Libya

TRIPOLI, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that more than 600 illegal immigrants were rescued off the Libyan coast and returned to Libya in the past week.

According to the IOM, 604 migrants were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22.

The IOM reported that 12 illegal immigrants died and 16 others went missing off the coast of Libya on the Central Mediterranean route in the past week.

TRIPOLI, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah stressed on Sunday his rejection of any armed conflict in the country.

Dbeibah made his remarks during a graduation ceremony of soldiers in the capital Tripoli, said a statement issued by the government's information office.

"The prime minister stressed the commitment of the Government of National Unity to achieve stability, defend the civilian nature of the country, and reject war," the statement said.

Flightradar yesterday reported that a US Lockheed C-130H (No. N3867X) aircraft had landed in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi and left an hour later.

The website added that the aircraft belonged to Benghazi's "Tepper Aviation Company", noting that it was coming from Malta.

The agency did not provide information about the purpose and mission of the flight, pointing out that Tepper Aviation was known to have links to the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

TRIPOLI, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Minister of Youth Fathallah Al-Zani on Tuesday signed an agreement on capacity building for youth with the Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports Mehmet Kasapoglu.

The agreement, which was signed in Istanbul, includes cooperation between the two ministries on a number of programs and projects for building youth capacity, the Libyan Youth Ministry said in a statement.

The agreement also includes holding Turkish-Libyan youth camps, workshops and conferences, the statement added.

TRIPOLI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Italian Ambassador to Libya Giuseppe Buccino on Monday stressed the importance of Libya's stability for the Mediterranean region.

"Libya's stability is crucial for the stability of the Mediterranean region," Buccino was quoted as saying by a statement released by Libya's Foreign Ministry.

The Italian diplomat made the remarks during a meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush here on Monday, according to the statement.

MISRATA, Libya, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Hundreds of bodies of Islamic State fighters killed in battle years ago are rotting in food freezers outside a Libyan city while authorities work out what to do with them, a grim reminder of the disarray a failed election was meant to address.

Stored in a dusty corner of a compound southeast of Misrata, the 742 bodies were gathered by the internationally recognised government in 2016 from battlefields and informal graves, but there was no agreement on how or where they should be buried.

TRIPOLI, Jan 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — United Nations envoy Stephanie Williams welcomed a meeting between military leaders from the Libyan interim government and the eastern-based army, reiterating UN’s support for a peaceful resolution to the country’s longstanding conflict.

The UN secretary-general’s special adviser for Libya made the remarks after Muhammad Al-Haddad, chief of staff of the Government of National Unity, and Abdel Razek Al-Nadori, acting general commander of the eastern-based Libyan National Army, met on Saturday in the northern coastal city of Sirte.

TRIPOLI, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A senior United Nations official on Thursday met with acting speaker of Libya's parliament Fouzi Al-Nuweiri here on holding broad consultations among relevant parties to bridge political divisions in the conflict-hit country.

"I reiterated the UN support for all Libyan-led efforts to overcome the persistent challenges facing the electoral process and mapping a path to free, fair and inclusive elections," said Stephanie Williams, U.N. special adviser on Libya.

TRIPOLI, Jan 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Libyan Attorney General’s office announced the detention of former Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Al-Saddiq Abdulkareem Kareem, pending an investigation into charges of financial corruption.

The office said in a statement that Kareem, who is also a presidential candidate, “signed contracts to provide needs that were of poor quality and with high prices, without the permission of the Audit Bureau.”

The contracts cost the country more than 1.257 billion Libyan dinars (273 million U.S. dollars).

TRIPOLI, Jan 5 (NNN-XINHUA) — The Libyan Presidential Council and the roadmap committee formed by the Libyan House of Representatives (parliament) agreed on the need for national reconciliation in the country.

“The meeting discussed national reconciliation as one of the main tasks of the Presidential Council and the basis of the Committee’s roadmap,” the House of Representatives said in a statement.

They agreed to continue communicating to reach consensus on realizing a comprehensive reconciliation, it added.