Is Belarus up for grabs?

Posted By Joshua Keating Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 2:37 PM Share

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

Europe's last dictator™ Aleksandr Lukashenko has recently irritated his Moscow benefactors by declining to recognize the new pseudo-states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Looking to capitalize on this friction, the EU has lifted a travel ban on the fourteen-year dictator in the hopes of luring him away from Russian influence:

Officially, the move Monday was in response to the recent release of political prisoners by the Belarussian government. But diplomats in Brussels said they thought that the brief war between Georgia and Russia in August might have prompted alarm among Russia’s other neighbors, including Belarus, about their own independence.

I wouldn't hold my breath. Angry as Lukashenko may be at the Kremlin, he knows where the gas is coming from this winter.

EXPLORE:EASTERN EUROPE, RUSSIA

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NQUIXOTE

2:45 PM ET

October 14, 2008

How do you get that "TM"

How do you get that "TM" thing?

JGARZIK

3:20 PM ET

October 14, 2008

trade HTML character entity

Use the 'trade' HTML character entity: ™

Examples:
™ produces trademark™
® produces reg®
© produces copyright©

As an added bonus: — produces the extra-long dash.

Example:
Hans Blix — pardied wonderfully in Team America: World Police — is a diplomat.

JGARZIK

3:23 PM ET

October 14, 2008

parody

That should be "parodied".

FP — your web interface needs a spell checker. I seem to recall having one back in the 1980's on my first PC, so why not here? <grin>

BLAKE HOUNSHELL

3:43 PM ET

October 14, 2008

firefox does it automagically

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