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Oil facility damaged during clashes in western Libyan town
Clashes between government-allied militias in western Libya caused damage to a sprawling oil facility, the state-run oil company said Saturday, the latest blow to the energy sector in the chaos-stricken Mediterranean nation. The fighting erupted Friday in the coastal town of Zawiya between two rival militias allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, which is based in the capital of Tripoli. The National Oil Corp. said the fighting damaged at least 29 sites, including storage tanks, at the Zawiya refinery complex. It said an assessment was continuing to determine the extent of the damage. The refinery is a major source of domestic fuel raising fears of an energy crisis amid the heat of the summer.
Wildfires merge in New Mexico, threatening rural villages
Over a dozen sizable fires were burning in Arizona and New Mexico, destroying dozens of homes and as of Saturday burning more than 174 square miles (451 square kilometers). Winds that howled Friday remained a concern on Saturday in northern New Mexico where two fires merged and quadrupled in size to a combined 66 square miles (171 square kilometers) in mountains and grassland northwest of Las Vegas.
Turkey closes its airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria
Turkey's top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria. Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April. But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.
Russians try to storm Mariupol plant, strike Odesa
Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last corner of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said. The reported assault on the eve of Orthodox Easter came after the Kremlin claimed its military had seized all of the shattered city except for the Azovstal plant, and as Russian forces pounded other cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Explosion at illegal oil refinery in Nigeria kills over 50
More than 50 people have been killed and many wounded in southeast Nigeria in an explosion that rocked an illegal oil refinery, state officials and the police said Saturday. The death toll may be more than 100, according to a report in the Lagos-based Punch newspaper. The fire is reported to have spread to nearby properties.