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A U.S. intelligence report for the first time links China’s largest telecommunications company to Beijing’s KGB-like intelligence service and says the company recently received nearly a quarter-billion dollars from the Chinese government. The disclosures are a setback for Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s efforts to break into the U.S. telecommunications market. The company has been blocked from doing so three times by the U.S. government because of concerns about its links to the Chinese government. The report by the CIA-based Open Source Center states that Huawei’s chairwoman, Sun Yafang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department before joining...

In a complete reversal of his incessant attacks against the Egyptian government since the 2013 revolution and coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a massive media and diplomatic campaign to mend ties with Egypt.Talks scheduled for this week could open the door to closer relations, and help end a battle for control in Libya, where Egypt and Turkey have backed opposing forces.Erdogan’s ruling AKP party recently proposed a parliamentary friendship group with Egypt. But Erdogan finds himself increasingly isolated and facing a severe economic crisis at home. The already weak Turkish Lira approached an all-time low versus the...

The Tripoli Court of Appeal on Monday overturned an earlier verdict to exclude Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar from this month’s presidential elections, according to local media.The private Libya Al-Ahrar TV said the court ruled to allow Haftar to run in the Dec. 24 polls.Last week, a court in the western city of al-Zawiya issued a ruling to exclude Haftar from the vote.Last month, a Libyan court had disqualified Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi, from the polls, before he appealed the verdict.On Wednesday, Libya’s elections commission is expected to announce a final list of candidates for...

In 2009 or 2010, three looted sculptures were taken from the ancient city of Palmyra. Several years later, customs officers in Switzerland seized them at a Geneva freeport. At last, they’re heading home to Syria, the Art Newspaper reports. The three sculptures date back to the second and third centuries B.C.E., when Palmyra was still a nexus of trade, possibly during the rule of Queen Zenobia. One of the sculptures is a bust of a priest wearing a ceremonial headpiece. The sculpture was badly damaged by the looters when they removed it from the site, as the head once had...

A delegation led by the mayor of Banibangou was ambushed on Tuesday about 50 km (30 miles) from the town, near the border with Mali. The area is overrun by militants associated with a local affiliate of Islamic State that has killed hundreds of civilians in rural communities this year. A poverty-stricken, arid zone of west Africa encompassing the borderlands of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso has been racked by violence in recent years as armed groups, some linked with al-Qaeda, have sought to establish control over communities and rid the region of local and international military forces. Thousands of...

CAIRO -- Libya’s ruling presidential council said Saturday that it suspended the county’s chief diplomat, accusing her of not coordinating foreign policy with the council. The three-member body, which serves as Libya’s president, also barred Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush from traveling abroad pending an investigation into what it described as monopolization of foreign policy, according to a decree by the council.

ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP) — Libya’s rival sides reached an initial agreement Friday on the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries from the North African nation, the United Nations said, a key step toward unifying the warring sides in violence-wracked country... ...The U.N. mission mediating between the rivals said a 10-member joint military commission, with five representatives from each side, inked a “gradual and balanced” withdrawal deal Friday, at the end of three-day, U.N.-facilitated talks in Geneva...

Founded by the Phoenicians and later conquered by the Romans, the ancient city of Leptis Magna in Lybia is often described as the "Rome of Africa". UNESCO classified these ancient ruins as a World Heritage Site. In 2016, this site along with four others were placed on the list of endangered sites. For the head of the Leptis Magna Control Committee, neglect is the greatest enemy. "The threats that this city faces are indirect. Such threats come in different forms such as the lack of supplies, which never existed in the first place, the fact that archaeological missions have been...

Let's not forget the other attack that occurred nine years ago today in Libya. A shameful ethical, moral, and policy failure. Four Americans died from what is at least negligence and maybe worse on the part of the regime then in power, and then they lied about it. The stand-down order only makes it worse. As we remember those who perished in the terrorist attack on our country on this date in 2001, let us also remember the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty.

President Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is one of the key officials fending off criticism. He was doing much the same after another bungled government action in a different Islamic country nearly nine years ago: Libya Benghazi The Obama administration, including Sullivan, who was then Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, heaped public blame for the attacks upon a "spontaneous mob inspired by an anti-Muslim video." However, emails showed all U.S. officials knew from the earliest moments that the attacks were planned and executed by an Islamic terrorist group. In the Afghan debacle, fault is...

Libya's weak new government needs to strike a deal with strongman Haftar to stay afloat.A businessman with Gaddafi regime ties, Abdelhamid Debaiba defied the odds when a UN-led dialogue chose him as prime minister earlier this month, despite French and Egyptian backing for a rival list led by the east Libyan parliament speaker Aguileh Saleh and west Libyan interior minister Fathi Bashagha. One powerbroker, however, breathed a sigh of relief. Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who launched a devastating war on Tripoli in 2019 only to be defeated and increasingly marginalised, was back in the saddle.

Shortened tile. Full title: Washington Post Runs Glowing Profile of Libyan Islamist Sanctioned by US Treasury for Rocket Attacks on Ambulance Workers Democracy dies in Islamist propaganda. Forget Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, found an even worse Jihadist to rally behind. (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it had imposed sanctions on Libyan Islamist commander Salah Badi, accusing him of undermining security by directing attacks on groups aligned with Libya’s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord. The U.S. State Department said Badi had also been placed under financial sanctions by the U.N....

Last week, though his military forces are deeply engaged in next-door Syria's ruinous civil war, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a military campaign in another former Turkish Ottoman Empire colonial possession: Libya. Don't dismiss the Ottoman link as a quaint historical reference. Ottoman rule influences contemporary Libyan politics in odd but evident ways. Empire connections have some resonance in 21st-century Turkey. Imperial glory may well have psychological import for the authoritarian Erdogan. His nickname is Sultan Recep. European and Middle Eastern media paid close attention to Erdogan's threat to attack Libya's most militarily potent faction, the Libyan...

Sky News contributor Daisy Cousens says with Donald Trump gone "we're going to be at the mercy of Xi Jinping". "Donald Trump was the only thing keeping those dictators, plus Kim Jong Un I must point out, in their place," she told Sky News host Gary Hardgrave. "He was not afraid to stand up to them, he called their bluff. He was able to relate to them in a way that Joe Biden couldn't relate to anyone, let's be real. "Now that he's gone, we're going to be at the mercy of Xi Jinping. If his speech was anything to...

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq agreed to bolster security and economic cooperation at a tripartite summit Sunday that saw an Egyptian head of state visit Iraq for the first time in three decades. The visits by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II came as Iraq seeks to move closer to Arab allies of the United States in the Middle East. Iraq is also seeking to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran, after reportedly hosting talks in April between Tehran and Riyadh. Sisi and Abdullah met Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Mustafa...

On Monday, June 21, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said that his recent meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels opens a "new era" in diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to Erdogan, there are no problems in relations between Turkey and the United States that cannot be solved, and there are much more areas for cooperation. Biden expressed the hope that countries can make real progress. At the same time, the parties did not agree on problematic issues, such as the acquisition by Turkey of Russian S-400 anti-missile systems, violation of...

Washington state congressional candidate Joe Kent, a U.S. Army veteran and Gold Star husband, joined Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today" on Friday to sound off about the politicization of the military establishment he recognized when former President Donald Trump decided to shake up the commander-in-chief role as a political outsider. Kent, who is seeking a primary challenge against Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, R-Wash., – one of ten Republican congresspeople who voted to impeach Trump in January – said Trump didn't "pull any punches" and rankled the Pentagon by trying to "check their math" on certain things. The Defense bureaucracy, Kent claimed,...

Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper WATCH: Biden thinks Syria is Libya. (Made mistake multiple times in G7 speech) Biden confuses Syria with Libya 3 times From RNC Research 12:49 PM · Jun 13, 2021

BUCHAREST, Romania — Government ministers in the former Soviet and communist countries along the Black Sea basin are bracing for President Joe Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia next Wednesday in Geneva. But, analysts are warning them to keep their expectations low. They hope the American president will stand for democratic ideals and support their security, but regional analysts say they may be pawns in a broader geopolitical chess match between great power rivals. From Kyiv to Bucharest, government leaders are attempting to influence Biden ahead of the meeting, underscoring that their democracy depends on the United States and...

The March 2020 attack was in Libya and perpetrated by a Kargu-2 quadcopter drone produced by Turkish military tech company STM “during a conflict between Libyan government forces and a breakaway military faction led by Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army,” the Star reports, adding: “The Kargu-2 is fitted with an explosive charge and the drone can be directed at a target in a kamikaze attack, detonating on impact.” The drones were operating in a “highly effective” autonomous mode that required no human controller and the report notes: “The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets...