Belarusian authorities on Friday announced the closure of 15 nongovernmental organizations, part of a sweeping crackdown on civil society activists and independent media. The groups ordered to close include the Human Constanta human rights center, the Names charity organization, BelSetka Anti-AIDS group and an organization assisting disabled people. The groups' closure comes a day after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to continue what he called a “ mopping-up operation ” again

9, 2020, presidential vote that the opposition denounced as rigged.... Officials later acknowledged that Taraikovsky might have been killed by a rubber bullet.... “ It was a premeditated murder, but they don't want to recognize it, ” Taraikovsky's partner, Elena German, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Minsk Belarus' capital....