EU set to hit Belarus with new sanctions

The European Union will look at hitting Belarus's big potash exports as well as its oil and financial sectors with new sanctions, as punishment for forcing down a Ryanair flight to arrest a journalist, foreign ministers from the bloc said. 

European leaders have described Sunday's incident as state piracy. Foreign ministers gathering in the Portuguese capital Lisbon yesterday said they were looking at hitting sectors that play a central role in the Belarus economy, to inflict real punishment on President Alexander Lukashenko. Europe has already barred its air space to Belarus.