UN: Over 160 migrants drown in shipwrecks off Libya

BY SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — A United Nations official says more than 160 migrants drowned in two separate shipwrecks off Libya over the past week. The fatalities were the latest disasters in the Mediterranean Sea involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe. The deaths have brought the tally in the central Mediterranean route to around 1,500 migrants who drowned this year. Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.