Libya

Benghazi case focuses attention on US interrogation strategy

Ahmed Abu Khattala faced days of questioning aboard the USS New York from separate teams of American interrogators, part of a two-step process designed to obtain both national security intelligence and evidence usable in a criminal prosecution.

The case, still in its early stages, is focusing attention on an interrogation strategy that the Obama administration has used in just a few recent terrorism investigations and prosecutions.

Italy: At least 40 migrants dead at sea, 320 others rescued

The navy said because the rescue was still ongoing it couldn't give exact numbers of dead.

"They are still counting the victims," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters after giving the figure of 320 rescued.

RaiNews24 TV, reporting from the navy rescue coordination center in Rome, said the dead migrants were found in the hold of an overcrowded smugglers' boat.

VIDEO: Coast Guard rescues migrants from boat

The 55 women, 26 minors and 300 men were all safely transferred onto the Coast Guard ship Fiorillo on Thursday.

According to the Coast Guard, the wooden vessel sank shortly after all the migrants were rescued.

Italian police: Migrant survivors say 200 died in shipwreck

The five suspected smugglers — Libyan and Algerian men — were detained a day earlier in Palermo as they disembarked, along with 362 survivors, from an Irish naval vessel that helped in Wednesday's rescue, police said. Six other migrants who survived were helicoptered from sea to the hospital. Twenty-six bodies have been recovered.

VIDEO: Italian Coast Guard rescues migrants off Libya

The group rescued on Tuesday - comprising of 62 women and 24 minors - were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to the Coast Guard

Tens of thousands of migrants have been rescued trying to make the crossing from Libya to Europe since the beginning of this year.

GOP: Still no deal on Clinton testimony to Benghazi panel

The Republicans said this is despite the State Department's pledge to produce 5,000 new pages of documents.

A spokesman for Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said Tuesday that "nothing has changed" since Gowdy balked Saturday at an announcement by Clinton's presidential campaign that she would testify Oct. 22 before the panel. Gowdy chairs the special committee.

35-40 migrants drown off Libya, Save the Children reports

The aid group said some of the 80 survivors who were brought ashore Thursday in Augusta, Sicily, reported the deaths that occurred the previous day.

Details were scarce, but survivors told Save the Children's advisers that the migrants died as the dinghy began taking in water.

The dead were believed to be mostly sub-Saharan Africans from Senegal, Mali and Benin and included at least seven children, the group reported in a statement.

After terror attacks, Tunisia erects fence on Libya border

Habib Essid said construction aimed at rendering the border "impassable" by jihadi fighters and vehicles is expected to run through year-end.

Essid told Tunisian TV late Tuesday that the barrier will cover 168 kilometers (about 105 miles) of border with restive Libya and include fencing, a sand wall, trenches and surveillance posts.

Tunisia's government declared a state of emergency on Saturday — just days after a gunman killed 38 tourists in the coastal resort of Sousse. 

US drone strike kills Islamic State leader

A senior U.S. official said that Tariq bin Tahar al-'Awni al-Harzi, a Tunisian, was killed by a U.S. drone strike and that there were no reports of any civilian casualties in the operation. It was not clear if anyone else was with al-Harzi or if other militants were killed or injured in the strike.

The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

BREAKING: Tunisia beach killer trained with museum gunmen

The revelation confirms repeated fears that the strong presence of the Islamic State group in Tunisia's chaotic neighbour is a direct threat to the country.

"It has been confirmed that the attacker trained in Libya with weapons at the same period as the Bardo attackers," said Rafik Chelli, the secretary of state for the Interior Ministry. "He crossed the borders secretly."