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Tunis - Tunisian security forces on Saturday rescued 126 sub-Saharan migrants including seven pregnant women who had been trying to reach Europe from Libya, a Red Crescent official said.

Fishermen had alerted the authorities to the presence of a vessel in distress off Ben Guerdane in southern Tunisia near the border with Libya, Dr Mongi Slim told AFP.

Among the migrants were 48 women, seven of them pregnant, and three children.

Those rescued were mainly from Nigeria, Mali and Gambia, and had set off from Libya, he added.

They were taken to the Tunisian port of Zarzis to be given first aid before later being transferred to nearby Medenine, he said.

People traffickers have exploited the chaos that has ravaged Libya since the 2011 revolution that toppled and killed Moammar Gaddafi to expand their lucrative trade.

Each year they send desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe on the dangerous voyage to Italy, often aboard boats in too poor a condition to complete the trip.

On Friday, more than 3 400 migrants were rescued off Libya, bringing to about 10 000 the total number rescued over four days, Libyan and Italian officials said.

At least 10 bodies were also found by the Italian coastguard.

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Tunisia rescues 126 migrants who set off from Libya - News24

Taormina - G7 nations including France and Britain came under pressure on Saturday from Libya's neighbours to help put out the fires of a conflict that is already causing trouble further afield.

The world's most powerful democracies, at annual summit talks, called in a statement for "inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation" in Libya - but stopped short of any detailed pledges of collective help.

They had been joined at the summit by African leaders whose countries are all implicated in the migration crisis affecting Europe.

Lawlessness in Libya has facilitated the transit of hundreds of thousands of African migrants embarking on perilous voyages across the Mediterranean.

And it is now directly implicated in European terrorism after a Briton of Libyan descent blew himself up at a Manchester concert, killing 22 people including several children.

"The fight against terrorism (in North Africa) demands that urgent measures be taken to extinguish the Libyan cauldron," Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou told the G7 countries.

Niger lies to Libya's south and Issoufou said a holistic approach was needed to deal with issues surrounding security, economy and extremist ideology.

He urged both the G7 and the United Nations to "devote the means necessary" to set up a rapid reaction force against regional jihadists sought by Niger and other countries in the Sahel region.

France and Britain, two of the G7's top military powers alongside the United States, face particular criticism for helping to topple the Libyan regime of Moammar Gaddafi in 2011 without planning sufficiently for the power vacuum that ensued as the country plunged into chaos.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, at the G7, said the Manchester suicide bomber's links to Libya "undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe".

"So we must redouble our support for a UN-led effort that brings all the parties to the negotiating table and reduces the threat of terror from that region," she said on Friday.

In a meeting on Saturday on the G7 margins with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi underlined the need for collective action on Libya.

The security challenge, in particular dealing with the proliferation of armed groups, would take "long months to stabilise", Essebsi said, according to a French official.

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G7 urged to douse Libyan inferno - News24

The father and a brother of suspected Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi have been detained by security personnel in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, according to witnesses and officials.

Ramadan Abedi, at his home before being detained in Tripoli, Libya, on May 24.

Photographer: Ghaith Shennib/Bloomberg

Three vehicles drove up to the Abedi home Wednesday evening and several men wearing uniform, some of them masked, detained Ramadan Abedi, the alleged attackers father, and two other unidentified men in the street. It wasnt immediately possible to reach a spokesman for the United-Nations backed government in Tripoli for comment.

Separately, security forces announced they had Salman Abedis younger brother, Hesham, in custody. In a statement, theSpecial Deterrence Force said he had admitted to having links with Islamic State and being in the U.K. at the time the Manchester attack was being planned. The statement said Hesham had received money from his elder sibling. The force couldnt immediately be contacted.

The 22 people killed in the Manchester bombing included elementary school students, with the youngest just eight years old. Of the 59 wounded, many were children under 16. The U.K.s terrorism threat has been raised from severe to critical -- the highest level -- for the first time since 2007, meaning another attack may be imminent. The army will be deployed to guard national sites under police review as campaigning for the June 8 general election resumes on Thursday. Authorities fear Abedi wasnt working alone.

Ramadan Abedi was detained hours after he described in an interview with Bloomberg his disbelief over newshis 22-year-old son had carried out the U.K.s deadliest act of terrorism in more than a decade. He said the two had last week spoke about meeting in Tripoli during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

When asked if he had been contacted by British authorities about his son, who was reportedly known to the U.K. security services before Mondays bombing of a pop concert in Manchester, northwest England,Ramadan Abedi answered No.

The fasting month starts this weekend. I was really shocked when I saw the news, I still dont believe it,he said in Libyas capital.

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My son was as religious as any child who opens his eyes in a religious family, said Ramadan Abedi, who arrived in the U.K. from his native Libya in the 1990s and stayed until 2008. As we were discussing news of similar attacks earlier, he was always against those attacks, saying theres no religious justification for them. I dont understand how hed have become involved in an attack that led to the killing of children.

Salman Abedi made frequent trips to visit his family in Libya, his father said, and was in the country last week, where he had told his mother he intended to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

My son was supposed to be with us for Ramadan, but he told us he was going to do Umrah, via the U.K., and thats why he left,he said, using the term for a lesser pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year.

Until now my son is a suspect, and the authorities havent come up with a final conclusion, Ramadan Abedi, who was born in 1965, said in the interview, insisting on his sons innocence. Every father knows his son and his thoughts, my son does not have extremist thoughts.

Abedi was first revealed as the attacker on Tuesday by CBS in the U.S., prompting U.K. police to put out a statement saying speculation was unhelpful and potentially damaging to the investigation. The U.K. later confirmed his identity. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd later criticized U.S. officials for the initial leaks in an usually blunt rebuke.

On Wednesday, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told a television interviewer that Abedi had traveled to Syria and had Islamic State links.

Islamic State claimed the Manchester attack in a short message in Arabic and Englishposted on the online messaging service Telegram and picked up by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites. It did not give any details about the attacker, or how the blast was carried out, leading some analysts to question the extent of the militant groups involvement.

Ramadan Abedi said he served as a security officer during Muammar Qaddafis rule before being accused by the regime of links to extremist groups, accusations he strongly denies. He left for the U.K. in 1993, returning to Libya in 2008, where he was joined by most of his family after the ouster of Qaddafi in the 2011 revolution. Salman and one brother stayed in the U.K. to finish their studies.

Libya descended into turmoil after the NATO-backed uprising that ousted Qaddafi in 2011, with myriad armed groups -- some of them Islamist -- and two administrations vying for influence.

I was working with homeland security, under Qaddafi, the father said. I know the dangers of those extremist groups, and I was raising my children to make them aware of those groups.

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Father and Brother of Manchester Bomber Arrested in Libya ...

Egypt's president says his air force struck bases in Libya where militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained, but gave no details.

Senior officials said that the bases are ineastern Libya. They said the warplanes on Friday targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al-Qaeda.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in Egypt, wherever they may be. He also directly appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after at least 28 Coptic Christians, including two children, were killed by militants south of Cairo, el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries thatfinance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In the attack Friday south of Cairo, masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians. The gunmen also wounded22, officials said.

The attack happened while the bus was travelling to the St. Samuel Monastery in Minyaprovince, about 220 kilometressouth of the Egyptian capital, health officials told the MENAnews agency.

Health officials, citing eyewitnesses, said there were between eight and 10 attackers dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.The victims were travelling from the nearby province of Bani Suief to visit the monastery, which isreachable only by a short, unpaved route that veers off the main highway.

Arab TV stations showed images of a damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered. Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Local officials said the dead included two little girls, ages twoand four.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack,which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month ofRamadan, though it had all the hallmarks of Egypt's affiliate of ISIS.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

Following the attack south of Cairo by masked gunmen on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, their relatives grieve at Abu Garnous Cathedral in Minya. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)

Presidentel-Sissi called for a meeting with top aides to discuss the attack. The government is expected to tighten security around churches, monasteries, schools and annual pilgrimages to remote Christian sites across the country. Earlier this week it blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilize the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

Egyptian authorities have been fighting ISIS-linked militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula, though attacks have taken place also on the mainland. Egypt's Coptic Christians have emerged as a top target of ISIS.

Coptic Christians were the target of twin bombings that tore through two Egyptian churches last month killing dozens and wounding some 100 others as worshippers were marking Palm Sunday. ISISclaimed responsibility for both attacks.

Another bombing at the country's main Coptic cathedral in Cairo left 25 people dead in December.

A nun cries as she stands at the scene inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, following a bombing, on Dec. 11. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of Egypt's majority Muslim population.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians of this Muslim-majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.

Following the Pope's visit, ISIS vowed to escalate the attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

The surge in violence has added to the formidable challenges facing el-Sissi's government as it struggles to contain the insurgency while pushing ahead with an ambitious and politically sensitive reform program to revive the country's ailing economy. The program has sent the cost of food and services soaring.

"The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring," Father Rafic Greiche, spokespersonfor the Egyptian Catholic Church, told a local TV station.

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gunmen kill 28 Coptic Christians in Egypt - CBC.ca

Rohit Kachroo Security Editor

The Scout Association, the Eurovision Song Contest and the English Premier League should be promoted in Libya to help fight terrorism, a UK government report leaked to ITV News concluded.

The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 2013 - before the rise of Isis - to try to find ways to confront instability in Libya. Its findings were circulated around Whitehall. It concluded that the countrys proximity to Europe and porous borders might present a risk to Britains national security.

Although researchers found that the UK is liked by young Libyans, it warned that British officials should tread carefully when writing new policy due to local suspicions about western interventions in the country.

It said that Britain cannot be seen to lead a programme, but should use soft power by promoting well-respected British organisations.

The Scout Movement is a well-established organisation in Libya the reports authors said. It benefited from the fact that it was apolitical throughout the rein of Gaddafi - but joined the front line during the revolution

If the UK actively supported the Libyan Scouting Movement, and worked to model the National Service programme on the same lines, it would achieve disproportionate benefit to the UK for relatively little investment.

The report called the English Premier League a significant soft power asset and suggested that its security expertise could be used to help promote stability.

The report's authors said that Libya could promote stability by applying to enter the Eurovision Song Contest.

Like many nations on Europes periphery, Libya is eligible to enter A campaign to support a Libyan entry which drew on Libyan culture could help unite the nation in a less gender-segregated field than football, and in a field which particularly appeals to youth

Last updated Fri 26 May 2017

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Scouts and Premier League 'should be promoted in Libya' - ITV News