Serbia activates temporary visa exemption for Egyptian tourists
CAIRO – 1 August 2022: The Serbian embassy in Cairo announced that the agreement on exempting Egyptian tourists from visa had gone into effect on July 30 and that it would last until September 30. However, it is limited to Egyptian tourists travelling in groups, and having a clear itinerary reserved by a travel agency. For his part, Sisi, who was visiting Belgrade for the first time, welcomed cooperation in the fields of the military, economic, trade, and tourism. A joint committee that studies opportunities for economic and scientific cooperation, as well as trading agricultural goods and IT expertise. He also praised buildings communication bridges between African and Arab states on the one hand and European states on the other.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 13:23 UTC
Fuel tanker catches fire in Libya; 5 dead, 50 injured
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article ShareCAIRO — A fuel tanker truck caught fire and exploded Monday in central Libya, killing at least five people and injuring 50 others, authorities said. The incident took place in the central town of Bent Bayya, according to the Health Ministry in the capital of Tripoli. The state-run Libyan News agency said the tanker truck overturned before catching fire and exploding. The state-run medical center in the nearby city of Sabha received at least 50 injured people, Halima al-Mahri, a spokeswoman for the center. She urged authorities to help evacuate the injured to the capital of Tripoli for treatment.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 11:54 UTC
Five killed, 50 injured after diesel truck catches fire in southern Libya
TRIPOLI : At least five people were killed and 50 injured late on Sunday when a fire broke out in a truck transporting diesel fuel to a town in southern Libya, medical and security sources told Reuters. The three medical sources said five bodies were found burned either inside or near vehicles, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as there were serious cases among the injured. "The truck was involved in a traffic accident and overturned," the security source said. The source said that after the truck overturned but before it set on fire some people from other cars had approached it to try and take fuel from the truck's tank. In many cities citizens have to wait in long queues, sometimes for hours, to refuel their vehicles.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 11:44 UTC
As she bids farewell, Williams urges elections within “firm constitutional framework”
The Special Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General on Libya, Stephanie Williams, has appealed to the country’s rivals to agree to hold elections “within a firm constitutional framework”. As her tenure comes to an end, Williams released her last statement as U.N. Advisor on Libya in which she affirmed that her “top priority” was to “listen to the millions of Libyans who registered to vote to go to the ballot box to restore the legitimacy of the country’s institutions via national elections.”“I believe it is only with the establishment of a consensual constitutional framework which sets the milestones, the contract between the governed and those who govern them, and the guardrails for the end of the transitional period through national elections that the current political stalemate and recurrent executive crisis can be overcome,” she said. “I have endeavored to reach out to the broadest possible spectrum of interlocutors and representatives of Libya’s political, security and social domains to listen and understand their concerns, their vision for the future of their country and their ideas and suggestions to help Libya end the long period of transition that has beset the country since 2011,” explained the U.S. native. “I appreciate the commitment of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, with whom I have had the pleasure to work for over two years, to maintain the October 2020 ceasefire agreement and to press ahead with plans to unify the military institutions and to arrange the departure of mercenaries and foreign forces who violate Libyan sovereignty,” she added. Nevertheless, the U.N. diplomat said that she remains concerned about several issues in Libya, including “efforts to politicize the National Oil Corporation (NOC)” and “many women who have been attacked, abused, illegally detained, disappeared and perished for their political ideas.”
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 10:55 UTC
5 dead and dozens injured in a fuel tanker explosion in Libya
Libyan medical sources reported that five people were killed and dozens injured as a result of the explosion of a fuel tanker in the municipality of “Bint Baya” in the city of Sabha, the capital of southern Libya, at dawn today, Monday. According to a press statement by the spokesman for the ambulance and emergency services, Osama Ali, a fire broke out as a result of a fuel tanker explosion, revealing the death of five people and the injury of about 35 people with varying burns. For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Tripoli, Amin Al-Hashemi, said in a press statement that most of the burn cases are critical, and some of them will be transferred to Tripoli for treatment. In the same regard, Osama Ali confirmed that the ambulance branches in the south are heading to Sabha Hospital to transfer a number of cases to the Burns Hospital in Tripoli.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 08:58 UTC
Libya's NOC says oil output hits 1.2 million b/d after lifting of force majeure
Libya's crude production has returned to 1.2 million b/d after the lifting of force majeure on oil fields and exports on July 15, state-owned National Oil Corp. said July 31, even as the OPEC member still grapples with political mayhem and armed clashes among rival factions. Libya's oil sector has been severely impacted by ongoing political turmoil, with various groups seeking control of NOC and its revenue. Crude production reached a two-year low of 650,000 b/d in June, according to the latest Platts survey of OPEC+ output by S&P Global Commodity Insights, against a capacity of 1.2 million b/d. The return of production to 1.2 million b/d comes amid armed clashes in Tripoli and other cities as the country grapples with having two governments. Given this current political mayhem and clashes in Libya, Platts Analytics forecast that oil production will reach 900,000 b/d in August and 1 million b/d in September.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 06:04 UTC
Libya oil production returns to pre-blockade levels, says official
Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Aoun told AFP that he 'confirms' production has returned to that level. — Reuters picTRIPOLI, Aug 1 — Libya’s oil production has returned to the volume recorded before a months-long blockade that paralysed the economy, official sources said yesterday. “We are happy to announce that our production rates have reached the pre-force majeure levels” of 1.2 million barrels per day, Libya’s National Oil Corporation said on Twitter. Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Aoun told AFP that he “confirms” production has returned to that level. Oil production fell to around 400,000 barrels of crude per day during the mid-April to mid-July blockade.
Source:Libya Today
August 01, 2022 01:49 UTC
In Libyan Town Searching for Justice, a Struggle Even to Find Graves
The shambles has also made justice elusive in Tarhuna, where leaders on both sides of Libya’s divide are implicated in the Kanis’ rise. “They don’t even see Libya.”The brothers left behind graves that hold hundreds of bodies, according to a United Nations panel that recently identified several new burial sites in Tarhuna. Libyan investigators said they had found nearly 250 bodies so far, and identified about 60 percent. Ms. el-Hebshi, the retired nursing school head, said her eldest son was kidnapped in 2011 for supporting the anti-Qaddafi rebels. No bodies were ever found, and she continues to hope against hope, she said, that they will turn up alive in some distant prison.
Source:Libya Today
July 31, 2022 19:35 UTC
With no accountability of her own, Williams accuses Libyan political class of corruption
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Libya, Stephanie Williams, has accused the country’s politicians of being a corrupt class who rather stay in power than leading Libya toward elections. “The current political class wants to keep transitional governments ongoing,” she said, adding that same class have “hijacked the political future of Libya.”The Libyan elections, originally scheduled for December last year, collapsed after the Government of National Unity, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, failed to organize the vote. Furthermore, Dbeibeh himself violated a pledge not to run for president which he made after being picked for premiership by the U.N.-backed Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. However, Williams notably did not take any responsibility for the failure of elections, which comes at a sharp contrast with her criticism of the Libyan political class since the latter was partially a product of the U.N.-sponsored political process that brought Dbeibeh to power in 15 February 2021. The rumours of bribery at the dialogue forum were rife at the time and have been common knowledge in Libya for two months prior to Dbeibeh’s appointment.
Source:Libya Today
July 31, 2022 17:17 UTC
Italian Senator: Libya cannot be left alone to manage migration crisis
“The migration crisis requires a serious approach and cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean,” declared Italian Senator Marinella Pacifico as reported by her country’s AgenPress. Pacifico reportedly made her remarks following a recent meeting in Rome with spokesman for the Tripoli-based government, Mohammed Hamouda. “Common action is needed between countries of origin and transit of migratory flows because the emergency solutions adopted up to now have not given the desired results,” she said. “Closing ports can be a deterrent, but push-backs are just a patch that is turning out to be worse than the hole. The Libyan coast guard, albeit with its frailties, has shown great proof of saving lives at sea.”
Source:Libya Today
July 31, 2022 10:49 UTC
Libya Interregnum
What this new division of power between competing political forces in Libya actually means is that the country has no real leader and that the interregnum period is far from over. For instance, reports of clashes between the main political forces currently appear with increasing frequency. With all that, it is clear that political groups in Libya are guided by their own interests rather than considerations pertaining to the global economy. He would go on to meet with Ukraine’s ambassador to Libya in the spring, where he emphasized his support for Kiev. On the other side, Turkey will step up its support to the forces in the west of Libya.
Source:Libya Today
July 31, 2022 10:32 UTC
Dbeibah issues instructions for implementation of unified Salary scale
The Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, instructed ministries, institutions and authorities to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to conduct financial matching in order to start implementing the unified salary scale. This came in a letter addressed by the Minister of State for Head of Government Affairs and the Council of Ministers to the heads and directors of authorities, agencies, institutions, boards, and centers. Dbeibah approved the unified salary scale on June 18, although it has not yet been approved by the House of Representatives. However, he assigned the Ministry of Finance to determine the financial impact of implementing the decision.
Source:Libya Observer
July 31, 2022 01:11 UTC
US judge rules against Libya’s Hifter in war crimes suits
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has entered a default judgment against a Libyan military commander after he repeatedly failed to show up for depositions in a federal lawsuit in which he is accused of war crimes. The exact amount of the judgment against Khalifa Hifter, who spent decades living in the U.S., will be determined at a future date. At a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge Leonie Brinkema adopted the recommendations of a magistrate who said the plaintiffs should be granted default judgment. Three separate lawsuits were filed against Hifter by different plaintiffs. Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia.
Source:Libya Today
July 30, 2022 18:24 UTC
US judge rules against Libya's Hifter in war crimes suits
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has entered a default judgment against a Libyan military commander after he repeatedly failed to show up for depositions in a federal lawsuit in which he is accused of war crimes. The exact amount of the judgment against Khalifa Hifter, who spent decades living in the U.S., will be determined at a future date. At a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge Leonie Brinkema adopted the recommendations of a magistrate who said the plaintiffs should be granted default judgment. Three separate lawsuits were filed against Hifter by different plaintiffs. Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia.
Source:Libya Today
July 30, 2022 16:40 UTC
Bashagha suspends Minister of Water Resources, orders investigation
The Prime Minister designated by Libya’s House of Representatives, Fathi Bashagha, has suspended the Minister of Water Resources, Mohamed Abdel Karim Doma, from office, Bashagha’s government announced on Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Ali Faraj al-Qatrani was ordered to serve as acting minister while Doma is placed under investigation. According to Bashagha’s government, Doma will be questioned over unlawful reestablishment of a steering committee for the management of Libya’s Mand-Made River project without consultancy with the government.
Source:Libya Today
July 30, 2022 14:38 UTC