TRIPOLI: The Libyan capital Tripoli’s Mitiga airport halted air traffic on Sunday after the facility was struck by missiles, according to a post on the airport authorities’ Facebook page.
Mitiga is the only working airport in Tripoli, which has been under attack for three months by the eastern-based Libyan National Army commanded by Khalifa Haftar. 

Speaking during a press conference in Benghazi, Libyan National Army Spokesperson, Ahmed Al-Mismari, said the rival government in Tripoli has lost their air force and are relying on drone aircraft.
He also said that any buildings that have erected antennas would be considered a legitimate target for the Libyan army.
During the conference, Al-Mismari showed a video showing that Daesh’s presence in the country is fading.

ALGIERS: Algerian police said Sunday they had opened an investigation after a video circulated online appeared to show protesters being beaten by security forces.
Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Algiers on Friday, the latest in weeks of rallies against the ruling class amid an ongoing political crisis in the country.
In a video widely circulated on social media, two men are seen on the ground being beaten by police officers with batons.
Police chief Abdelkader Kara Bouhadba ordered a probe into the footage “showing clashes with police forces probably during the protest on Friday,” the Directorate General for National Security (DGSN) said in a statement.
The DGSN stressed “the need to investigate… to determine liability and take the measures required by law,” in a message on its Facebook page.
Scuffles broke out at the end of the Algiers rally when police officers grabbed the Berber flag — banned from protests — from demonstrators’ hands and removed it from streetlights.
There was a major police presence at Friday’s rally as demonstrators continued their push for a political overhaul following ailing leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika quitting in April in the face of mass demonstrations.
Interim president Abdelkader Bensalah has called for a national dialogue to pave the way for elections, but demonstrators want top figures from Bouteflika’s era to step aside before polls are held.

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s president has met with the head of Libya’s “recognized” government, following heightened tensions between Turkey and forces loyal to a rival Libyan authority.
In a statement from his office late Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his support for Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj’s forces.
Libya is split between two warring governments. Sarraj leads the weakened Tripoli government in the west, supported by an array of militias.
The Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar rules much of the rest of the country. His ongoing offensive to seize the capital has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the conflict that ousted Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Erdogan called on Haftar’s forces to cease their attacks.
The military commander’s forces has said that Turkish vessels and interests would be considered targets, after accusing Turkey of helping militias allied with the Tripoli government. Six Turkish nationals were freed this week after Turkey threatened action.
The LNA also said it deployed more troops to join the Tripoli fighting.
On Friday, its media center posted footage it says shows “military battalions” that would be sent to the front for the first time. The footage showed dozens of armored vehicles moving in the desert under air cover.
The reinforcements came less than two weeks after Haftar’s forces were driven out of the strategic town of Gharyan, in a surprise attack by militiamen aligned with the Tripoli government.
The UN health agency said the death toll from the fighting around the capital had reached nearly 1000, including 53 who were killed in the airstrike on the Tajoura detention center for migrants.
The World Health Organization said the fighting has wounded over 5,000 others since Haftar launched his offensive on April 4.
Fighters aligned with the government in Tripoli received Turkish-made armored vehicles in May. The LNA said it destroyed Turkish-made drones during the fighting.
In a telephone call Saturday, Erdogan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Libyan crisis, among other topics. Haftar is backed by Russia, along with his Arab allies of the UAE and Egypt.
Haftar’s campaign against Islamic militants across Libya since 2014 won him growing support from world leaders concerned that Libya had become a haven for armed groups and a major conduit for migrants. But critics view him as an aspiring autocrat and fear a return to one-man rule.

KHARTOUM: Aid from Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been deposited into the Central Bank of Sudan and will be used to develop the country, the deputy chief of the ruling military council Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said on Saturday.

He also said that anyone involved in corruption in Sudan should be held accountable, and that a new phase in the history of Sudan has begun which requires everyone to cooperate.  

Dagalo added that improving the conditions of the people and the development of the education and health sectors are top priorities. 

Meanwhile, Sudan’s army ruler General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan vowed on Saturday to protect and implement the power sharing deal agreed with protesters that aims to end the country’s months-long political crisis.
“We, as the military council, promise to protect what has been agreed upon and ensure that it is implemented,” Burhan said in a statement broadcast live on state television.

On Friday, Sudan’s ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups agreed provisionally to share power for three years, bringing thousands onto the streets to hail a first step towards ending decades of dictatorship.
The deal, concluded in the small hours and due to be finalised on Monday, revived hopes for a peaceful transition of power in a country plagued by internal conflicts and years of economic crisis that helped to trigger the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in April.
Relations between the military council that took over from Bashir and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance broke down when security forces killed dozens as they cleared a sit-in on June 3. But after huge protests against the military on Sunday, African mediators brokered a return to direct talks.
After two meetings, the sides agreed early on Friday to “establish a sovereign council by rotation between the military and civilians for a period of three years or slightly more” African Union mediator Mohamed Hassan Lebatt told a news conference.
The council will be led for the first 21 months by the military, and for the final 18 months by civilians, according to a statement from the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded months of protests against Bashir.
The sovereign council will be Sudan’s highest authority. It will comprise five military members and five civilian appointees, with an additional civilian member agreed by the two sides, and the deal will be finalised by Monday, the SPA said.

ALGIERS: Prominent Algerians from various walks of life are trying to craft a plan for presidential elections amid divisions within the country’s democracy uprising.
Opposition former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, Islamist party leaders, academics, journalists and other non-politicians are among those holding a conference Saturday in the seaside resort of Bainem, west of Algiers.
Organizers want it to produce a road map for presidential elections on the protesters’ terms. The country is in political limbo since a stunning revolt helped push out longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April.
Other leading opposition figures refused to take part in Saturday’s conference. They want a new constitution and a transition period led by personalities outside the current regime before holding presidential elections.
Tens of thousands of Algerians held new protests Friday amid extra-high security.