• Belarus: President Lukashenko visits Pope after EU travel ban lifted
• President of Belarus invites the Pope to visit
• Biogas comes to Belarus

• US blocks assets of Belarus President
• A second Belarus opposition leader jailed
• Belarusian opposition leader jailed

---

Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Belarus: President Lukashenko visits Pope after EU travel ban lifted
27 April 2009 - Belarus' President Lukashenko met with the Pope Monday on his first trip to Western Europe since the European Union lifted a travel ban imposed a decade ago over his human rights record. The Vatican said talks were conducted in a 'positive' climate. The EU lifted the ban to allow Lukashenko to attend an East-West summit in Prague, Czech Republic, in May. The summit is to launch an EU programme of trade and aid benefits for Belarus and five other former Soviet republics. (more)

President of Belarus invites the Pope to visit
22 June 2008 - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko invited Pope Benedict XVI to the mostly Orthodox former Soviet republic, the Presidential press service said in a statement Friday. A trip to Belarus by Pope Benedict could move the Vatican and Russian Orthodox Church one step closer to a meeting -- and the ultimate goal of healing the nearly 1,000-year schism between the two main branches of Christianity. (more)

Biogas comes to Belarus
30 November 2007 - German engineering company Biogas Nord said on Friday it will open two biogas plants in Belarus over the next few weeks, providing the ex-Soviet state with a popular source of environmentally friendly energy. (more)

---

Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

US blocks assets of Belarus President
20 June 2006 - The Bush administration moved to clamp down financially on Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko as well as other government officials. (more)

A second Belarus opposition leader jailed
29 April 2006 - Belarusian authorities kept up their pressure on government adversaries, sentencing a youth movement leader to 15 days in jail a day after opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich and three of his deputies were handed similar sentences. (more)

Belarusian opposition leader jailed
28 April 2006 - Belarus' authoritarian government jailed the country's most prominent opposition leader Thursday after a protest rally that attracted thousands, a move that drew swift international condemnation. (more)

Riot police charge demonstrators in Belarus to prevent protest
27 March 2006 - Rows of riot police blocked a central square Saturday, pushing crowds back in a show of force meant to prevent a planned protest against President Alexander Lukashenko, but thousands of demonstrators defiantly gathered in a park nearby. The demonstrators protested what they called a sham election. (more)

Protesters defy Belarus police blockade
25 March 2006 - Thousands of Belarusians defied a massive show of force by the hard-line government today, protesting in streets swarming with riot police and gathering peacefully in a park to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko after a disputed election returned him to power. Opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich said. `The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end.' (more)

Belarus police arrest 200 at election protest
24 March 2006 - Police stormed the opposition tent camp in the Belarusian capital of Minsk early today, detaining scores of demonstrators who had spent a fourth night in a central square to protest President Alexander Lukashenko's victory in a disputed election. (more)

Incumbent declared winner of Belarus vote: Thousands protest
20 March 2006 - In the former Soviet republic of Belarus, thousands of protesters thronged the main square of the Belarusian capital, in defiance of a government ban, refusing to recognize a presidential vote that gave a landslide victory to the incumbent, President Alexander Lukashenko. (more)

Belarus arrests heads of Polish group
2 August 2005 - Last week Poland recalled its ambassador to Belarus, and yesterday Belarusian police arrested two leaders of a Polish cultural group. Belarusian authorities are worried that the ethnic Polish minority, about 5 per cent of the population, is trying to foment revolution ahead of elections next year. In the past two months, Belarus has closed 80 per cent of the offices of three major parties, jailed activists, and levied massive fines against the few remaining independent newspapers. (more)

Criminal inquiry in Belarus after mass opposition rally
26 March 2005 - Prosecutors opened a criminal case Saturday against protesters arrested in a rally demanding the ouster of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Andrei Klimov, an opposition leader who organized the protests, said the Minsk regime's crackdown on political opponents showed that it feared it would follow Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Ukraine in losing leadership to popular protests. (more)

Belarus nabs six on gem smuggling charges
8 February 2005 - Six Russians, including a high-ranking law enforcement officer, were arrested on charges of smuggling and illegally trading gems, a state security agency spokesman said Tuesday. (more)