EU Envoys Return After Housing Feud

Ambassadors from five European Union states returned to Belarus more than six months after quitting the former Soviet republic in a bizarre row with Belarussian authorities over housing. The envoys’ departure had left Belarus increasingly isolated from the West, where governments have criticized President Alexander G. Lukashenko’s record on human rights and democracy. The five EU ambassadors--from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Greece--and those of the U.S. and other nations quit Belarus in June after authorities abruptly barred access to an elite housing complex that foreign diplomats shared with Lukashenko. The U.S. says it needs legal guarantees for its ambassador’s residence before sending him back.