Minsk - The European Union and the United States have welcomed the unexpected release of prominent Belarus rights activist Ales Belyatsky, while urging the government to free other political prisoners as well.

Belarus has announced the finalists for its “Song for Eurovision”, the country’s national qualification round for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

Kiev - The new government of President Petro Poroshenko has proposed the creation of safety corridors that would allow eastern Ukrainian people to vote with their feet, creating the biggest exodus in eastern Europe since World War 2.

Astana - On Thursday (May 29) Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia agreed to form an Eurasian Economic Union The agreement will come into effect in January of 2015.

Hockey Canada named Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett as the coach of Team Canada for the 2014 IIHF World Hockey championships to take place in Minsk, Belarus on May 9-25. They made the announcement on Wednesday.

Stockholm - A former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West is failing to understand Putin’s world view and that the ambitions of Russia’s head of state extend far beyond Crimea.

Oslo - Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden are among a record 278 people nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Since July 2013, Belarus and China have started building a comprehensive strategic partnership, by signing multiple key agreements, which would lead to an anticipated 150 mutually beneficial investment projects until 2020.

Moscow - The new owners of the large Russian potash producer Uralkali are poised to resume cooperation as a cartel again with its former partner Belaruskali in Belarus. The cartel before its breakup controlled about 40 per cent of global potash exports.

Moscow - Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group has reportedly reached an agreement with Suleyman Kerimov and his partners to buy their 33 percent stake in the Russian potash producer Uralkali.

Minsk - After the breakup of a potash cartel formed from Russian and Belarusian potash producers, Belarus arrested the CEO of the huge Russian potash producer Uralkali. Now they have detained a major shareholder of the company.

Beavers were once being hunted by humans, now it seems the tables have turned. No one in Belarus has been killed by a beaver before, until now.

Truckee - Led by Peja of the Polish rap group Slums Attack, Europe's rappers recorded a multilingual tribute to political and cultural freedom message of the American-funded station Radio Free Europe.

A dog from Budochka, a small village located in Belarus, inherited almost a million dollars from a citizen of the United States who is of Belarusian origin.

Maksim Bakiyev, the son of ousted Kyrgyz President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was sentenced to 25 years in absentia for signing agreements that prejudiced the country’s interests, by losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mogilev - A cat managed to sneak into someone's car in Mogilev, Belarus and apparently spent four days locked in there, until rescued by the powers of a Russian social network.

The 30th EU-Russia Summit held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday led to little consensus on key bilateral issues discussed, such as energy, trade and visa-free travel.

Minsk - President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, dubbed Europe's last dictator, has issued a presidential decree that proposes forbidding workers from quitting their jobs and threatens those that leave with compulsory labour.

The European Union has awarded this year's Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought to two Iranian dissidents, a lawyer and a filmmaker. The lawyer, Sasrin Sotoudeh is in prison, and the filmmaker, Jafar Panahi is under house arrest.

In early October 2011, then Prime Minister Putin revealed Russia’s intention to create Eurasian Union, a new inter-governmental economic and political organization, based on the European Union (EU) integration model.