Free Republic

Tripoli — Libya's eastern zone had already declared political autonomy. This week, it also broke from the state-run oil company. Speaking in Ajdabia, "Political Bureau of Cyrenaica" (PBC) head Ibrahim Said al-Jadhran announced the formation of the "Libyan Oil and Gas Corporation". "The wealth belongs to the entirety of Libya," he told the press on Sunday (November 10th). The Executive Bureau of Cyrenaica issued a resolution to form the new company, which will begin operations in Tobruk before moving to Benghazi. "We are waiting for the reaction of the territories of Tripoli and Fezzan. We hope they co-operate with us,"...

Eastern Libya has declared an autonomous regional government with an official ceremony, challenging the country's weak central government that failed to assume unifying power over rebels and various tribes since the 2011 war toppled Muammar Gaddafi. Leaders of an autonomy movement met on Sunday in the small town of Ajdabiya to launch the government under the name of Barqa, or Cyrenaica as it is also known, supporters said. A pro-federalist television station showed more than 20 ministers taking the oath at a podium decorated with a Cyrenaica flag. They were joined by the tribal leader Ibrahim Jathran, the former head...

Libya is facing its most critical moment since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi with armed groups blockading oil fields and terminals, choking output to a 10th of normal levels and threatening economic disaster. With the government forced to import fuel to keep power stations running and queues growing at petrol stations, the prime minister, Ali Zaidan, has repeatedly threatened to send troops to retake striking ports. But the leader of rebels blockading ports in Cyrenaica, home to the bulk of Libya's oil, said such a move would be tantamount to a "declaration of war". Ibrahim Ali Jathran, commander of troops...

When Paul C. Sereno went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara, in Niger. After preliminary research, Dr. Sereno, a University of Chicago scientist who had previously uncovered remains of the dinosaur Nigersaurus there, organized an international team of archaeologists to investigate what had...

From Greek and Roman shipwrecks to 20th-century warships; from ancient streets with intact buildings and mosaics to amphorae and ingots, the Mediterranean is a subaqueous treasure trove. So BP's plans to drill exploratory oil wells off Libya has raised serious concerns among archaeologists, historians and heritage preservation organisations. The global energy giant says that it will begin the $900m project to drill five exploratory wells in the Gulf of Sirte "before the end of this year" despite the fact that the cause of the blowout of its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico has yet to be determined. The...