Belarus strongman faces mass protests after jailing of his main rivals

(CNN)Mass protests are spreading across Belarus as opposition to the reelection campaign of President Alexander Lukashenko grows, local media and human-rights organizations have reported. Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet republic of more than 9 million people since 1994 and is running for the sixth time in an election scheduled for August 9. He has long drawn international criticism for suppressing dissent, and the country's secret police -- still known as the KGB -- often detain and harass opposition activists and independent journalists. Demonstrations on Friday, in which thousands marched on the streets of 10 cities, were prompted by a series of arrests, in what the opposition...