News Mash-up: Political Trouble

EU to sanction Belarus after plane diversion The European Union agreed May 24 to impose sanctions on Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc, amid fury over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist. Reacting to what EU leaders called a “hijacking” of the Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania on May 23, they also demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers warned the crew of a bomb threat and ordered the jet to land. (AP) Mali’s president, PM arrested by soldiers Mutinous soldiers on May 24 arrested Mali’s transitional president and prime minister, hours after a government reshuffle left out two members of the junta that had seized power in a coup nine months earlier, the African Union and United Nations said. President Bah N’Daw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were taken to the Kati military headquarters. The two leaders were sworn in last September after the ruling military junta agreed to hand over power to a civilian transitional government under growing international pressure. (AP) These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.