European leaders and the US have strongly condemned the arrest of a Belarusian dissident journalist after the Ryanair flight he was travelling on was forced to land in the Belarus capital Minsk. Roman Protasevich, 26, was arrested after his Ryanair flight from Athens was diverted from its scheduled destination of Vilnius in Lithuania on Sunday.
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Roman Protasevich was flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, when the aircraft was forced to land in Minsk, where he was arrested. Who is he? The 26-year-old journalist worked for Poland-based online news service NEXTA, which broadcast footage of protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last year. They used the Telegram messenger app to
A Ryanair flight has been diverted and forced to land in the Belarus capital Minsk so an opposition blogger could be arrested, it has been claimed. Roman Protasevich was flying from Athens on a commercial Ryanair flight bound for Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, when the aircraft was forced to change direction and land in Minsk. The
DR Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo has erupted for the first time in nearly two decades. Many thousands of people have fled the city of Goma, some heading for its highest point Mount Goma. Others headed for the nearby Rwandan border, with authorities there saying that around 3,000 people had already crossed over on Saturday night. Goma
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is continuing to hold, allowing the first aid convoys to reach Gaza. The truce, which began before dawn on Friday, is allowing both sides to assess the damage following 11 days of conflict in which Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes and militants fired thousands of rockets at Israel. Gaza
US President Joe Biden has said a two-state solution is the only answer to resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. Speaking at a White House news conference, Mr Biden said that he was praying that the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would hold. The US administration worked in the background, along
Israeli and Hamas have agreed a ceasefire to end their conflict after 11 days of fighting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the ceasefire and a statement from the security cabinet called the truce “mutual and unconditional”. Hamas said the truce would begin at 2am local time on Friday (midnight UK time), but Israel said
The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas overnight appeared to have been upheld by both sides in the first 12 hours. Eleven days of violence officially came to an end at 2am on Friday (12am UK time) after Egypt and the US helped broker a peace deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced it had
Aid continues to be blocked from entering Gaza because of security concerns, despite a desperate need for supplies with fuel due to run out on Friday. A senior UN official has told Sky News: “The UN has been ready to deliver aid for well over a week with fuel, medical supplies and food. We’ve been
US President Joe Biden has told Israel’s prime minister he expects to see a significant de-escalation in its conflict with Hamas today. In what will be seen as Biden’s toughest public pressure on the US ally so far, the White House said the president asked Mr Netanyahu in a telephone call to move toward “the
Ultranationalist Israelis are are trying to hide their activities by creating private online groups where members must prove who they are in order to gain access. One such group told its prospective members they were trying to block “police, Arabs and journalists” from tracking them. Sky News has been examining active Israeli ultranationalist social media
Eleven children having treatment to help them deal with trauma were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in recent days, according to an independent humanitarian organisation. They were among more than 60 youngsters who have died in the territory since the latest wave of attacks between Palestinian militants and Israel erupted on Monday last week.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas is showing few signs of slowing down following another night of bombardments. More strikes on Gaza have been reported this morning following with plumes of smoke rising from suspected Israeli missile strikes. And after more than a week of violence, the Israeli military said Hamas and other Palestinian groups
The view from the Qeeq family home is rubble. Next door is where the Hadidis once lived – a family now without a mother and four of her sons. The Qeeqs somehow survived. Three generations are holding together, just. Image: Susu says she felt ‘scared’ during the airstrikes Overhead, the dull buzz is the sound
Sustained Israeli military airstrikes have destroyed nine miles (14km) of militant tunnels along the Gaza Strip, and the homes of nine Hamas commanders, it has been claimed. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, the latest attacks killed a local Gaza leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, blamed for some of the thousands of rocket
Heavy bombing has continued in Gaza in the early hours of the morning as Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of airstrikes across several locations. Explosions rocked Gaza City for 10 minutes on Monday morning, lasting longer and targeting a wider area than the air raids that killed 42 Palestinians a day before. The violent assaults