One of two men who allegedly carried out a subway bombing attack in Belarus that killed 15 people and wounded hundreds more has been executed, his mother said today.

Belarusian opposition politicians have made a remarkable plea for Britain to ratchet up pressure on the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko following a highly unusual meeting at the Foreign Office.

The Barcelona youngsters given a chance to shine in Tuesday's 4-0 Champions League Group H win over BATE Borisov turned in an "impeccable" performance, according to delighted coach Pep Guardiola.

Their trial for a subway bombing in Belarus raised as many questions as answers. But, amid claims of false confessions and to cries of disgust, two friends have been sentenced to death

A court in Belarus sentenced two men to death today for carrying out a bomb attack at a metro station in central Minsk which killed 15 people and wounded scores of others.

Victoria Azarenka, one of the serial grunters of women's tennis, said last night she would tell an opponent to "mind your own business" if anyone complained about the noise coming from her side of the net.

Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 11 prisoners who had been jailed for taking part in protests against his re-election last December.

Vigil held for ice hockey team wiped out in air crash

Outcry forces state-owned bank to sever Belarus ties

News that the Royal Bank of Scotland helped to raise bonds for Europe's last dictatorship earlier this year provides fresh, depressing confirmation of the curious ethics, or rather the lack of them, operating at the heart of what is in effect a state-owned bank. As this newspaper reports today, RBS has now agreed not to do any more deals aimed at alleviating the growing financial difficulties besetting the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. But this is cold comfort, as RBS has only budged in response to sustained pressure from human rights groups. In other words the bank appears to have been shamed into abandoning a policy it was otherwise content to continue with.

A man unfurls the Belarusian flag. He is bundled off by a gang of men in thick-soled boots. The same fate awaits a man who applauds, another who checks his watch, even a woman in the front row, just for watching.

Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek, who died on 21 July at the age of 96, was the former leader of the Catholic Church in Belarus who survived a Soviet death sentence and nearly a decade in the Gulag. Swiatek, who was born in October 1914, was sentenced to death for spying in 1939 by Soviet authorities, but he escaped when Nazi forces occupied the city of Brest.