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Libyans protest against out-of-control militias

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Dozens of protesters marched in Libya’s capital Friday, demonstrating against the out-of-control militias plaguing the country after a late-night battle between two warring factions in Tripoli killed three people. Protesters said they’d give militias stationed in the capital three days before marching on their headquarters and forcing them out. Raising banners that read “Tripoli without weaponry.” protesters called upon the interim government to implement an earlier decision to bring the militias under control. The militias face an end-of-year deadline to disband or join the Libyan security forces, at the risk of losing their government salaries. After the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, former rebels formed armed groups to provide protection amid a security vacuum. They later mushroomed in number and now fight over power and influence. The protests came after intense clashes erupted Thursday night between two rival militias in the heart […]

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Egypt turns to Russia as relations with Washington sour

The Russian foreign and defence ministers will travel to Egypt next week on a visit seen as signalling a growing rapprochement between the two countries as the military-backed authorities in Cairo reach out for new allies and seek to lessen dependence on Washington. A Russian official spokesman said that Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, will discuss issues touching on “military and technical co-operation” – seen as a Russian euphemism for arms sales. Cairo’s relations with Washington , its primary aid donor and military supplier for four decades, have frayed since the coup in July, which ousted the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president. As tensions with Washington increased over the summer culminating in a US decision to withhold part of its annual $1.3bn in military aid, Egyptian officials started to hint that their country would seek a realignment in its foreign relations. […]

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BP to Give Up Control of Big Libyan Oil, Gas Project

LONDON— BP BP.LN -0.72% BP PLC U.K.: London GBp 480.95 -3.50 -0.72% Nov. 7, 2013 3:10 pm Volume : 11.47M P/E Ratio 5.93 Market Cap GBp90.92 Billion Dividend Yield 4.93% Rev. per Employee GBp2,864,460 11/06/13 BP to Give Up Control of Libya… 11/01/13 BP Names Michael Gibbs CIO 10/30/13 India Asks Reliance Industries… More quote details and news » BP.LN in Your Value Your Change Short position PLC is in talks to relinquish control of a major oil and natural-gas project in Libya, a blow to the country as it tries to attract companies to tap Africa’s largest oil reserves. BP is negotiating a deal with Libya’s state-controlled National Oil Co. to transfer a stake in BP’s two Ghadames blocks to NOC subsidiary Arabian Gulf Oil Co., or Agoco, and make it the operator of the venture, according to executives at both NOC and BP. BP is seeking to […]

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Eni Says Libyan Protests Could Block Gas Exports to Italy

By Liam Moloney ROME–Libyan natural gas exports to Italy may grind to a halt if protests at a key terminal continue, Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Italian energy giant Eni SpA (ENI.MI), said Wednesday, indicating that civil unrest in the north African country could interrupt critical supplies to Europe ahead of winter. Protests at the Mellitah terminal are “pushing us to interrupt total [gas] exports to Italy,” said Mr. Scaroni in a radio interview. “This is worrying.” The Mellitah terminal, which is jointly run by Eni and the Libyan National Oil Company, is key to facilitating gas exports via the Greenstream pipeline from Libya to Italy. The pipeline can supply more than 10% of gas demand in Italy. However, Mr. Scaroni played down the risk to Italy’s gas supplies. “I see no problems of supply, there’s plenty from other parts of the world and with the present benevolent [warm] […]

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Labor strikes halt Libyan oil production

TRIPOLI, Libya, Nov. 5 (UPI) — A teachers’ strike in Zawia, Libya, spilled over to the region’s oil refinery, with oil workers leaving their stations, an employee said. The Libya Herald reports roughly 2,000 people work at the plant in western Libya, which has the capacity to process 125,000 barrels of crude oil per day. “They are letting people out but not letting anyone go back in,” one employee told the newspaper Monday. Libya has struggled to return to a pre-civil war oil production level in excess of 1 million bpd. Labor strikes and national security issues have crippled the energy sector since the end of the war in 2011. Rival groups in the east of the country announced last weekend they declared independence for the region known as Cyrenaica. The region hosts some of Libya’s key oil terminals. The Libyan National Oil Co. last week ended a blockade […]

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Heavy gunfire heard in Libya’s capital Tripoli

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Heavy shooting from guns and anti-aircraft weapons erupted early on Tuesday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters witnesses said. The fighting occurred between militias in the eastern Suq al-Juma area, said a militia source with government ties, adding that he had no further information. Reuters reporters in Tripoli could hear intermittent gunfire for three hours. A Facebook website showed what it said were two burned-out cars from the scene of the fighting, though Reuters could not verify its authenticity. An interior ministry official told Reuters he had no information about the shooting. A defense ministry official declined to comment, while no other officials were immediately available. OPEC producer Libya faces chaos and anarchy as the government struggles to rein in militias, gangs and Islamist radicals in a country awash with arms two years after the ouster of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Suq al-Juma was a center […]

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Heavy gunfire heard in Libya's capital Tripoli

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Heavy shooting from guns and anti-aircraft weapons erupted early on Tuesday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters witnesses said. The fighting occurred between militias in the eastern Suq al-Juma area, said a militia source with government ties, adding that he had no further information. Reuters reporters in Tripoli could hear intermittent gunfire for three hours. A Facebook website showed what it said were two burned-out cars from the scene of the fighting, though Reuters could not verify its authenticity. An interior ministry official told Reuters he had no information about the shooting. A defense ministry official declined to comment, while no other officials were immediately available. OPEC producer Libya faces chaos and anarchy as the government struggles to rein in militias, gangs and Islamist radicals in a country awash with arms two years after the ouster of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Suq al-Juma was a center […]

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Deposed Egypt president Mohamed Morsi defiant as trial adjourned

Morsi supporters gather outside Cairo Police Academy on November 4, 2013. Mohamed Morsi and other defendants arrived to the Police Academy, for their trial in the east of Cairo on November 4,2013. Protesters, raised Egypt’s ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi , on Monday defiantly insisted he was the country’s legitimate leader as his trial for inciting violence got off to a raucous start at a heavily-guarded police academy on the outskirts of Cairo. Rejecting the proceedings against him as “cover for a coup”, the former president repeatedly interrupted the presiding judge, who adjourned the hearing when Mr Morsi tried to demand a special trial in accordance with procedures for the impeachment of a president set out in the suspended 2012 constitution. “I am Dr Mohamed Morsi, the president of the republic, and I am present here by force and against my will. The coup is criminal and treasonable,” he […]

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Algeria readies for natural gas overhaul

LONDON, Oct. 31 (UPI) — British energy services provider Petrofac announced it secured a $650 million contract to work to extend the life of a natural gas field in Algeria. Petrofac said it secured the 32-month engineering contract through a partnership with Italian contractor Bonatti. The company said the work is for construction and commissioning of new processing facilities at the Alrar natural gas field in southeast Algeria, in service since 1987. “This development builds on Petrofac’s long history of successful execution in Algeria where we have been operating successfully for more than 15 years,” Subramanian Sarma, managing director for the company’s onshore division, said in a statement Wednesday. Petrofac offered no reserve estimate for Alrar. It’s working alongside BP and others at a complex in southern Algeria expected to produce more than 300 billion cubic feet per year beyond 2013. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said natural […]

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Central Bank falls victim to Libya’s rampant crime, anarchy

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Gunmen rob millions from Libya’s central bank. Boatloads of protesters storm an oil terminal like pirates. Tribesmen block a port – and contradict the prime minister when he tells the nation it will reopen soon. Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions. Ten gunmen intercepted the van on Monday when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch. "The security situation is very bad in Sirte. When I heard about the robbery, I thought I was reading a detective […]

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