Moamalat Financial Services and AFS partner to develop Libya’s payment ecosystemBy Leandra MonteiroToday AfsArab Financial ServicesDigital Payments ShareArab Financial Services (AFS) and Moamalat Financial Services Co. have announced the signing of an MoU to enter a strategic partnership for the development of Libya’s electronic payment ecosystem. AFS will use its expertise and experience in digital payments to advance the existing systems and provide consultancy, training, and knowledge transfer. Through this MoU, AFS is committed to building the capacity of the payments sector in Libya in collaboration with Moamalat, with the objective of enhancing and empowering the Libyan payments ecosystem. Samer Soliman, Chief Executive Officer at AFS said, “We are delighted to partner with Moamalat to extend our experience and payments expertise to the Libyan market. We believe that this partnership will accelerate the development of digital payments products, services, and solutions in Libya, and we look forward to working with Moamalat to achieve our shared objectives.

The unprecedented mutiny by Wagner, comprising over 25,000 soldiers loyal to Prigozhin, rattled the Kremlin and made Putin look vulnerable. But the uprising unraveled within 24 hours, following a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The brief revolt has turned out to be a public relations disaster for the Kremlin, threatening both national stability and the war effort. It has exposed the failures of the Russian military in the ongoing war. Also Read Editorial: Beijing does it again

A Door Left Open to Hope and Death in LibyaHow do "international networks" bring African children to be trafficked and smuggled into Europe? It was carrying a number of migrants, including about 18 young Egyptians. Yet, the International Organization for Migration revealed the presence of more than 117,000 Egyptian migrants in Libya between December 2021 and January 2022. We have had enough sufferings in our country.”The tragedy of Haroun is similar to the stories of many Egyptian children and minors, but they are younger. Panic among the migrants’ families couldn’t hide the sense of guilt among some of them.

Today, Thursday, Tripoli-based Libyan Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba met with the new ambassador of Ukraine to Libya, Volodymyr Khomanets, in the Nasr Forest Halls Complex (former Rixos Complex) in the capital, Tripoli last Thursday. The two sides discussed the latest developments in the political situation in the two countries, ways to strengthen bilateral relations and prospects for their development. Aldabaiba urged the Ukrainian ambassador to continue coordination efforts with the aim of opening the Ukrainian embassy in Tripoli. He also discussed the issue of the Libyan Antonov cargo plane detained in Kiev, stressing the need to retrieve it as soon as possible. For his part, the Ukrainian ambassador conveyed to Aldabaiba the greetings of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, praising the depth of bilateral relations between the two countries.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's conservative New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed to speed up reforms following his landslide victory Sunday in the country's second election in five weeks that granted him a comfortable parliamentary majority to form a government for a second four-year term. Jubilant supporters gathered outside party headquarters in Athens, cheering, clapping, setting off fireworks and waving blue and white party flags. “With today's electoral result, Greece opens a new, historic chapter in its course,” Mitsotakis said in a televised statement. Mitsotakis’ party was projected to win 158 of Parliament’s 300 seats, thanks to a change in the electoral law that grants the winning party bonus seats. It would be up to the party members, he said, to decide on his fate, and the course the party itself must now take.

Spanish ambassador to Libya,Javier García-Larrache, said Sunday that a big number of Spanish companies came to Libya to discuss their return to work in the North African country. The Spanish ambassador told the Libyan Sada newspaper that the presence of the Spanish companies in Libya is a very positive step, as they hope that the Spanish companies will conclude joint contracts with the Libyan side.

On Wednesday, June 14, a fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy capsized off the Greek coast. A Google search for “migrant boat capsize 2023” yielded 3,180,000 results; a search for “submersible accident 2023” yielded 128,000,000 hits. This may seem surprising because, on the face of it, the migrant boat story is much bigger than the submersible story on every level. Moreover, the migrant boat story embodied pressing worldwide issues with broad implications—population migration is affecting millions around the world directly, and all of us indirectly. The faith of the submersible tourists poses much easier, technical ones, inherently concrete, definitive, and time-bounded.

Deputy Head of U.N. Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Raisedon Zenenga, received on Saturday representatives of the National Council for Libyan Women who shared their views on issues related to elections and the outcome of the 6+6 committee, “including the issue of women’s quotas and ensuring that women have decision making roles,” according to a statement by UNSMIL. During the meeting, Zenenga stressed that UNSMIL has been “advocating for the empowerment of women and the case for raising female representation in the upcoming elections.”The representatives asked for capacity building for women and young female decision makers and further asked UNSMIL to engage decision makers in Libya to expand political space for women.

MOSCOW: The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will leave Russia and won’t face charges after calling off his troops’ advance on Saturday, Moscow said, easing Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades. The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital. Within hours of Prigozhin’s about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute either him or the group’s members. Wagner troops cheeredBy early Sunday Wagner had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow.

Shiraz is all too familiar with how human smugglers operate in Pakistan. I told them to come legally, but they trusted the agents,” Shiraz, who hails from Gujrat, told Anadolu in a phone call. Social media ‘game’For something so illegal, human smugglers in Pakistan are operating quite openly, especially on social media. These groups are full of jargon such as “dunky,” a word derived from dinghy and used to refer to an illegal boat crossing. Butt, the HRCP official, said another visible change is the socio-economic status of the people trying to leave Pakistan illegally.

The shipwreck took place on Thursday and at least one newborn baby is among those missing, said UNHCR representative to Italy Chiara Cardoletti. The boat capsized in strong winds and high waves, he said. “We have noticed more arrivals of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa than Tunisians” via the Tunisian route since November, he said. “It is unacceptable to continue counting the dead at the gates of Europe”, Cardoletti wrote on Twitter, referring to deadly shipwrecks of migrant boats which have already occurred in Italy, Greece and Spain. Last year, more than 46,000 people arrived there, out of a total of 105,000 in Italy, according to the UNHCR.

The millionaire mercenary chief who long benefitted from the powerful patronage of President Vladimir Putin moved into the global spotlight with a dramatic rebellion against Russia's military that challenged the authority of Putin himself. He also organized catering for Kremlin events — earning him the nickname "Putin's chef" — and provided catering and utility services to the Russian military. As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia's military brass. In a video released by his team last month, he stood next to rows bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Prigozhin and associates in the alleged election interference and over his leadership of the Wagner Group.

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The head of Libya’s east-based administration threatened Saturday to block oil and gas exports from territory under its control, claiming the UN-recognised government in Tripoli was wasting energy revenues. Oussama Hamad also said in a statement that he had “frozen” 2022 oil revenues “equivalent to more than 130 billion dinars (around $27 billion)” as a first step. Hamad accused the government in Tripoli of wasting energy revenues by making “extravagant spending”, without elaborating. He also demanded a “fair distribution of oil revenues”. Libya sits atop Africa’s biggest oil reserves but has been engulfed by conflict since a NATO-backed revolt toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Representatives who participated in the meeting with the Prime Minister on Friday, told MaltaToday, Robert Abela showed little empathy for the NGO’s requests. The Prime Minister showed no indication he would address our concerns. The Prime Minister was the only one who spoke from his entourage. In the meeting, the Lands Authority was also criticised for issuing public land to private entities. Two examples were brought to Abela’s attention: public land awarded to Anton Camillieri’s company in St George’s Bay and public land given to GAP developers at Mellieha.