Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List

According to media reports, the Lukashenko regime is pushing immigrants and refugees to destabilise Germany

"But the circle was closing in on me and my friends," Belkevich tells BIRN. "The KGB started coming to our houses to checkup on us. Then one day, I got a notification from the police telling me to show up at the station for interrogation that Friday. That's the moment I realised it was time to go."

A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed at least 13 people on Oct. 20 in the bloodiest such attack in years, the SANA state news agency reported.

"A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus" at a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of 13 dead and three wounded.

France's ambassador to Belarus has left the country after the authorities in Minsk demanded he leave by Oct. 18, the embassy said.

The spokeswoman who made the announcement did not say why the Belarusian authorities told him to leave.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reviewed powerful missiles developed to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland, as he vowed to build an "invincible" military to cope with what he called persistent U.S. hostility, state media reported on Oct. 12.

Nuclear-armed North Korea fired what appeared to be a short-range missile into the sea on Sept. 28, the South's military said, as Pyongyang's U.N. ambassador insisted it had an undeniable right to test its weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin where they discussed the political situation in Syria, international terrorism as well as issues of bilateral and humanitarian cooperation. The details about the meeting held on September 13 were published on the Russian leader's website on Tuesday.

Now, here on the Polish side of the border, they had no water and their phones had been broken - by the Belarusians, they claimed. And they were adamant that they do not want to go back to Belarus: all three had fresh bandages and Mohammed's head was bleeding.

With Poland, which already hosts a growing number of Belarusian exiles, immediately offering the 24-year-old sprinter a humanitarian visa, Timanovskaya took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo until a flight to Warsaw could be arranged. Contrary to expectations, she didn't fly directly to Warsaw, but took a detour to the Austrian capital Vienna instead.

Iran's new ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi said Tehran backs any diplomatic moves to lift U.S. sanctions but will not bow to pressure, as he took the oath of office on Aug. 5.

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