Fresh Belarus sanctions

The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada have slapped new sanctions on dozens of officials, organisations and companies in Belarus, with the EU taking aim at those accused of participating in a ‘‘hybrid attack’’ on the bloc using migrants. The three countries and the 27-nation EU have targeted Belarus since President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term last year in an election that the West and other observers say was fraudulent, and over a security crackdown on peaceful protestors that followed. At least 8000 migrants, many of them Iraqis, have entered the EU without authorisation this year from Belarus. Lithuania and Poland declared states of emergency at their borders to stop them crossing. Several migrants died while trapped in the Poland-Belarus border zone in sub-zero temperatures.