A Belarusian “hit man” who served with the country’s special forces and is accused of the forced disappearance of three high-profile opposition figures will finally stand trial in Switzerland – 24 years after the three vanished. Yury Garavsky, 44, was arrested following a confession in which he said he was involved with a group linked to the kidnapping and presumed killings of adversaries of Belarus’s current president Alexander Lukashenko. In 2019, Garavsky gave testimony to German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle about his part in the 1999 killings of three of president Lukashenko’s political opponents. He was working for the interior ministry’s SOBR special forces unit then. He even claimed he was present during the executions of former interior minister Yury Zakharenko, opposition politician Viktor Gonchar and pro-opposition businessman Anatoly Krasovsky. Now a Swiss court will determine the veracity of his claims. Zakharenko had vanished in May 1999. In September that year, Gonchar and his friend Krasovsky were abducted. Families of the three have been waiting for the trial to start to begin. Garavsky, who sought asylum in Switzerland in 2018 after fleeing Belarus capital Minsk, pointed out in his interview earlier that his superior Dmitry Pavlichenko shot the three victims in the chest. Mr Pavlichenko, however, has denied the allegations. The BBC reported that daughters of the two abducted men, both of whom left Belarus shortly after their fathers’ kidnappings, are set to appear in court this week. Both said the trial in the city of St Gallen will provide them with some solace. Garavsky is facing trial in Switzerland, where he was arrested, due to the country’s adherence to a UN convention against forced disappearance. He had said during the 2019 interview with DW that the actual orders to abduct the politicians were not written. “There was never anything written or any video confirmation. Everything was ordered verbally – I guess based on the wishes of President Lukashenko.” “I feel repentant and guilty. I feel that if these people remained alive, things would be different in Belarus,” he said. “Their bodies have probably decomposed, but the bones should be there.” Read More Poland imposes EU ban on all Russian-registered passenger cars Kim Jong-un shown Russia’s nuclear capable bombers and hypersonic missiles Ukraine is the spotlight at UN leaders' gathering, but is there room for other global priorities? North Korean leader to visit Russia's Pacific fleet as he continues trip focused on arms cooperation Putin meets the leader of Belarus, who suggests joining Russia's move to boost ties with North Korea Lithuania to issue special passports to Belarus citizens staying legally in the Baltic country

Fans can't get enough of anything and everything as Taylor Swift attends the eagerly anticipated concert movie

Japan is leaving China behind as Asia’s two largest stock markets compete for investor capital, with the latter’s

The Senate passed a resolution affirming their support for Israel, its right to self-defense and condemning Hamas's attacks on civilians. The final vote count was 97-0.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africa’s state power utility, will cut 2,000 megawatts of power from 7 a.m.

It was in March when Tom Sandoval's affair with Raquel Leviss was revealed and that immediately ended his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix

Germany’s foreign minister has abandoned a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji after a problem with her government plane twice forced it to return to Abu Dhabi, delaying her by more than a day

By Nia Williams REVELSTOKE, British Columbia Canada is sending armed forces to tackle fast-spreading wildfires in British Columbia,

In the post shared on Sunday, Olivia Dunne can be seen hanging out with friends at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge

Poland will find ways to address disagreements with Ukraine without the recent differences impacting its military support, said Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. The two neighbouring nations have encountered friction in their ties after Poland – that has been one of Ukraine’s fiercest allies through the course of Russian invasion – decided to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports. Last week, Poland said it would only carry out previously agreed arms deliveries to Ukraine and choose to focus on rebuilding its own weapons arsenal. “I’m expecting and I’m confident that Ukraine and Poland will find a way to address those issues without that impacting in a negative way the military support to Ukraine,” Mr Stoltenberg said in an interview in Copenhagen on Friday. The announcement coincided with tensions peaking between the two neighbours after Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said some countries were “feigning solidarity by indirectly supporting Russia” with a ban on grain imports. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, a majority of Ukrainian grain ended up in Europe as the main Black Sea shipping lanes all but closed. Imports were then blocked by five countries to try and protect EU farmers amid fears the amount of grain would drive down local prices. Poland extended the ban after the European Union-brokered deal expired last week. On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky repeated his accusation on Eastern European nations backing Russia during his speech at the UN General Assembly. Poland then summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to its foreign ministry to protest Mr Zelensky’s comments. Hours later, Warsaw announced it would no longer be supplying weapons to Ukraine. “We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,” the prime minister said. Poland has previously sent 320 Soviet-era tanks and 14 MiG-29 fighter jets to the war-torn country. Mr Morawiecki also issued a warning to Kyiv, saying if they “escalate the conflict”, additional products will be added to the list of banned imports. “I am warning Ukraine’s authorities. Because if they are to escalate the conflict like that, we will add additional products to the ban on imports into Poland,” he said. “Ukrainian authorities do not understand the degree to which Poland’s farming industry has been destabilised. We are protecting Polish farmers.” Ukraine’s other ally Slovakia is also seeing discussions of halting support to Ukraine. The Nato nation has been a staunch ally of Kyiv and sent military equipment including MiG-29 fighter jets and an S-300 air defence system to its neighbour. But opposition leader and former prime minister Robert Fico has pledged to end that military support. Mr Fico is leading polls ahead of Saturday’s election. “Whatever new government they will have in Slovakia, we will continue to sit down at Nato meetings,” Mr Stoltenberg said, “and I’m confident that we’ll find ways to continue to provide support – as we have been after every election in this alliance since the war started”. Read More Plans for Poland's first nuclear power plant move ahead as US and Polish officials sign an agreement Why has Poland stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine? Zelensky accuses ‘some friends in Europe’ of playing into Russia’s hands Poland done sending arms to Ukraine, leader says, as trade dispute escalates

Updated charging documents say a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later arrested on accusations of killing him made changes to her husband’s life insurance years before he was fatally poisoned

'Sister Wives' star Christine Brown has not posted a picture with fiance David Woolley in three weeks