Ireland And Portugal Seen As Minor Distractions As Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, And The Russian Federation Seek A 'Europe Whole and Free and at Peace'

Minsk, Belarus, Future European Union.

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MINSK, Belarus (Associated Press) — A presidential candidate arrested after Belarus' weekend election says the KGB tried to pressure him into renouncing his opposition to the country's authoritarian regime. …

Lukashenko, often called Europe's last dictator, has been in power more than 16 years. He exercises overwhelming control over politics, industry and media in this nation of 10 million bordering Poland and the Baltic nations. The repression has been an embarrassment to the European Union, which offered 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) [later raised to 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion)] in aid to Belarus if the elections were judged to be free and fair.

Photo credits: (c) Agence France Press 2010 and (c) Associated Press 2010.

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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

At 4:20 on Monday morning, special forces broke down the door of the offices of the Belarusian opposition website Charter 97.