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A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 10 May 2019
UK opposition campaigns, govt lies low, in EU election

By JILL LAWLESS trying to appeal to both
LONDON (AP) — Britain's sides of the Brexit divide.
opposition parties were out Labour favors leaving the
campaigning Thursday for EU on its own terms, but
the upcoming European opposes the government's
Parliament election. The Brexit deal, which has been
governing Conservatives rejected by Parliament
just wished it wasn't hap- three times. Labour and the
pening. government are holding
For months, Prime Minis- talks about striking a com-
ter Theresa May's govern- promise agreement, so far
ment promised this elec- without success.
tion wouldn't be held in Under Corbyn, a long-time
Britain, because the coun- critic of the EU, Labour says
try would have left the Eu- it won't try to overturn vot-
ropean Union by now. But ers' decision to leave the
Brexit is on hold amid po- EU. But Corbyn said Labour
litical deadlock, and so Brit- would support a new refer-
ons will vote May 23 for law- endum on membership in
makers to fill 73 U.K. seats in the bloc if that is the only
the 751-seat EU legislature. Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn launches his party's European election campaign at way to stop "the govern-
The contest is, inevitably, the University of Kent in Chatham, Thursday May 9, 2019. ment's bad deal" or a cha-
dominated by Brexit. Associated Press otic no-deal Brexit.
The U.K.'s biggest op- The ambiguity infuriates
position party, Labour, Labour leader Jeremy Cor- voted in the EU referen- to bring our divided coun- many Labour members,
launched its campaign byn said at a rally in Gill- dum. The real divide is be- try back together," Corbyn who believe the party
Thursday with an attempt ingham, southern England, tween the many and the said. would do better at the polls
to appeal to Brexit-backers that "the real divide in our few." But the left-of-center party if it adopted a firmly anti-
and pro-Europeans alike. country is not how people "A vote for Labour is a vote is walking a tightrope by Brexit stance.q

Libya's eastern government says it won't rule by force

By MASHA MACPHERSON peace process aimed at
Associated Press unifying the country. He
PARIS (AP) — The govern- also claimed to have re-
ment in eastern Libya allied duced the number of
with forces attacking the armed groups in Tripoli from
capital does not want to 115 to no more than five,
rule the country by force, its all of which he said were
foreign minister said Thurs- integrated into the security
day. forces.
The Benghazi-based gov- Libya has been split be-
ernment is allied with Field tween rival authorities in
Marshal Khalifa Hifter's east and west since 2014,
self-styled Libyan National with each side backed by
Army, which controls most various militias. Hifter's forc-
of eastern and southern es have battled Islamic ex-
Libya and launched an of- tremists and other rival fac-
fensive in Tripoli, in the west, tions across eastern Libya,
last month. Hifter's forces and recently made inroads
are battling militias loosely in the south.
allied with a weak, U.N.- He presents himself as a
recognized government strong hand that can re-
there. store stability after years of
"We want to put an end to chaos, which have trans-
the crisis, the war and divi- formed Libya into a haven
sions," Abdulhadi Lahweej Abdulhadi Lahweej, Libya's foreign minister in the Benghazi-based government gestures during for armed groups and a
told The Associated Press in an interview with the Associated Press in Paris, France, Thursday, May 9, 2019. major conduit for migrants
Paris, where he was meet- Associated Press bound for Europe.
ing with members of parlia- "In clear and simple words,
ment, officials at the foreign will approve of whatever Fayez Sarraj, the head of In an interview with France we do not want to rule the
and defense ministries, and the people choose," he the Tripoli-based govern- 24, Sarraj said Hifter's of- Libyan people," Lahweej
business representatives. said. ment, was also in Paris this fensive was a "coup" that said. "We only want to bring
"Our goal is not to rule or to Hifter's opponents view him week, where he met with should be condemned back the state. We want to
establish a military govern- as an aspiring strongman President Emmanuel Ma- internationally as "an at- bring security and stability.
ment. We want a civil state in the mold of Moammar cron as part of a swing tempt to take power by We want to control bor-
based on institutions and Gadhafi, whose overthrow through European capitals weapons, by force." ders. We want Libya not to
human rights. We want a in a 2011 NATO-backed up- aimed at building support He added, however, that be a place for terrorists or a
government that the Liby- rising plunged the country for his embattled govern- he he was prepared to hub for migration and hu-
an people choose and we into chaos. ment. resume a U.N.-brokered man trafficking."q