Grodno - When she set out on a boat for the USSR with her family some 70 years ago, Yanina Stashko had no idea she would never see her native France again.

Minsk - Belarusian authorities on Tuesday detained at least three journalists from two independent news websites over "unauthorised" access to services provided by the state news agency. Tut.

Minsk - A massive corruption scandal has rocked the health service of ex-Soviet Belarus, leading even officials in the country dubbed "Europe's last dictatorship" to call for an overhaul of the system.

Minsk - Belarus on Tuesday announced that it is extending visa-free travel for tourists from five days to 30 days in a move that could attract more visitors to the ex-Soviet state on the European Union's doorstep.

Minsk - A court in Minsk on Tuesday sentenced an independent journalist to four years in prison for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Minsk - Chinese troops on Tuesday took part in a military parade marking Independence Day in Belarus as the country's authoritarian leader seeks closer ties with Beijing to counterbalance Russia's influence.

Radin - Natalia Shevchuk gazes at the peeling walls inside her old flat and tears run down her cheeks: 32 years after the Chernobyl disaster she is finally revisiting her childhood home in the ghost town of Pripyat."Come inside: this is Apartment No.

Minsk - Belarusian authorities on Sunday arrested around 30 protesters in Minsk ahead of a banned opposition march while detaining activists across the country, human rights group Viasna said.

Minsk - Former Soviet republic Belarus has blocked a top opposition website for spreading "illegal" content, the information ministry said Thursday.

Minsk - Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster spewed radioactive clouds into the sky and sent shockwaves across Europe, Belarus is building a nuclear reactor on the doorstep of the EU despite fears in neighbouring Lithuania.

Minsk - A Belarusian court on Wednesday sentenced opposition politician and poet Vladimir Nekliayev to 10 days in prison for urging supporters to protest against the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Moscow - If you read the Western “reviews” of the major Russian military exercise in Belarus, you might get the impression that there is something very superficial about the Russian military. That’s a bad mistake.

Minsk - More than 100 people in Belarus appeared in court on Monday over protests at the weekend against hardline President Alexander Lukashenko, with dozens of them jailed, including journalists.

Minsk - Belarus authorities raided the offices of a prominent rights group Saturday, detaining dozens of people, including foreign rights workers, ahead of a planned protest by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Minsk - Belarusian authorities have arrested some 26 people following a wave of major protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, state television said Thursday, citing security services.

Minsk - Some 3,000 protesters marched through the Belarusian capital Minsk Wednesday in the latest of a spate of rare demonstrations to challenge the country's authoritarian leader.

Minsk - Thousands of Belarusian opposition supporters rallied in Minsk on Friday against a Soviet-style "tax on spongers" imposed by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Minsk - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko slammed Russia on Friday as tensions bubbled between the two close allies in a spat over border controls.

Brest - On a snowy day a commuter train leaves the Belarusian border city of Brest as usual for the town of Terespol in EU member Poland just a few kilometres away.

Minsk - Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the meeting on Tuesday with his Ukrainian, French and German counterparts made "no progress" in ending the war between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east.