Minsk demonstrators held after major protest

RIOT police in Belarus cracked down on a protest rally against president Alexander Lukashenko in the capital, Minsk, last night, detaining scores of demonstrators.

A reporter at the scene in the city centre said Belarussian special forces had rounded up several dozen people and put them into police buses.

Rallies against Lukashenko's rule are rare in the tightly-policed ex-Soviet republic, but protest calls on social networking sites have multiplied in recent weeks as a severe currency crisis has brought economic hardship.

Police sealed off entry to the city's October Square near the main presidential headquarters, as they did a week ago.

When up to 1,000 people gathered on the main thoroughfare, squads of special forces moved in and hustled people into police buses.