Christians in Europe have been urged to support human rights and religious freedom in Belarus, which is ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko, who some rights groups have described as one of the last hardline dictators in eastern Europe.

Peace and civil liberties campaigners have welcomed a legal victory by a group of UK anti-war demonstrators who have established that their rights to public protest were violated when police stopped them from attending a non-violent action against the Iraq war at an airbase.