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.

Minsk - Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, last year's Nobel Literature Prize winner, has signed a petition for the release of a Russian activist who says he has been tortured and threatened in prison.

Minsk - Negotiators sent by Kiev and pro-Russian rebels on Wednesday for the first time agreed to pull back troops from three areas along the battered frontline in east Ukraine.

Minsk - Two opposition candidates have been elected to parliament in ex-Soviet Belarus, the first time since 2008 that critics of strongman president Alexander Lukashenko have made it into the rubber-stamp legislature.

Minsk - Ex-Soviet state Belarus went to the polls Sunday for elections expected to see supporters of strongman Alexander Lukashenko fill the legislature, as the opposition branded the process a farce.

Minsk - Green-fingered Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko forced US action star Steven Seagal to eat one of his homegrown carrots in an awkward encounter that prompted much mockery on Thursday in the ex-Soviet state.

Minsk - Thousands of mourners in Belarus on Saturday bid farewell to prominent independent journalist Pavel Sheremet, killed by a car bomb in Kiev, as he was buried back in the homeland where he clashed with the authorities.

Minsk - As Belarusian state policy is to forge ties with Europe, Europe should respond by pressuring the government to strengthen good governance; highlighting human rights issues, systemic corruption, and rampant smuggling across EU borders.

For people living in Belarus, a country that ended up with 23 percent of its land contaminated with radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, the incident has turned into a fairy tale, and they are living in a fantasy world.

Minsk - Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels agreed a new truce deal Wednesday that goes into immediate effect and replaces one broken just hours after its signature at the end of last month.

Minsk - Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, this year's Nobel Literature Prize winner, on Wednesday slammed Russia's "political trial" of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and compared her to Joan of Arc.

Minsk - Scores of people gathered in Minsk Thursday to commemorate victims of Stalin-era repressions, a rare event organised by the opposition which would usually face a tough police response.

Lenino - The EU suspended most sanctions against Belarus Thursday, citing "improving relations" after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko released all remaining political prisoners, a statement said.