Negotiations on an Iran sanctions resolution were postponed unexpectedly early today as Russia exploded at the US for raising the plight of a Belarusian opposition leader in the United Nations Security Council.

Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich today received the EU’s top human rights award – the Sakharov Prize – in recognition of his fight for democracy in the ex-Soviet republic.

UKRAINIANS voted in a parliamentary election yesterday that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

The EU called on its European partners today to protest at Belarusian violence against demonstrators and the detention of opposition leader Alexander Kozulin.

Belarus’ main opposition candidate demanded a new vote today as President Alexander Lukashenko stormed to victory by a massive margin.