North Africa

At least ten migrants have died after their Europe-bound boats sank off Libya's coast and some 100 people are missing, coastguard officials and aid groups said on June 10.

Eight bodies were found on an inflatable craft that can carry up to 120 passengers, said Colonel Fathi al-Rayani, head of the coastguard in Garabulli, 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Tripoli.

The boat has become a symbol of the crisis in the Mediterranean: a creaky fishing boat, maybe, or a sagging rubber raft, crowded with refugees seeking a better life on a new shore.

Serbian Ambassador to Libya Oliver Potezica has died in a hospital in Sousse of injuries that he received in a traffic accident in this Tunisian town.

Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed the news on Wednesday.

More than 200 migrants are feared to have died in the Mediterranean over the weekend, according to testimony from survivors, and several bodies, including that of an infant, have washed up on a Libyan beach.

Close to 100 migrants were feared missing after their boat sank off the Libyan coast near Tripoli on Thursday, a coastguard official said.

Coastguard spokesman Ayoub Qassem said 23 migrants were rescued from the craft off Gargaresh, a western suburb of Tripoli. Survivors said the inflatable boat had set off with about 120 people on board.

Humanitarian groups operating rescue ships off the coast of Libya picked up more than 700 migrants out of seven flimsy and overcrowded boats on April 5, the Italian Coast Guard said.

Algerian authorities on April 3 announced their acquisition of 600 historical maps and manuscripts dating back to the country's Ottoman period. 

According to a statement issued by the Algerian Culture Ministry, the documents were purchased last week at a public auction in France. 

There is a spike in demand for property in Greece by foreigners, especially houses, according to research published in a website focusing on property investment in Greece called “spitogatos.gr”. The rise in interest has been particularly evident in January and February by nationals from Arab states, China, Germany and Turkey.

How nice were our dreams when we were entering the "information age." All totalitarian regimes, left and right, had fallen. The correctness of democracy and the market economy were certainly proven. 

The "Arab Spring" had elevated this optimism all together; "Muslim democracy" concepts started being debated. 

Three migrants were killed when a boat carrying at least eight people sank on the Maritza River in northwestern Turkey early on Feb. 22, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.