Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994 and has been dubbed “Europe’s last dictator”. A Belarusian human rights organization says seven of the candidates who ran against the country’s authoritarian leader face charges that could lead to 15 years in prison in the wake of post-election violence and massive arrests. Ales Belyatsky of the human rights center Vesna said the charges... 

The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas but includes Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim festivities. More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a “sought after” Christmas... 

Policemen arrest an activist from the Belarus youth organization Mlady Front (Young Front). Security forces in Belarus have detained over 600 people, including seven opposition candidates, after smashing a mass rally protesting fraud in the landslide re-election of president Alexander Lukashenko. Western governments have been quick to condemn the vote and the crackdown, with the United States saying... 

The operation was described as large-scale, pre-planned and intelligence-led Twelve men have been arrested during a major anti-terrorist operation, West Midlands Police said. The men – five from Cardiff, four from Stoke-on-Trent and three from London – were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK. The suspects, aged between 17... 

Belarusians cast their vote in Minsk on Sunday. The race will determine the political fate of Alexander Lukashenka. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, once called “the last dictator in Europe” by a U.S. official, easily won re-election in voting Sunday, according to exit polls reported by several media outlets. Meanwhile, opposition candidates were protesting in the capital city... 

The Israeli market for donor livers has been well-documented. Most international trafficking rings have involved wealthy Israeli patients on ‘transplant tours’. It is fitting that the man described as the “fixer” in Kosovo’s alleged organ ring was an Israeli of Turkish descent. Moshe Harel, a fugitive wanted by Interpol in connection with the case, is accused of matching... 

Where is this story in the international media? The combined naval might of twenty-seven countries is concentrated off the Somali coast allegedly to fight the poorly armed pirates who continue to act with apparent impunity. Or is there something far, far more serious? Once again the Wikileaks cables come into play. And what is revealed is terrifying. According to a report allegedly prepared by Admiral... 

Lady Gaga’s famous eccentricity took a less-than-festive turn last night when she tore the head off a stuffed Santa Claus at her O2 show.Halfway through her set, the singer, 24, made it plain that she loathes Christmas. She seized the Santa doll and told the audience: “I hate the holidays. I’m alone and miserable you f**king stuffed little toy”, This is London informs. Dressed... 

Christmas has been banned by the Red Cross from its 430 fund-raising shops. Staff have been ordered to take down decorations and to remove any other signs of the Christian festival because they could offend Moslems. The charity’s politically-correct move triggered an avalanche of criticism and mockery last night – from Christians and Moslems. Christine Banks, a volunteer at a Red Cross... 

Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday that Christians suffer more religious persecution than any other group, denouncing lack of freedom of worship as an “intolerable” threat to world security. The message reflected a pressing concern by Benedict in recent months for the plight of Christian minorities in parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. “Sadly, the year now ending has... 

WikiLeaks founder freed from custody, to keep spilling US secrets from English country mansion. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on bail Thursday — confined to a supporter’s 600-acre estate but free to get back to work spilling U.S. government secrets on his website as he fights Sweden’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation. The silver-haired Australian,... 

Europe’s willingness to take directions from other world powers is “pitiful” and “pathetic” China’s top man in Brussels has said. The remarks by Chinese ambassador Song Zhe come as a leaked US diplomatic cable revealed that Washington quickly swung into action earlier this year when the Spanish EU presidency suggested the Union should lift its arms embargo with... 

Stonehenge, England The oldest temple of the Sun has been discovered in northwest Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa, aged at more then 8000 years, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 15 2010. The Bulgarian ‘Stonehenge’ is hence about 3000 years older than its illustrious English counterpart. But unlike its more renowned English cousin, the Bulgarian sun temple was... 

Lutfi Dervishi (center) is also linked to the Kosovo Liberation Army's alleged kidnapping and killing of Serb civilians for their organs. A gang of Kosovan organ traffickers operated an elaborate international network that traded in the organs of people living in extreme poverty, a court heard. The men, including a former senior Kosovan Health Ministry official, promised poor people from Moldova,... 

The lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Osama Mustafa Hassan, a radical Islamist opposition figure better known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a street in Milan in 2003 in an operation coordinated by the CIA and the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI. An Italian court upped the sentences for 23 CIA agents convicted in absentia of abducting an Egyptian imam in...