U.S. finalizes Belarus air travel restrictions

The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday finalized an order banning ticket sales for air travel between the United States and Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist who was aboard.

The department on June 29 had issued a show cause order proposing the restrictions after the U.S. State Department had determined that limiting travel between the United States and Belarus was in Washington's foreign policy interest in light of the diversion of the Ryanair flight.