hello and welcome. the eu and the us have strongly condemned belarus for forcing a plane to land and then arresting an opposition activist. the ryanair flight was diverted to minsk and roman protosevich was then detained by the authorities. the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen said: the outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in belarus will have consequences. those responsible for the #ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned. journalist roman protasevich must be released immediately. here s our diplo corrjames landale. here s our diplomatic correspondent james landale. this is not where flight fr4978 was supposed to be, on the ground at minsk airport. the ryanair flight with about 170 people on board left athens this morning bound for vilnius. butjust before the aircraft entered lithuanian airspace, it suddenly headed east. according to ryanair, the crew were warned of a potential security threat and ordered to land at minsk. for good measure,
opening up in northern ireland indoor attractions are back in business, and people are allowed to eat inside cafes and restaurants again. and, into the record books jubilation as phil mickelson becomes the oldest man to win one of golf s major titles. and coming up on the bbc news channel: hal robson kanu, one of the stars for wales at euro 2016 looks set to miss out on selection for this summer s european championship. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. there s been widespread international condemnation of the government of belarus after it forced a ryanair passenger plane, which was flying from athens to vilnius, to divert to minsk. the belarus authorities then arrested an opposition activist who was on board, the journalist roman protasevich. here, the foreign secretary dominic raab said president alexander lukashenko must be held responsible for his outlandish actions. the us state department called it a shocking act, and eu leaders are due to meet
belarus insists its action fully met international laws. the us secretary of state antony blinken is on his way to the middle east to try and consolidate a ceasefire between hamas and israel. and scientists are using dogs to detect a covid. the dogs are able to sniff the odour respect people with a virus with 94% accuracy. the fallout continues from belarus hijacking a passenger plane and forcing it to land, so they could seize an opposition figure on board. this is in brussels, where eu leaders are meeting now to decide what action to take. we ll be live in brussels shortly with our correspondent nick beake, to find out what sanctions against belarus and its leaders, are being discussed there. but first let s let s recap what happened, and look at the incident, from the start. this the aircraft ryanair plane fr4978. it took off from athens on sunday to the lithuanian capital, vilnius following this route. and just as it was beginning its descent and was about to leave