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YURAS KARMANAU

Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The top opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential election, who initially refused to concede defeat amid a massive police crackdown on anti-government protesters, said she had left for Lithuania and called on her supporters to stop demonstrating.

Looking haggard and distressed, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, 37, a former English teacher who entered the race after her husband's jailing in Belarus, apologized to her backers in a video statement and said it was her own choice to leave the country.

"It was a very hard decision to make," Tsi...