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MADRID Hundreds of migrants may have died off Libyas coast, a Spanish aid organization said Friday, and Turkish media reported that 11 migrants died after a boat sank in the Aegean.

Video footage from DHA in Turkey showed a half-dozen covered bodies that were laid out near ambulances. The migrants boat capsized near the Turkish resort town of Kusadasi and nine people were rescued, the Turkish Coast Guard Command said. It said two people, believed to be smugglers, were detained.

Concerns about the missing migrants near Libya rose after Spains Proactiva Open Arms group found five bodies near two capsized boats on Thursday. Proactiva spokeswoman Laura Lanuza said the German aid organization Jugend Rettet found a sixth body in the area Friday.

The International Organization for Migrations said it had no confirmation of the two boats mentioned by Proactiva near the Libyan coast, but believed the bodies could be part of an earlier wreckage. About 120 people were believed to be on board a smugglers boat that capsized on March 21, the IOM said, but only 54 were rescued.

Meanwhile, the search for a third vessel reported missing in the area has so far proved futile.

Lanuza said their vessel was expected to arrive Saturday at the Italian port of Catania to hand over the bodies of the five young men who had drowned. Other agencies, meanwhile, continued the search for more possible victims off Libya.

The U.N. refugee agency said it was deeply alarmed by the reports. Both it and Proactiva said they feared the death toll may be much higher as migrant dinghies are normally crammed with around 120 people each.

The agency cited NGO sources as saying the five floating corpses of the young men had been recovered 14 miles (22 kilometers) off the Libyan coast near two empty and partially submerged rubber dinghies.

Lanuza said the boats were found Thursday morning, north of the Libyan town of Sabratha. The five men of African origin were estimated to be between 16 and 25 years old and appeared to have drowned, she said.

The Red Crescent in Libya, and the Libyan coast guard, said Friday that they had no reports about dead migrants or capsized boats in Libyan territorial waters.

The UNHCR said the latest incidents come after an intense week of arrivals across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, with almost 6,000 migrants and refugees rescued in just five days this week.

It said so far this year some 21,903 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.

The agency said since the beginning of 2017, and excluding the latest incidents, around 590 people have died or have gone missing in crossings.

Last year was the deadliest ever recorded with 5,096 migrants perishing or going missing, according to the UNHCR.

Amnesty International called the European Unions cooperation with the Libyan coast guard to intercept departing smuggling boats full of migrants as a hopelessly blinkered approach and urged European leaders to offer safe, legal routes for migrants to enter Europe.

How high must the body count get before European governments accept that their current strategy isnt working? said the groups deputy Europe director, Gauri Van Gulik. (AP)

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Aid group fears hundreds of migrants drowned off Libya - The Philadelphia Tribune

Crude capped a second-straight day of gains for the first time in more than a month after U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell more than estimated.

Gasoline supplies dropped 3.75 million barrels last week, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. A 2 million-barrel decline was forecast by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.Crude stockpiles climbed by a less-than-anticipated 867,000 barrels to 534 million, the highest in weekly data going back to 1982. Refineries boosted the amount of crude they processed by the most in almost three years.

Oil slid last week to the lowest since November as rising U.S. stockpiles bolstered concern that production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and others will fail to ease a global glut. Production in Libya, an OPEC member thats exempt from the curbs, was said to drop 200,000 barrels a day after a pipeline carrying crude from the Sharara field -- its biggest -- stopped operating.

"Total inventories, when you include both crude and the products, are down, which is supportive," Adam Wise, who helps run a $7 billion oil and natural gas bond and private equity portfolio at John Hancock in Boston, said by telephone. "With refineries increasing runs youll expect to see a pull-down of crude inventories soon."

West Texas Intermediate for May delivery rose $1.14, or 2.4 percent, to $49.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Its the highest close since March 8. Total volume traded was about 14 percent below the 100-day average.

Brent for May settlement climbed $1.09, or 2.1 percent, to $52.42 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange,and closed at a $2.91 premium to WTI.

Analysts projected the report would show that crude supplies rose 2 million barrels last week, according to the Bloomberg survey.

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Refineries processed 16.2 million barrels a day of crude last week, up 425,000 barrels from the prior week, the report showed. It was the biggest weekly increase since June 2014. Refineries operated at 89.3 percent of capacity, up 1.9 percentage points from the prior week, and the highest since January. Refiners typically boost activity at this time of year as they prepare for the summer surge of gasoline consumption.

"The crude build came in under 1 million barrels, which is less than projected, which indicates to the market things are improving," Brian Kessens, a managing director and portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC in Leawood, Kansas, who helps manage $17.1 billion in energy assets, said by telephone. "Demand for finished products is pretty strong as well."

U.S. gasoline demand increased 3.5 percent to 9.52 million barrels a day, the highest level since September. Total fuel consumption rose 3.2 percent to 19.9 million barrels a day.

Inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.48 million barrels to 153 million, the lowest this year.

April gasoline futures climbed 2.3 percent to close at $1.672 a gallon, the highest since March 7. Diesel for April delivery climbed 1.7 percent to $1.5425.

Oil market news:

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Oil Gains as Libyan Crude Drop Offsets What OPEC Curbs Couldn't - Bloomberg

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Military commanders and analysts see Moscows efforts as aimed at taking advantage of the geopolitical turbulence in the Middle East to re-establish Russia as a major player in the region and by extension the world stage

The Soviet Union maintained a substantial military presence there during the Cold War, propping up an array of anti-Western regimes to counterbalance American partners and extend its geopolitical sphere of influence.

Russia is known to be operating in Syria, Afghanistan, and, more recently, in Libya and Egypt, areas that theUnited States appeared to beabandoning under the former administration.

Russia is certainly expanding its influence and trying to reestablish itself as a superpower, Bill Roggio of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) told CNN.

Roggio, who also serves as managing editor of the Long War Journal, described the Kremlins efforts as a new form of growing Russian imperialism intended to undermine the US and NATO.

The assessment of the Kremlins ambitions comes as the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan declared to the Sunday Times of London that the United States and Europe need to deploy 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to break a stalemate between the Afghan forces and jihadists, primarily the Taliban.

American Commander Gen. John Nicholson and other U.S. military officials have accused Russia of lending support to the Taliban in an effort to delegitimize the U.S.-backed Afghan troops, allegations that Moscow has dismissed as false.

These fabrications are designed, as we have repeatedly underlined, to justify the failure of the US military and politicians in the Afghan campaign. There is no other explanation, Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlins special envoy toAfghanistan, recently told the state-run RIA Novosti.

Currently, there are 8,400 American troops and 5,000 forces from other NATO countries fighting terrorists in Afghanistan where Nicholson conceded the Afghan government only controls about 62 percent of the population and about 57 percent of the territory.

Citing U.S. officials, CNN points out that Russias ambitions extend well beyond the Middle East:

From Afghanistan to Libya, US Pentagon officials are increasingly concerned by mounting Russian military and diplomatic activity they believed is aimed at undermining the US and NATO.

Some of the actions Moscow is accused of participating in include sending operatives to support an armed faction in Libya and providing political legitimacyand maybe even supplies to the Taliban in Afghanistan. These moves come on top of their overt dispatching of warplanes and ships to target the political opponents of its ally in Syria.

Referring to U.S. Central Commands (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), which includes 20 countries stretching from Northeast Africa across the Middle East to Central and South Asia, the top American commander in charge of that region said he believes Russia is trying to expand its influence there.

It is my view that they are trying to increase their influence in this critical part of the globe, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Joseph Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committeethis month.

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US Military Concerned Russia Expanding into Obama Power Vacuums: Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt - Breitbart News

Americas commander for its military role in the North African state of Libya calls it a powder keg. What he doesnt and probably couldnt explain is why the fate of Libya matters to the United States.

Libya has borders on Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and the Mediterranean Sea. The only habitable part of Libya is the coastal strip. The rest is almost entirely desert, although Libya does have oil.

The United States joined with France, Italy, Britain and some Arab states in 2011 to overthrow Libyas then-leader, Moammar Gadhafi, in power for 42 years since he led the overthrow of King Idris in 1969. Gadhafi was caught and killed by militia forces and since then Libya has ended up in a state of chaos, with three different regimes now claiming legitimacy. Many different militias operate, some independent, some intermittently supporting one of the three governments.

In the meantime people-smuggling continues unabated in the absence of a government, and Libyas oil production, normally its only meal ticket, drops, with even its oil ports changing hands periodically.

There is no good reason to remain in Libya except oil, if we needed it, and the fact that various components of al-Qaida and the Islamic State have been able to maintain their places there in the shelter of Libyan governmental incoherence.

Why the United States feels any need to involve itself in the affairs of Libya, particularly with military force, is impossible to explain to the American public.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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EDITORIAL: US involvement in Libya makes chaos worse - Jacksonville Daily News

The Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord, Fayez Al-Serraj, arrived in Qatar on Saturday on a formal visit to Doha to meet Qatari officials.

The Qatari Foreign Minister, Abdel Rahman Al Thani, received the Libyan delegation headed by Al-Serraj at the Royal Palace and reaffirmed his countrys support for the political process and unity in Libya.

We will keep pushing for efforts to establish accord among Libyan parties to help Libya be stable and secure and help all Libyans lead a normal life. The Qatari FM said, according to the media office of the GNA.

On Sunday, Al-Sirraj also met with the Qatari Prince, Tamim Al Thani, and discussed mutual relations and joint interests between the two countries.

The Qatari Prince stressed his countrys commitment to helping Libya and to support the GNA, calling on the international community to be committed to its resolutions and assist the GNA and sanction the parties hindering its work.

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Qatar hosts Libyan PM to reiterate its support for unity government in Libya - Libyan Express