Alone in no man's land, one freed prisoner refused to leave Belarus

In the neutral zone on the border between Belarus and Lithuania, an elderly man maintained a lonely vigil on Thursday. Opposition politician Mikola Statkevich was the most prominent figure among 52 political prisoners freed earlier in the day by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at the request of US President Donald Trump. He was the only one who refused to cross the border into neighbouring Lithuania, where the released detainees were greeted later by US officials and Belarusian opposition leaders at the US embassy in Vilnius. It was unclear why Statkevich, 69, had refused to leave. The exiled opposition says freed political prisoners should have the right to stay in Belarus rather than submit to what it says are in effect...