Page 19 - Thomas Grove News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Provided by Dow Jones By Thomas Grove The European Union agreed on fresh sanctions against Belarus, promising to bar the country s airline Belavia from its airspace, after the country diverted a Ryanair flight to its capital of Minsk to detain an opposition journalist and activist on May 23. The move shows Belarus, which has started a crackdown against the opposition at home, is willing to track exiled activists down as well. What happened and why did Belarus divert a Ryanair flight? While flying over Belarusian airspace, pilots on Ryanair Flight 4978 received a warning from air-traffic controllers that there was a potential security threat on board, and a MiG-29 was sent to escort the Boeing 737-800 to the Belarusian capital. Minutes before the plane was meant to cross into Lithuanian airspace, the plane made a sharp right and landed at the Minsk airport.

Belarus generalUnited kingdomUnited statesMichael olearyAntony blinkenDominic raabRoman protasevichAlexander lukashenkoEuropean councilWizz air holdingsRyanair holdingsBelarus transport ministryEuropean unionDow jones company incBaltic corpThomas grove