Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of playing games with the West by drip-feeding releases of political prisoners ahead of an election on Sunday in which he is set to extend his 31-year rule.

Gradually, as expected, the world calms down. Of all the "terrible" decrees of Trump, almost nothing has happened so far, except for the US withdrawal from the WHO and the climate agreement, as well as the removal of rainbow flags from US embassies.

Pope Francis on Thursday urged political, economic and business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to keep close oversight of the development of artificial intelligence, warning the technology can exacerbate a growing "crisis of truth".

A close ally of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko has been nicknamed Europe’s last dictator, and has brutally cracked down on opposition figures and made the country a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Among the many dissident leaders now in exile is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose husband remains in prison in Belarus.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned another 15 prisoners shortly before the country's presidential election this weekend, state media reported on Friday. The state news agency BelTa reported that the released prisoners include eight who are serving sentences for extremism,

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election that is rejected by the opposition as a farce after years of sweeping repressions.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters ... democratic world you call elections has nothing in common with this event in Belarus. Because it's mostly like a ritual for dictators, when they are reappointing ...

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, 70-year-old Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is back on the ballot. When the election concludes on Sunday, he's all but certain to add a seventh term as the only leader most people in post-Soviet Belarus have ever known.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world’s biggest military alliance and could cost trillions of dollars to restore the organization's credibility.

NBC News’ Yasmin Vossoughian reports on questions surrounding the legitimacy of the Belarus presidential election as Lukashenko tightens his grip on power.

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, has been making signs of reaching out to the West. He is all but certain to win an election on Sunday.