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In brief: Lukashenko declared winner; election protesters detained

Relatives of people detained in Sunday’s Belarus opposition protest read information outside the prison walls in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

Minsk, Belarus – The authoritarian leader of Belarus was declared Friday the winner of an election condemned by international monitors and his challengers, as police rounded up carol-singing protesters near the prison where most of the challengers are held.

The Central Election Commission said President Alexander Lukashenko won 79.6 percent of Sunday’s vote. His nearest challenger, Andrei Sannikov, got 2.4 percent – and was beaten and jailed after the vote along with six other presidential hopefuls and hundreds of protesters.

Club-wielding riot police dispersed and beat 10,000 demonstrators protesting voting fraud Sunday.

Representatives of the opposition candidates rejected the official results. Sannikov’s representative, Yuri Khadyko, urged the election agency to void the vote because of fraud and call a new one, but the commission ignored the demand.

Sannikov and his wife, a prominent journalist, are still jailed.

Late Friday, a dozen protesters sang carols and lit candles in front of the prison in central Minsk where most of the jailed candidates and activists are being held. Within minutes, riot police detained the protesters, forcing them into police trucks.

Mass grave suspected at site guarded by masked gunmen

Abidjan, Ivory Coast – Masked gunmen with rocket launchers are blocking access to what officials believe may be a mass grave site in Ivory Coast, the United Nations said, as concerns grow that the West African nation that suffered a 2002-2003 civil war could return to conflict.

The U.N. reported that heavily armed forces allied with Laurent Gbagbo and joined by masked men, were preventing people from getting to the village of N’Dotre, where the global body said “allegations point to the existence of a mass grave.”

The U.N. did not elaborate on the possible victims, though it has expressed concerns about hundreds of arrests, and dozens of cases of torture and disappearance during the political turmoil since the presidential runoff vote was held nearly a month ago.