On the first day of the competition, July 14, young talents performed a song in their native language to a minus-one backing track on the stage of the Summer Amphitheater. Evgeny Slavich sang the song "Berega" by Belarusian authors in Russian. His performance was rated 88 out of a possible 110 points by the competent jury, headed by composer Maxim Dunaevsky.

The art deco-style, custom-made metal "love bench" is located near the Pushkin monument, one of the most romantic spots in the city, a must-visit for wedding processions. The bench is 1.7 meters long. It is adorned with orchids and the traditional wedding symbol – swans.

Sergei Ostapchuk, a product of Novopolotsk hockey, died on September 7, 2011, along with the Russian team "Lokomotiv" in an aviation disaster near Yaroslavl, when a Yak-42D aircraft crashed during takeoff.

The state of affairs in the regions clearly characterizes the socio-economic situation in the country. This opinion was expressed to Belarusian journalists by Andris Grinbergs, a correspondent for the newspaper "Latvijas Avīze", during a press tour of the Vitebsk region.

Public organizations of the Vitebsk region are calling for fundraising to improve memorial sites related to the Great Patriotic War. The appeal to the residents of the region was adopted today at the plenum of the Vitebsk Regional Council of the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans, reports BELTA correspondent.

Three long-term construction projects were commissioned in the Vitebsk region at the end of August. Shareholders in Vitebsk, Novopolotsk, and Orsha will receive the keys to their long-awaited apartments.

Novopolotsk LLC "LLK-Naftan" became one of the winners of the republican competition "Best Entrepreneur of 2012".

The situation is stable, and in some indicators, we are ahead of the republic. Nevertheless, there are aspects that cause concern and require constant monitoring, such as food production and storage technologies, drinking water quality, settlement improvement, maintenance of mini-landfills, the utilization of unused lands, and others.

In many higher education institutions of the country, the admission of documents for state-funded education ended on July 12. At the same time, due to a significant shortage of students in certain universities, the Ministry of Education announced the start of a "preferential" additional admission on July 19.

The development of entrepreneurship will be facilitated by a faster resolution of issues regarding the allocation of land plots and the improvement of the procedure for conducting auctions for the sale of unused property. This opinion was expressed today to journalists, in response to a question from a BELTA correspondent, during a press conference dedicated to World Entrepreneurship Week, by the Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Oleg Matskevich.

During Great Lent, on March 15, 22, and 29, the church has established parental Saturdays – days of special prayer for those who have departed from this world to the next.

Investigators are establishing the circumstances of the ranger's murder in the Vitebsk region.

The call for nominations for journalists to be recognized for the best coverage, publications, and TV/radio reports on the XXIII International Festival of Arts "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk" in the media is ongoing.

The Vitebsk College of Culture and Arts is holding a series of charity concerts "Help and You Shall Receive!" for International Children's Day.

In Soviet times, the movement "A five-year plan in four (three, two and a half) years!" was widespread among production frontrunners. It would seem, what's wrong with that: well, there are such skilled workers whose heads and hands work faster than others. But not *that* much faster, colleagues of one of these frontrunners told me back then.