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ANKARA Turkey reopened its embassy in Libya on Monday, 2-1/2 years after closing it due to lack of security, becoming the second country to reopen its diplomatic mission in the divided country.

Turkey shut the embassy in Tripoli in 2014 as rival factions fought for control after the overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. Italy became the first country to reopen its embassy in Tripoli earlier this month.

"The reopening of the embassy will allow Turkey to make stronger contributions to efforts to build peace and stability, as well as reconstruction in Libya," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The road where the embassy is located close to Tripoli's seafront was closed on Monday, and there was a heavy security presence. The Turkish embassy is about 600 meters from the Italian embassy.

On Jan. 21, less than two weeks after the Italian embassy reopened, a car bomb exploded in a street between the two embassies. A local anti-terrorism unit blamed rival political factions in eastern Libya for the blast, which left two suspected bombers dead.

Both Libya and Tripoli itself are home to myriad armed groups with shifting and conflicting loyalties that have sought to fill the power vacuum created when Gaddafi was killed in 2011.

In 2014, fighting between armed alliances backing opposing political factions resulted in rival governments being set up in the capital and the east. Since March last year a third, U.N.-backed government has been trying to establish itself in Tripoli, but it has been unable to win support from all groups.

"Turkey will continue to support the territorial integrity and national unity of brotherly Libya," the statement said.

Turkey's ambassador had been based in Tunisia during the embassy's closure, while the Turkish consulate general in the western city of Misrata had remained open without interruption.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Aidan Lewis; Writing by Nick Tattersall and Dominic Evans)

MEXICO CITY Israel should apologize for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's praise for U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall on the Mexican border, Mexico's foreign minister said on Monday, calling it an "aggression" against the country.

PARIS French election candidate Francois Fillon and his wife Penelope are being questioned by prosecutors as part of an investigation following press allegations that Penelope Fillon was paid for fake jobs, BFM television said on Monday.

ERBIL, Iraq KhudeedaNaif won refuge in the United States as a member of Iraq's Yazidi minority, but what he fears more than religious persecution is retribution for his brother's work as an interpreter for the U.S. army in Iraq.

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Turkey reopens embassy in Libya, vows to support unity efforts - Reuters

Libya Herald

Remaining Americans in Libya ignore new US State Department warnings to leave Libya Herald The few remaining Americans in Tripoli say they have no intention of leaving the country despite fresh US State Department travel advice telling on Friday telling them to do so. The updated statement tells US citizens currently in Libya to depart ...

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Remaining Americans in Libya ignore new US State Department warnings to leave - Libya Herald

Tripoli - The Libyan coastguard said on Monday it had intercepted around 700 Europe-bound migrants in territorial waters off Sabratha in the west of the North African country.

"The coastguard intercepted 700 migrants on board two wooden boats on Friday three nautical miles from the town of Sabratha," some 70km west of Tripoli, coastguard spokesperson General Ayoub Qassem told AFP.

He said people smugglers on the beach in the area opened fire on coastguards, without causing any casualties.

"Fire was returned, causing the smugglers to take flight," Qassem said.

He said most of the people detained were from sub-Saharan Africa, but also among them were Egyptians, Syrians, Tunisians and Palestinians.

European countries are trying to curb the flow of illegal migrants, including by boosting their support for the Libyan coastguard.

Since Friday, more than 1 360 migrants have been rescued by the Italian coastguard, and three bodies recovered.

Despite winter conditions, dozens of makeshift boats packed with migrants still set off from Libyan shores bound for Italy.

People smugglers have exploited the chaos gripping Libya since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Moammar Gaddafi to traffic migrants across the Mediterranean.

It is big business for the smugglers who cram migrants into boats that are small and unsafe for the perilous journey to Italy just 300km from Libya.

Thousands of migrants try each year to make the crossing, but many drown when their boats founder.

In the absence of an army or a regular police force in Libya, several militias act as coastguards but are often being accused of complicity or even involvement in the lucrative trade.

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Libyan coastguard intercepts 700 Europe-bound migrants - News24

Sirte municipal member, Haniya Bukharis, said several members suspended their memberships at the municipality to protest the unilateral style adopted by Sirte mayor, Mukhtar Al-Maadani, in making decisions without consulting the members. She added that the mayor gave fake promises and ordered several appointments in violation of law 59) of the executive codes list of Libyas municipalities.

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A delegation from High Council for Reconciliation and elders from different cities managed to reach a temporary truce between Tarhouna and Garabulli after the last clashes between them. The truce urges for immediate ceasefire and shutdown of the main road temporarily, sources said, adding that delegates are trying to make the truce last longer.

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Zintans Military Council said in a statement that all of its armed forces in the area from Al-Aziziya and Zintan have withdrawn, stressing that it is not responsible for any checkpoints outside the citys administrative borders following the growing number of crimes and theft in Jafara district. It added that it refuses to blame Zintanis for the deeds of the outlaws.

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Tobruk-based House of Representatives failed to convene Mondays meeting as sources said a secret meeting has taken place between the second deputy speaker of the HoR, Ahmid Houma, and southern HoR boycotting members. The meetings details were not made public, while other sources said southern MPs refused to attend any HoR session until the Prime Minster of the eastern government, Abdullah Al-Thanni, is sacked.

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Eastern military governor, Abdelraziq Al-Nathori sacked Benghazi mayor, whom he appointed in the place of the elected one, and appointed the Gaddafi-regime Attorney General, Abdelrahman Al-Abar, as the new mayor, sources from the city said.

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Residents of Hay Al-Andalus reopened the main roads of the district after closing them in protest of the presence of armed groups in the area. The reopening came after a deal with the security departments, which vowed to evict t those groups.

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Libyas Basketball Cup final will take place in Tripolis Grand Hall between Al-Itihad and Al-Naser. Al-Itihad is looking for its fifth title, while Al-Naser will be looking for its third one so that it can add it to the title of the Libyan Basketball League, which it won two weeks ago.

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News Roundup - Mon, Jan 30, 2017 - The Libya Observer

Would-be migrants and refugees inLibya are being subjected to torture, rape and even execution by the human traffickers who are holding them, a newspaper report said on Sunday, citing German diplomats posted in Africa.

"Executions of migrants who cannot pay, torture, rapes, blackmail and abandonment in the desert are the order of the day there," the "Welt am Sonntag" quoted an internal report from the German embassy in the capital of Niger, Niamey, as saying.

The diplomats' report, intended for the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and various ministries, spoke of "the most serious, systematic human rights violations," the paper said.

Libyan coastguard patrols try to stop traffickers

The report said that the "concentration-camp-like" conditions in the "private prisons" were documented by credible photos and videos shot with cell phones.

"Eyewitnesses spoke of exactly five executions by shooting every week in one prison - announced in advance and [carried out] on Fridays to make room for new arrivals: in other words, to increase the human 'throughput' and thus the profit of the operators," the "Welt am Sonntag" said.

'Catastrophic and inhumane'

The head of the parliamentary party of the Greensin the European Parliament, Ska Keller, told the paper that the European Union should not strike any deal with the Libyan government with regard to its taking back refugees and migrants.

She said that people would be "sent back to a catastrophic and inhumane situation," and that the German government should oppose any new deal with Libya "with all its might."

On Friday, EU heads of state and government plan to meet in Malta to discuss how to reduce the flow of refugees to Europe from Libya and other North African states. A deal with Libya similar to the one with Turkey has been mooted.

Many attempt the crossing in overfilled boats

Chancellor Merkel said in her regular podcast on Saturday, however, that a deal with Libya could only be considered "when the political situation in Libya has improved."

More than 180,000 people came over the Mediterranean from north Africa to Italy last year, with almost 90 percent setting out from Libya. Many are fleeing conflict or poverty in their native countries.

Thousands have died attempting the sometimes dangerous crossing.

tj/rc (KNA, dpa)

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Libyan trafficking camps are hell for refugees, diplomats say - Deutsche Welle