The European Union is set to ban new loans to Belarus after reaching a deal on Friday for economic sanctions on Minsk as punishment for forcing down a flight to arrest a journalist, the Austrian foreign ministry and three diplomats said. Broad economic sanctions would be the EU’s strongest response …
Read More »NATO restricts Belarusian access to HQ
Personnel at Belarus’ diplomatic mission to NATO will have their access restricted at the alliance’s headquarters, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, following the forced landing of a passenger plane by Minsk. Belarus is not a member of NATO but has had ties with the military alliance since 1992 following …
Read More »Belarus: Airlines avoid airspace; fears over ‘forced’ confession
Pressure mounts on Minsk as more carriers suspend flights while the journalist’s father says Protasevich has likely been beaten. More air carriers have suspended flights over Belarusian airspace in response to Minsk’s forced plane diversion, as fears grew for the journalist on board who was arrested after landing in the …
Read More »Europeans threaten to restrict air traffic over Belarus after ‘state piracy’
Several airlines said on Monday they would avoid Belarusian air space after Belarus scrambled a warplane to intercept a Ryanair jetliner and arrest a dissident journalist in an act denounced by Western powers as “state piracy”. The European Union was considering responding to Sunday’s incident by limiting international air traffic …
Read More »Belarus scrambles jet to force plane to land and arrests opponent, sparking fury
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair flight headed for Lithuania and carrying a young opposition blogger to land in Belarus on Sunday and detained him on arrival, prompting Lithuania to call for a NATO response. Law enforcers detained activist Roman Protasevich, 26, who had been put on a wanted …
Read More »Ryanair flight lands in Oslo after bomb threat
A Ryanair passenger plane landed in Oslo on Friday after receiving a bomb threat while in the air, Norwegian police said, adding that the situation was still ongoing. A large police presence awaited the aircraft as it touched down at the Gardemoen airport about 50 kilometers northeast of the Norwegian …
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