Belarus police on Wednesday arrested more than 140 people across the country as demonstrators took to the streets to protest strongman Alexander Lukashenko's secretive presidential inauguration, a rights group said. The Viasna rights group released the names of more than 140 people it said were arrested in the capital Minsk, the southwestern city of Brest and elsewhere. Police used water cannon and tear gas in Minsk to break up the rallies. On Wednesday evening, protests broke out in Minsk and a number of other cities as several thousand demonstrators took to the streets to protest Lukashenko's secretive presidential inauguration earlier in the day. Several European countries including Germany and the United States responded to Lukashenko's inauguration by refusing to recognise him as the president of the ex-Soviet state. Since a disputed election on August 9, riot police have detained thousands of protesters, many of whom have reported torture and abuse in custody. tk-as/adp