Vincuk Viacorka, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Party (RFE/RL) European politicians have gathered in Prague to demonstrate their support for members of the Belarusian opposition with less than a month to go before the presidential election on 19 March. The meeting comes at a time of rising tensions: A 'preemptive' security sweep in Belarus, ordered by President Lukashenka, has seen democracy activists arrested and opposition members' homes raided; and the meeting's host, the Czech Republic, has been accused of using its embassy in Minsk to spread antigovernmental and subversive material.
The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe talked to RFE/RL about how the international community can bring Minsk into the European fold, and the link between human rights abuses and terrorism.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka (file photo) (AFP) 23 February 2006 -- The Belarusian secret service, the KGB, has announced that on 21 February it arrested four leaders of a nongovernmental organization.
23 February 2003 -- European Union officials have denied that EU-funded news programs to be broadcast in Belarus ahead of next month's presidential election will be propaganda, arguing that the broadcasts are necessary because of the tight controls imposed on the media in Belarus.
Alyaksandr Kazulin, the leader of the Hramada Social Democratic Party (file photo) (epa) 23 February 2006 -- Belarus' Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakevich has threatened tough measures against a Belarusian newspaper that reprinted the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
22 February 2006 -- Ukraine today said it may seek international arbitration over a growing gas dispute with Turkmenistan.
MINSK, 22 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has condemned the decision of an independent Minsk publication to reprint controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The head of Ukraine's state oil and gas company, Oleksiy Ivchenko, has said Ukraine is prepared to turn to the Stockholm Arbitrage Chamber of Commerce in its dispute with Turkmenistan over gas deliveries.
Hundreds of people have been jailed over the Andijon unrest, many after closed trials (file photo) (RFE/RL) 21 February 2006 -- Ukraine today defended itself against criticism over its deportation last week of 10 Uzbeks allegedly involved in the Andijon uprising in Uzbekistan last year.
Gas relay station outside Kyiv (file photo) (epa) 21 February 2006 -- Ukraine has rejected recent Turkmen accusations that it owes Turkmenistan millions of dollars in gas debts.
An automotive plant in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod (file photo) (ITAR-TASS) With only 6 percent of the world's population, Eastern Europe and the CIS produce some 12 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. However, since the 1990s, the region's carbon emissions have decreased. According to a recent UN report, energy-efficiency investments in Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine have had a positive effect. But the report warns that more must be done to convince investors that energy-efficiency projects are a viable -- and profitable -- option.
(RFE/RL) 19 February 2006 -- Belarusian border guards today denied entry to a journalist for a leading Polish newspaper ahead of the country's presidential election next month.
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