"Lukashenko uses tortures,” accuses Gazeta Wyborcza, citing testimony of one of the opposition’s presidential candidates, Ales Mikhalevich, detained after an anti-regime demonstration in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The 20,000 strong protest against the rigged elections of 19 December which, according to official figures, Mr Lukashenko won with 80-percent support, was subject to a brutal police crackdown and over 800 arrests, including Mikhalevich. “My hands were handcuffed at the back, twisted upwards so hard my bones creaked. I was deprived of sleep, forced to stand naked with my legs spread. They demanded a pledge that I’d do everything the KGB [security service] would tell me, finally I agreed,” says Mikhalevich, released from prison on 19 February. With 30 other opposition activists, he is now awaiting trial for “organising and participating in mass riots,” a crime that carries a penalty of up to 15 years’ imprisonment. Faced with a new wave of reprisals against the democratic opposition in Belarus, the EU on January 31 restored visa sanctions against 158 officials of the Minsk regime and froze their assets.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.