Today (28 May), Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told journalists that “to say from the start” that the landing in Minsk of a Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania on Sunday and the subsequent arrest of blogger Raman Pratasevich was a “forced landing, to condemn it and to impose sanctions without any investigation; this kind of behaviour is absolutely irresponsible.”
Estonia, France, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States released an united statement on Wednesday criticising the forced landing of the Ryanair flight and Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega’s incarceration by Belarusian authorities.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, has made significant strides since its tumultuous birth in 2002, but the economic impact of the plunder of resources of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule and the looting, pillage, and large-scale destruction of property during a 24-year Indonesian occupation can still be felt today.
From allowing captive-bred lion hunting to selling lion bones to East Asia for their alleged “medicinal” qualities, South Africa’s treatment of its big cats has long tarnished its reputation for conservation. However, the country is now ending all of that.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres meets with the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.
Despite college administrations’ warnings, anti-Gaza war protests on campuses are still going strong and new ones are being launched.
Police in the Philippines have arrested three men suspected in the killing of community radio broadcaster Juan Jumalon, who was gunned down while broadcasting live on Facebook.
It’s caterpillar fungus harvesting season in Tibet, and parents have staged protests urging Chinese authorities to let their children leave a residential boarding school to help collect the rare ingredient used in traditional medicine, two sources inside the region said.
In March 2015, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported that from October 2011 to September 2014, there were 226 deaths in detention facilities nationwide. The Ministry of Public Security explained them as being due to illness and suicide. Since then, no further reports have been issued.
Israel has proposed a cease-fire plan for Gaza, which Hamas says it is reviewing. This follows after an Egyptian delegation visited Israel, during which officials described a “new vision” for a prolonged end of hostilities.