VILNIUS (Reuters) - Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya celebrated her 38th birthday on Friday in exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, as Belarus geared up for a fifth weekend of mass protests since a disputed presidential election. An English teacher and political novice, she emerged as the consensus opposition candidate after better known figures, including her own jailed activist husband, were barred from standing. "You and I all understand that I would want to celebrate a birthday in Belarus, with my husband and my children. But our country is going through a rough patch right now," she told a crowd of few hundred Belarusians living in Lithuania. I was always afraid," Tskihanouskaya told the crowd of her time in Belarus.

Source: The Star September 11, 2020 20:48 UTC