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Refugees being transferred to the Moas Phoenix vessel earlier this month. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

More than 30 people have drowned after about 200 people fell from an overcrowded migrant boat off the coast of Libya, the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea.

The vessel was carrying between 500 and 700 people when the accident happened 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. It was not clear whether those in the water were knocked off balance by a wave or because there was a rush to one side of the boat as a rescue vessel approached.

The crew of the Phoenix aid boat, chartered by the Maltese NGO Moas, began a rescue operation and were distributing lifejackets. The number of deaths remains unclear.

The Italian coastguard, which was coordinating rescues, dispatched other vessels to the area to look for survivors.

Its not a scene from a horror movie, its a real-life tragedy that is taking place today at the gates of Europe, Chris Catrambone, who works with Moas, told AFP. Catrambone, who gave updates on the rescue operation on his Twitter feed, said 31 bodies had been recovered.

The incident was one of 15 rescue operations over the past 24 hours, which have saved up to 1,700 people. There is usually a spike in the spring and summer months in people attempting the perilous crossing to Europe, because of warm weather and calm seas. In the year up to 17 May, 45,754 people departing from the Libyan coast had been rescued at sea and taken to Italy, and more than 8,500 of them had arrived in the last two weeks. The figures represent a big increase on the same period last year.

The EU is training the Libyan coastguard to step up its efforts to turn back boats if they are inside Libyan waters, but aid groups have accused Libyan authorities of subjecting migrants to violence and other abuses if they are returned.

On Tuesday, the German NGO Jugend Rettet, which has been working in rescue operations in the central Mediterranean, claimed that the crew of a speedboat labelled Libyan coastguard fired shots at migrant boats during a rescue operation on Tuesday.

In a statement on Facebook, Jugend Rettet said its staff witnessed multiple gunshots being fired from the speedboat. [They] were seemingly aimed at the people on the boats ... Furthermore several boats were pushed back into Libyan waters ... This is a violation of the non-refoulement principle thereby of human rights, the statement said.

The captain of the NGOs vessel added: About 100 people panicked and jumped from the boats ... We cannot say whether and how many dead there were in the shooting. We had to be careful not to get a bullet ourselves. We are speechless against this crude violence.

One journalist reporting on migrant boast rescues said that rescue vessels and migrant boats faced severe harassment from the Libyan coastguard, which fired warning shots near them.

In October, the humanitarian group Sea-Watch, based in Germany, said the crew of a speedboat labelled Libyan coastguard attacked a migrant boat carrying about 150 people, beating them with sticks and causing many to fall into the water and at least four to drown. Last week Sea-Watch called on the international criminal court to extend the ongoing investigation of human rights violations in Libya to the activities of the Libyan coastguard.

The EU and Italy agreed in February to fund migrant centres managed by UN agencies, but progress has been slow due to the security crisis. On Monday, the UN refugee agency also called on the Libyan government in Tripoli to close its refugee detention centres, describing conditions as inhumane and shocking.

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said after a visit to Tripoli that he was shocked at the harsh conditions in which refugees and migrants are held in Libya, which he said was generally due to lack of resources.Amnesty International has said it is deeply concerned that Italian authorities may be attempting to circumvent their obligation to protect people fleeing widespread and systematic human rights violations and abuses in Libya by facilitating the interception of refugees and migrant boats by Libyan authorities in the central Mediterranean.

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More than 30 drown as hundreds fall from migrant boat off Libya - The Guardian

TRIPOLI The U.S. ambassador to Libya pledged Washington's support for its U.N.-backed government on Tuesday and urged rival factions to avoid civil war, during the first, fleeting visit to the country by a U.S. envoy in nearly three years.

Peter Bodde, who is based in Tunis, and Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, the top U.S. military commander overseeing troops in Africa, flew into Tripoli for two hours to meet the prime minister of Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) and other senior officials.

There has been uncertainty over U.S. policy on Libya following Donald Trump's election as president in November. Trump said in April he did not see a role for the United States in Libya apart from defeating Islamic State.

"The visit today demonstrates the continued commitment of the United States to the Government of National Accord and to political reconciliation in Libya," Bodde told reporters.

The GNA has struggled to function since arriving in Tripoli in March last year, failing to resolve deep-rooted security and economic crises in western and southern Libya.

Factions that control a parliament in eastern Libya have rejected it, as has the military commander they are aligned with, Khalifa Haftar.

GNA Prime Minister Fayez Seraj recently met Haftar in Abu Dhabi, but it is unclear whether their discussions can lead to a reset of the U.N.-mediated deal under which the GNA was created.

Tensions have risen since Thursday, when a force under the GNA's command attacked a southern air base, killing dozens of Haftar's men.

"We call on all Libyans to avoid further conflict that could lead to a civil war and would enable terrorism and increased social and economic hardships," said Bodde.

"We applaud the ongoing Libyan dialogue on how to form a government that has broad acceptance across Libya." He said he welcomed Libyan efforts to hold elections next year.

A quartet of European, Arab and African states also threw their weight behind U.N.-led peace efforts on Tuesday at a meeting in Brussels, where the U.N. envoy said the air base attack had shown there was a political "vacuum" in Libya.

ARMS EMBARGO

Bodde paid tribute to GNA-aligned forces that defeated Islamic State in their North African stronghold of Sirte last year, and to progress against Islamist extremists in Benghazi, where Haftar's forces have been fighting for three years.

"We are working closely with Libya to expand its counter-terrorism capacity and stand ready to help Libya train professional armed forces as we strengthen cooperation on our shared regional security goals," he said.

Seraj, who met Trump briefly on the sidelines of a summit in Riyadh on Sunday, said his government would submit a request to the United Nations this week to lift its arms embargo on Libya.

A U.S. State Department official said the international community continued to encourage Libya to provide briefs that would "enable consideration of exemptions" to the embargo.

The United States evacuated its embassy staff from Tripoli in June 2014 during an escalation of militia violence that left Libya with rival governments, one in the capital and one in the east.

Along with other Western diplomatic missions, the U.S. staff have since been based in neighboring Tunisia.

The Italian and Turkish embassies in Tripoli reopened earlier this year. Envoys from other countries pay regular visits.

Security in Libya is especially sensitive for the United States because of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in which militants killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Bodde and Waldhauser met Seraj at Tripoli's Mitiga airport. Tripoli's main airport was destroyed in fighting in 2014.

(Editing by Hugh Lawson and Richard Chang)

MANILA U.S. President Donald Trump told his Philippine counterpart that Washington has sent two nuclear submarines to waters off the Korean peninsula, the New York Times said, comments likely to raise questions about his handling of sensitive information.

BEIJING China said on Wednesday no one had the right to bring chaos to the Korean peninsula, a day after it pushed for full implementation of U.N. sanctions against neighboring North Korea for its missile and nuclear tests and called for dialogue.

BEIRUT The Syrian army said on Wednesday it had killed Islamic State's military commander in Syria during operations in the north of the country, where the Russian-backed government forces are seizing more territory back from the jihadist group.

Read more here:
US envoy endorses Libya's UN-backed government in whirlwind visit to Tripoli - Reuters

Salman Abedi carried out a deadly suicide bombing at a Manchester pop concert just days after returning from Libya, according to reports.

The 22-year-old's visit to his family's native country fuelled concerns he was preparing for Monday's assault in Britain under the guidance of hardened jihadists.

The Times reported the Manchester-born bomber spent three weeks in the war-torn north African nation before the attack on Manchester Arena, in which he was killed.

A friend told the paper: "He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago."

Islamic State, who claimed responsibility for the attack, and al-Qaeda have a presence in Libya, but Abedi might have travelled to their heartland in Syria for training.

Prime Minister Theresa May said it was possible he had planned his attack, which killed 22 people and injured 59, with a "wider group of individuals".

Born and raised in Manchester, Abedi grew up in a Muslim household but matured into a university dropout with an appetite for bloodshed.

He was registered as recently as 2016 as living at Elsmore Road, where police raided a downstairs semi-detached property on Tuesday.

Neighbours recalled an abrasive, tall, skinny young man who was little known in the neighbourhood, and often seen in traditional Islamic clothing.

He is thought to have lived at a number of addresses in the area, including one in Wilbraham Road, where plain-clothes police made an arrest on Tuesday.

Abedi previously lived with his mother, Samia Tabbal, father Ramadan Abedi and a brother, Ismail Abedi, who was born in Westminster in 1993.

He is thought to have a younger brother, Hashim Abedi, and a sister, Jomana, whose Facebook profile suggests she is from Tripoli and lives in Manchester.

A family friend, who asked not to be named, said they were known to the city's Libyan community and described Abedi as "normal".

"He was always friendly, nothing to suggest (he was violent). He was normal, to be honest," he said.

Abedi is believed to have attended the Manchester Islamic Centre.

There, he reportedly caught the attention of one imam whom he stared down during a sermon denouncing terrorism.

"Salman showed me a face of hate after that sermon," Mohammed Saeed told The Guardian of the 2015 encounter.

Abedi studied business and management at Salford University two or three years ago, a source said, but did not complete his degree.

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UK bomb suspect 'just returned from Libya' - SBS

Italy has signed a deal with Libya, Chad and Niger in order to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean through beefed upborder controls and new reception centres in the African nations.

A joint statement by the interior ministers of the four countries said they had agreed to set up centres in Chad and Niger, key transit countries for migrants who travel to Libya and on to Italy from sub-Saharan Africa.

The statement, released Sunday after an Italy-organised meeting in Rome, said the new centres in Chad and Niger, and the existing ones in Libya, would respect international humanitarian standards.

Rights groups have slammed the conditions of existing detention centres in crisis-hit Libya and questioned how the West can ensure such international standards are met and kept.

Libyan legislation criminalises illegal immigration so it is not clear how these could be reception centres and not detention centres, Mattia Toaldo, a European Council on Foreign Relations expert, said Monday.

The establishment of reception centres in Niger and Chad is also questionable: is Europe outsourcing its border control to these countries? If so, in exchange for what amounts of money and coming from where?.

Toaldo also questioned why the deal was made by interior ministers and how they hoped to follow through on a commitment to promote legal economic development as an alternative to the wealthy trafficking trade.

Brink of famine

On Sunday the head of the United Nations refugee agency Filippo Grandi urged Libyan authorities to free all asylum seekers and refugees from its detention centres, slamming the conditions as shocking.

While promising to try to step-up the UNHCRs presence, Grandi said it would take time for political and security reasons.

Libya has long been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. People smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos which has engulfed the country since its 2011 revolution.

Italian police last Monday (15 May) arrested 70 members of the powerful Ndrangheta mafia syndicate, after the gang pocketed 35 million in public funds, with the help of a Catholic charity organisation. EURACTIVs partner Ouest-France reports.

Italy registered nearly 50,000 migrant arrivals by sea by mid-April, 97% of them from Libya, according to Rome.

The Libyan coastguard is believed to have picked up close to 6,000 migrants attempting the perilous crossing this year and returned them to Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Nigerians have made up the largest group of people heading to Italy since January. Two million people are teetering on the brink of famine in the countrys northeast, home to the notoriously ruthless Boko Haram.

The jihadist group launched an uprising there in 2009 which has since spilled over into neighbouring Chad and Niger.

Link:
Italy inks deal with Libya neighbours to stem migrant flow - EURACTIV

The Libya Observer

Video: New operation launched against wholesalers The Libya Observer Large Libyan supermarket chains that were supposed sell their subsidized goods at the cheaper price were only selling some at the lower price and the rest was being sold to Egyptians, as Egyptians would not report such activity to authorities in fear ...

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Video: New operation launched against wholesalers - The Libya Observer