European airlines direct planes away from Belarus

Pratasevich ran an app that was behind huge protests in Belarus

European airlines began skirting Belarus on Tuesday at the urging of the European Union, which also imposed new sanctions to punish the ex-Soviet nation's forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist.

EU leaders agreed Monday to ban Belarusian airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc, imposed sanctions on officials linked to Sunday's flight diversion, and urged the International Civil Aviation Organization to start an investigation into the episode some described as state terrorism or piracy.

Polish carrier LOT and Baltic airlines have begun bypassing Belarus. Air France, KLM, Finnair, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have all said they will also avoid flights over the country.

On Sunday, Belarusian flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania that there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through Belarus airspace and ordered it to land.

A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane in a brazen show of force by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over a quarter-century.

Belarus authorities then arrested 26-year-old journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

Pratasevich and ran a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organise protests against Lukashenko, has been charged in absentia with staging mass riots and fanning hatred.

Over 34,000 people have been arrested in Belarus since Lukashenko's reelection in August 2020.

Outrageous incident: Biden

US President Joe Biden has called the plane episode "a direct affront to international norms" and condemned the action as an "outrageous incident".Agencies

UK spy agency flouted right to privacy: court

England's spy agency GCHQ's tactics for mass interception of online communications violated the right to privacy and the regime for collection of data was unlawful, an European court of human rights has ruled. Described as a "landmark victory" by Liberty, one of the applicants, the court also concluded that the spy agency's regime for sharing sensitive digital intelligence with foreign governments was not illegal.

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