Israeli president apparently one of few Western leaders to send letter to Lukashenko, who ordered major crackdown after election seen as rigged, arrested dissident journalist

EU, US, UK and Canada also target Belarusian revenue sources in response to forcible diversion of international flight to Minsk to detain opposition activist on board

Human rights group says at least 460 political prisoners are being held in penitentiaries on criminal charges related to protests against authoritarian President Lukashenko

Government critic Raman Pratasevich, who faces 15 years in jail, arrested and detained when plane lands, sparking international outrage

Belarus orders Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to divert to Minsk, claiming bomb threat; Raman Pratasevich, who faces 15 years in jail, was detained when it landed

Holocaust awareness organization raises money to pay for renovated apartments for Righteous Among the Nations living in abject poverty

Swastika and SS bolts daubed on house of worship in city of Gomel; police have no suspects in rare incident

City of Vitebsk offers dilapidated building used by painter and his family for a nominal fee, but new owners will need to preserve its walls and restore architecture

87-year-old Elizaveta Yakovlevna Bursova, who survived WWII hiding in the Urals and later became a sharpshooter for her country's military: 'This symbol unites our whole society'

Shmuel Yefimovich Plavnik, better known by his pen name Zmitrok Byaduli, died in Khazakstan in 1941; his remains were repatriated to Belarus 79 years later