What happened to more than 27 tonnes of gold that allegedly disappeared when the Gaddafi regime fell last year?

A report in Lebanon’s Ad-Diar newspaper claims to quote Abdullah Senussi, the former head of intelligence under Muammar Gaddafi, as saying that “huge quantities” of the precious metal are buried in a secret location in the Libyan desert.

Last week’s attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, which killed US ambassador Chris Stevens, is the most significant security incident to have taken place in Libya since the end of the 2011 conflict.

It had an immediate impact on business, with airspace temporarily closed, trade delegations postponed and expatriates relocated to Tripoli or overseas.

Mustafa Abu Shagour, the incumbent Deputy Prime Minister, was elected as Libya's new premier on 12 September after defeating Mahmoud Jibril in a close-run vote in the national assembly.

The US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed on 11 September in what appeared to be an organised and well-armed attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

Libya's 200-member national assembly will elect a new Prime Minister on Thursday, with eight candidates approved to stand in the poll.

The shortlisted runners, who were announced last week, are currently presenting their cases both to the public and to the politicians who will vote for them.

It has now been almost a year since the end of the conflict in Libya, and the country’s economy remains in a state of flux. Against the backdrop of a thorny political transition and a volatile security situation, the business environment has so far thrown up a rather mixed bag of opportunities for both local and foreign companies.

Libya’s Minister of Interior, Fawzi Abdul Ali, tendered his resignation on 26 August following a series of violent attacks on Sufi shrines in Tripoli and Zliten.

Libya's outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) officially handed over power to the newly-elected assembly on 8 August after a ceremony in Tripoli.

The National Transitional Council (NTC), formed in February 2011 at the start of the Libyan uprising, will officially hand over power to the National Congress on Wednesday night.

The transfer of power will be marked with an official ceremony to be held at the conference centre adjoining the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli.

Algeria's Sonatrach and Germany’s RWE Dea have both recently issued packages of tenders related to their planned oil and gas exploration programmes.