BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada have joined forces to impose sanctions on several officials in Belarus over the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to Minsk last month. They also targeted officials and organizations over last year’s contested presidential elections and the security crackdown that followed. The EU has ramped up sanctions since President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term last August in elections it says were fraudulent. On Monday it imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 78 Belarus officials and 8 organizations. EU foreign ministers also worked on a raft of sanctions aimed at Belarus’s economy. The bloc’s leaders may endorse those on Thursday.
