News Mash-up: Political Trouble

EU agrees to step up sanctions on Belarus The European Union agreed Nov. 15 to step up sanctions against Belarus, which denounced as “absurd” Western accusations that it was driving a migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded in freezing forests on its borders with the EU. The Western bloc is seeking to stop what it says is a policy by Belarus to push migrants toward the borders in revenge for earlier sanctions over a crackdown on protests last year against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko’s contested reelection. (Reuters) US journalist jailed in Myanmar is freed American journalist Danny Fenster, who spent nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar and was sentenced Nov. 13 to 11 years of hard labor, was freed Nov. 15. Fenster was handed over to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate the release, and the two landed in Qatar. Fenster is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials or publishers who have been detained since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February. (AP) These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.