urged to donate money to the man's parents to help pay for the transportation of his body to his home city of Homyel and the funeral, activist Andrey Stryzhak told BelaPAN.
The campaigners have been unable to open charity bank accounts because of the lack of required documents and have urged those willing to donate to meet with them and hand over cash.
"I think these people will leave their phone numbers, so that the family could contact them afterward to say thank you," said Mr. Stryzhak.
He said that the amount needed to have the body transported from Kyiv to Homyel was not known yet.
Mr. Zhyznewski's parents were expected to travel to the Ukrainian capital this week to arrange the transportation of his body to Belarus.

Kilde :  http://charter97.org/en/news/2014/1/24/84779/

Tough confrontation in Kiev

New laws spark violent clashes in Ukraine.
A peaceful anti-government protest in Kyiv descended into chaos when clashes broke out between demonstrators and riot police near to the Ukrainian parliament, Euronews reports.
Tens of thousands of pro-EU demonstrators braved the freezing cold in the capital on Sunday to rally against new laws that opposition leaders have labelled “illegitimate” and Western governments have criticised as anti-democratic.
Kan se direkte video : http://www.unian.net/news/618031-evromaydan-v-kieve-pryamoy-efir-video.html

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Video her : 
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 Video:  http://www.vgtv.no/#!/video/76835/direkte-heftige-demostrasjoner-i-ukraina

Works by homeless artist Valery Lyashkevich on display in Minsk

Works by homeless artist from Gomel Valery Lyashkevich are displayed in Minsk for the first time. The vernissage took place at the Belarusian National Art Museum.
For Gomel residents the homeless old man with blue eyes drawing “pictures” in the streets is a local curiosity. For fine art experts Valery Lyashkevich is a phenomenon, an artist who is worth paying attention to.
Valery Lyashkevich studied at the art schools of Yaroslavl and Bryansk, attended courses at the Ilya Repin Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. Since then he became peripatetic artist travelling between Saint Petersburg that gave him priceless cultural experience and his native Gomel. Today the streets of the Belarusian city are home to the artist. For 20 years he has been taking shelter at the railway station underground passages and on the benches in tranquil city districts. His workshops are stair halls, the left-luggage office of the railway station, sometimes even concrete plates in the streets.


 



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Gold dishes for Lukashenka's residence

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The ruler wants to buy tableware decorated with gold and platinum for his new residence.
This tender offer was published on the e-procurement website by the capital construction department of the Minsk city executive committee.
According to the tender offer, a part of the dishes should be produced by Falkenporzellan. The purchase will be financed by the budget.
Falkenporzellan is a German producer of high-quality tableware. The company's products are noted for “sophisticated design, absolute whiteness, firmness and brightness in combination with 24-carat gold and platinum”, according to media. The tableware is rather expensive for Belarus. For example, a small dinner set (in the picture) costs more than $1,000.
The company is widely known in the world for exclusive and valuable tableware.
According to the tender details, hundreds of dinner sets are needed. The tableware should be decorated with the Belarusian coat of arms.

Almost half of economic entities had low profitability rates

Nearly 50 percent of economic entities in all sectors of the economy, had profitability rates of less than five percent or operated at a loss in the first 11 months of 2013.
Of the 8,224 economic entities under review, 3,140 had profitability rates of less than five percent and more than 1000 were unprofitable.
The textile, garment and fishing industries had the largest shares of unprofitable organizations, between 30 and 40 percent. As many as 43.6 percent of the organizations in the agricultural sector and 35.3 percent of the organizations in the industrial sector had profitability rates of less than five percent.
The profitability of sales in January-November 2013 was seven percent, down from 10 percent in the first 11 months of 2012.
According to the economy ministry, companies became less efficient because of an output drop, a decrease in fixed costs resulting from the loss of economies of scale, and pay imbalances.
With salaries and wages rising at a faster pace than labor productivity, the first nine months of 2013 saw a growing share of companies’ funds go towards paying their staff, the ministry said. Companies spent 12.3 percent of their funds for paying salaries and wages between January and September, up from 9.6 percent in the same period of the previous year.

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World stars support Belarusians in their fight for freedom

British stars put their signatures to support the campaign Fuck Realpolitik.
The campaign was launched by the Belarus Free Theatre and the initiative Free Belarus Now.
The world stars urge the EU leaders to toughen pressure on the Lukashenka regime to free and rehabilitate the political prisoners, investigate cases of politically motivated abductions, abolish the death penalty in the country and release the bodies of executed people to their families.
Eight stars of theatre, cinema and music joined the campaign and signed postcards for the EU leadership.

Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright, script writer, director, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, member of the Order of Merit, laureate of the Praemium Imperiale, Oscar award winner, winner of plenty of theatre and cinema awards.





Stephen Fry, actor, writer, playwright, TV presenter, winner of many cinema, theatre and TV awards.





Ronnie Wood, musician, guatarist, member of the legendary Rolling Stones.





Michael Palin, actor, writer, TV presenter, traveller, one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, winner of four BAFTA Awards, president of the Royal Geographical Society in 2009—2012.





Jude Law, actor, producer, winner of the BAFTA Award, winner of two Oscars, winner of three Golden Globe Awards.





Laura Wade, playwright, script writer, winner and nominee of a number of playwright awards, Olivier nominee.





Rufus Sewell, theatre and film actor, winner and nominee of a number of theatre and cinema awards, BAFTA, Olivier and Tony nominee.





Freddie Fox, actor, one of the most promising British theatre and film actors, known for his roles in The Three Musketeers, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Parade's End.




Director of the Belarus Free Theatre Natalia Kaliada, one of the initiators of the campaign Fuck Realpolitik, comments on the step by prominent British cultural figures:
“More than 3,000 people sent postcards to to the EU leaders as part of the campaign. In 2011, twenty cultural figures, including late Vaclav Havel, signed the Artist Manifesto for Belarus saying that artists have no executive powers, but they have a voice that can be heard. The aim of foreign actors with civic awareness is to make politicians of their countries answer both before the Belarusians and their prominent fellow countrymen concerned about human rights violations in Belarus.
The task of us, the people living outside Belarus, is to make people remember about it and wake up those able to help the people under the pressure of the dictatorship.”

Kilde :  http://charter97.org/en/news/2014/1/4/83141/