Belarus Journalist Arrested after Flight Diverted to Minsk
Voice of America
A Belarusian journalist wanted by the government of Alexander Lukashenko was arrested after the plane he was traveling on made an unscheduled landing in Minsk on May 23 after what appears to have been a false bomb threat.
Raman Pratasevich was taken away by police shortly after the Ryanair flight, which was on a scheduled route from Athens to Vilnius, landed in the Belarusian capital. No bomb was found, according to Belarussian media reports. No further details were immediately available. It was unclear who had reported the bomb threat. The headquarters of Belarusian opposition leader Svaitlana Tsikhanouskaya reported that the Ryanair flight crew received a message about a bomb on board the plane and that a MiG-29 military fighter was dispatched to escort the passenger jet to the airport in Minsk.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.