Politics of Libya

The Serbian foreign ministry on Sunday set up a crisis response team after the two employees of the country's embassy in Tripoli, Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic, were abducted near the Libyan town of Sabrath.

The ministry said the Libyan authorities have located the abductors who it said are still in Sabrath, and arrested one of them, although the two Serbs remain missing.

The foreign ministers of a number of regional countries have called on all parties to the Libyan Political Dialogue to immediately approve a political agreement brokered by a special U.N. representative following recent meetings to achieve national reconciliation.

Saif al-Islam, a son of Libya's slain leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death over war crimes a Libyan court believes he committed during the 2011 uprising.

Eight other senior members of Gaddafi's regime have also been sentenced including former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi.

Saif al-Islam's death sentence will be performed by a firing squad.

Turkey has called for a speedy political settlement to the Libyan problem a day after a Turkish cargo ship, "Tuna-1," was shelled off the Libyan coast and attacked from the air, killing one and wounding several others. 

Libya?s decision to exclude Turkish companies from contracts does not carry any value given the dispute over political legitimacy in the country, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said.

Ankara has called on the transitional government in Libya to "review its irresponsible attitude and avoid hostile and baseless statements" against Turkey.

Cypriot police authorities have unleashed manhunt in order to track a man of possible Arabic origin who earlier attacked and possibly injured the Libyan Ambassador in Nicosia.

According to protothema.gr sources, an unknown man knocked on the Ambassadors door and then attacked with a knife the person who opened the door.

The five-member crew of a Maltese tanker vessel, including two Bulgarian nationals, has been arrested in Libya for alleged smuggling of oil products.

The Moldova-flagged ship, Sunoil I, and its crew were detained in Tripoli on 3 January, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Turkey has expressed concerns about the escalating violence and political unrest in Libya as its special envoy will head to the northern African country in the upcoming days amid threats to Turkish aircrafts.

Defense Minister ?smet Y?lmaz has reiterated Turkey?s support for Libya?s ?elected Parliament,? while arguing that Turkey supports the territorial integrity of the country, which has been riven with divisions since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.