Libya

The unusual rainfall in the Sahara was caused by the northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, bringing equatorial-like downpours to the region

ONGC is also in talks to increase production in Venezuela, Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of India Energy Week event in Goa

Libya's state-owned oil company resumed production at the country's largest oilfield Sunday, ending a more than two-week hiatus after protesters blocked the facility over fuel shortages. The National Oil Corp. said in a terse statement that it lifted the force majeure at the Sharara oil field in the country's south and resumed full production. It didn't provide further details. Force majeure is a legal maneuver that releases a company from its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. The company had activated the maneuver on Jan. 7 after protesters from the desert town of Ubari, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli, shut down the field to protest fuel shortages. Over the past two weeks the company's chief, Farhat Bengdara, and military officials from eastern Libya have been negotiating with the protest leaders, Fezzan Group. Barzingi al-Zarrouk, the protesters' spokesman, announced that they have suspended their protest after they ..

Brent crude futures rose by $2, or 2.63%, to $78.12 a barrel at 1312 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained $2.09, or 2.95%, to $72.86 a barrel

A boat carrying dozens of Europe-bound migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people including women and children dead, the U.N. migration agency said. Saturday's shipwreck was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, where, according to officials, thousands have died. The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said in a statement the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya's western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, citing survivors of the dramatic shipwreck. The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world's most dangerous migration routes, the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The North African nation has plunged into chaos following a

Italy and war-torn Libya on Saturday resumed commercial flights for the first time in a decade, authorities in the Libyan capital said. Flight MT522, operated by the Libyan carrier Medsky Airways, departed Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli for Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, according to Libyan airport authorities. A return flight was scheduled to land in Tripoli on Saturday afternoon, according to Mitiga International Airport. Going forward, there will be one round-trip flight between the Libyan and Italian capitals on both Saturdays and Wednesdays, according to the Mitiga airport announcement. The government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli lauded the resumed flights, posting photos on social media that showed passengers boarding the flight and officials celebrating. Italy and other western nations banned flights from Libya as the oil-rich nation in North Africa plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator

A rapid attribution study found that climate change played a role in the events

Abdel-Hamid al-Hassadi survived the devastating flooding in eastern Libya, but he lost some 90 people from his extended family. The 23-year-old law graduate rushed upstairs along with his mother and his elder brother, as heavy rains lashed the city of Derna on the evening of September 10. Soon, torrents of water were washing away buildings next to them. We witnessed the magnitude of the catastrophe, al-Hassadi said in a phone interview, referring to the massive flooding that engulfed his city. We have seen our neighbours' dead bodies washing away in the floods." Heavy rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel caused the collapse of the two dams that spanned the narrow valley that divides the city. That sent a wall of water several metres high through its heart. Ten days after the disaster, al-Hassadi and thousands of others remain in Derna, most of them waiting for a word about relatives and loved ones. For Hassadi, it's the 290 relatives still missing. The floods inundated as much as

The devastating storm that dumped torrential rains along the Libyan coast this month was up to 50 times more likely to occur and 50% more intense because of human-caused climate change, according to an analysis released on Tuesday. Before crossing the Mediterranean, the storm raged for four days and caused extensive damage in central Greece and parts of Bulgaria and Turkey, a region where such extreme storms are up to 10 times more likely and up to 40% more intense because of climate change, scientists said. Heavy one-day rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel caused massive flooding across eastern Libya that overwhelmed two dams, sending a wall of water through the coastal city of Derna that destroyed entire neighborhoods and swept bridges, cars and people out to sea. The death toll has varied, with government officials and aid agencies giving tallies ranging from about 4,000 to 11,000 dead. The analysis was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, which aims to quickly ...

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The warnings were clear but went unheeded. Experts had long said that floods posed a significant danger to two dams meant to protect nearly 90,000 people in the northeast of Libya. They repeatedly called for immediate maintenance to the two structures, located just uphill from the coastal city of Derna. But successive governments in the chaos-stricken North African nation did not react. In the event of a big flood, the consequences will be disastrous for the residents of the valley and the city, Abdelwanees Ashoor, a professor of civil engineering, wrote in a study published last November in the Sabha University Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences. The warnings came true in the early hours of September 11, when residents of Derna woke up to loud explosions before floodwaters pounded the Mediterranean city. They found that two dams had broken, unleashing a wall of water two stories high that wreaked destruction and swept entire neighbourhoods out to sea. The deluge proved deadly

The deputy spokesperson said the death toll figures are fluid and "can go upward or downward"

Zahra el-Gerbi wasn't expecting much of a response to her online fundraiser, but she felt she had to do something after four of her relatives died in the flooding that decimated the eastern Libyan city of Derna. She put out a call for donations for those displaced by the deluge. In the first half-hour after she shared it on Facebook, the Benghazi-based clinical nutritionist said friends and strangers were already promising financial and material support. It's for basic needs like clothes, foods and accommodation, el-Gerbi said. For many Libyans, the collective grief over the more than 11,000 dead has morphed into a rallying cry for national unity in a country blighted by 12 years of conflict and division. In turn, the tragedy has ramped up pressure on the country's leading politicians, viewed by some as the architects of the catastrophe. The oil-rich country has been divided between rival administrations since 2014, with an internationally recognized government in Tripoli and a riv

The figure could reach 20,000, according to Derna's mayor, Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi, given how many neighbourhoods were affected

Libyan authorities blocked civilians from entering the flood-stricken eastern city of Derna on Friday so search teams could look through the mud and wrecked buildings for 10,100 people still missing after the known toll rose to 11,300 dead. The disaster after two dams collapsed in heavy rains and sent a massive flood gushing into the Mediterranean city early Monday underscored the storm's intensity but also Libya's vulnerability. The oil-rich state since 2014 has been split between rival governments in the east and west backed by various militia forces and international patrons. Derna was being evacuated and only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter, Salam al-Fergany, director general of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in eastern Libya, announced late Thursday. The disaster has brought rare unity, as government agencies across Libya's divide rushed to help the affected areas, with the first aid convoys arriving in Derna on Tuesday evening. Relief efforts have been

According to workers, mortuaries are overflowing in hospitals that are still closed despite the pressing need to treat disaster survivors

Authorities say that around 10,000 more are missing, potentially either swept out to sea or buried beneath rubble that's strewn throughout the city once home to over 100,000 people

Emergency workers uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya's eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and it was feared the toll could spiral with 10,000 people reported still missing after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighbourhoods of the city. The death toll in Derna alone has exceeded 5,300, the state-run news agency quoted Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry, as saying on Tuesday. Derna's ambulance authority earlier put the toll at 2,300. The startling death and devastation wreaked by Mediterranean storm Daniel pointed to the storm's intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by chaos for more than a decade. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas. Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck. The floods damaged or ...

Libya's eastern city of Derna has buried 700 people killed in devastating flooding and 10,000 were reported missing as rescuer teams struggled to retrieve many more bodies from the horrific deluge, officials said Tuesday. Mediterranean storm Daniel on Sunday night caused havoc and flash flooding in many towns in eastern Libya but the worst destruction was in Derna, where heavy rainfall and floods broke dams and washed away entire neighbourhoods, authorities said. The situation is catastrophic," said Othman Abduljaleel, the health minister in Libya's eastern government. The bodies are still lying on the ground in many parts (of the city). Hospitals are filled with bodies. And there are areas we have yet to reach. Authorities estimated earlier that as many as 2,000 people may have perished in Derna alone. The Ambulance and Emergency Authority, which coordinates search and rescue efforts, said about 2,300 people died in Derna but did not clarify what that figure was based on. Tamer ..