A leading opposition figure in Belarus has been detained by police, his wife said.

Leading figures in the European Olympic movement have said there is no proof of the “horrible accusations” against former Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey and have called for him to be allowed to return to Ireland.

Russia made it to Rio by the skin of its teeth and it may see Putin suspend his bid for military glory, writes Nina L Khrushcheva

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich has won the Nobel Prize in literature for works that the prize judges called “a monument to suffering and courage”.

The presidents of Russia and Ukraine have sat down for talks, meeting face-to-face for the first time since June on the fighting that has engulfed eastern Ukraine.

A protester arrested in Belarus for wearing a T-shirt criticising authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has been freed after five days in jail.

An experiment that proved people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive, and another that showed lost dung beetles can use the Milky Way to find their way home, were among the winners at this year’s Ig Nobel awards ceremony.

Parliamentary elections in Belarus have been condemned by neutral observers after a whitewash victory for president Alexander Lukashenko.

A Swedish ad team says it has been summoned by Belarus’ top security agency - the KGB – for violating the country’s air space when they dropped hundreds of teddy bears carrying messages promoting human rights onto the ex-Soviet state’s territory.

Two generals in Belarus have been sacked after their country was invaded by hundreds of teddy bears.

Belarus has asked European Union ambassadors to leave the country and recalled its own ambassadors in response to new EU sanctions.

Ukraine is becoming a dangerous mix of authoritarianism and corrupt capitalism, writes Tatiana Zhurzhenko

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev called on the world community to tighten safety rules at nuclear plants and tell the truth when there were accidents like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Two more people have been arrested over the deadly subway bombing in Belarus as fears grew among opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko that he is using it to strengthen his grip on power.

Intelligence forces in Belarus have said they now know who carried out the fatal metro attack which killed 12 people and wounded more than 200.

An explosion tore through a key subway station in the Belarusian capital of Minsk during evening rush hour today, with reports of seven fatalities.

Actors Jude Law and Kevin Spacey joined more than 100 protesters tonight calling for freedom of expression and an end to the dictatorship in Belarus.

In the biggest challenge to authoritarian Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko in 16 years in power, thousands of demonstrators massed outside the main government office to protest over alleged vote fraud in Sunday’s presidential election, but club-swinging riot police drove them off and beat many.

OFFICIALS in Kazakhstan yesterday said the deposed president of Kyrgyzstan has left their country, where he had sought refuge in the wake of the bloody uprising in his nation.

Officials in Kazakhstan today said the deposed president of Kyrgyzstan has left their country, where he had sought refuge in the wake of the bloody uprising in his nation.

No opposition candidate won a seat in the Belarus parliament with nearly all the districts counted, the head of the elections commission said early today.

Irish senator Deirdre de Burca is in Eastern Europe today to monitor parliamentary elections in Belarus.

A NUMBER of European Union countries have promised to help Ireland persuade Belarus to lift its ban on its children travelling outside the country.

More than 50 people were injured today when a bomb went off at an outdoor concert in the Belarus capital, Minsk. Officials blamed “hooligans”.

The Belarusian president said his country would pay a £230m (€341m) gas bill to Russia in the next few days, possibly with the help of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

US President George Bush used his State of the Union address to signal the US' continued support for “the cause of freedom” in Cuba, Myanmar and Belarus, countries the administration has labelled “outposts of tyranny”.

Russian oil began flowing again through a Belarusian pipeline, signalling an end to a dispute that caused relations between Minsk and Moscow to plummet and sent ripples of doubt across Europe.

Russia and Belarus today reached a compromise on their dispute that has halted oil flows along a key pipeline to Europe after telephone talks between the two countries’ presidents, the Belarusian presidency said.

A price increase for Russian natural gas will be painful, but manageable, a Belarusian official said today, while urging Moscow to scrap a new customs duty on oil exports to Belarus.

Senior Belarusian energy officials held talks in Moscow this evening to seek an agreement on a new supply contract for Russian natural gas, hoping to avert a threatened New Year’s Day cut-off that could affect European deliveries, officials said.

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.

More than 5,000 opposition protesters massed in the Belarusian capital Minsk today to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster despite police fencing off a downtown square where they had planned to rally.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed confidence yesterday that Moscow will not significantly raise the price his country pays for Russian gas, a defiant statement that followed warnings that the rate could skyrocket.

THE European Union told Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko yesterday that he was unwelcome in the 25-nation bloc after his re-election last month in a vote observers said was rigged.

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

European Union leaders today decided to personally punish Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko after an election widely seen as rigged – announcing “restrictions” against the authoritarian leader that would likely include a travel ban from Europe.

European Union leaders were expected to call for sanctions against Belarus political leaders at the end of their two-day summit talks today, adding that the recent presidential vote there was “fundamentally flawed”.

Final results from last weekend’s presidential election in Belarus confirm a landslide victory for incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, a top electoral official in the former Soviet republic said today.

The European Union today said it was consulting neighbouring countries before deciding on any sanctions on Belarussian officials following presidential elections in the ex-Soviet country, and would also talk to Russia.