Woman powerlifter incurs attack on Russian embassy in Libya

A woman whose actions resulted in an attack on Russian embassy in Libya and evacuation of the Russian diplomats from that country, is a former powerlifter from Siberia, local official said. "(Yekaterina Ustyuzhaninova) is one of my former athletes. She trained (there) about three years ago, going in for bench press and powerlifting," Vitaly Dubrovin, the president of the Novosibirsk regional branch of the International Powerlifting Association, told the RIA Novosti news agency on Friday. Dubrovin added that his trainee was "a good sociable girl." Fifty-one Russian diplomats have been evacuated from the Libyan capital after the armed mobs attacked the embassy in Tripoli on Wednesday demanding to hand them out a Russian woman who has allegedly murdered a Libyan military officer. A group of unidentified gunmen fired at the embassy and attempted to penetrate its territory, but no injuries among the diplomatic staff were reported. The attack followed some media reports that Ustyuzhaninova killed a Libyan military officer for his role in the country's 2011 unrest and stabbed his mother. But other reports said the woman was the wife of the officer and that the murder was caused by marital dispute. All employees of the Russian embassy and their family members crossed the border with Tunisia unharmed on Thursday before being airlifted to Moscow. Some Russian diplomats and embassy's employees stay temporarily in Tunisia in order to maintain work contacts with Libya until the safety of the mission is guaranteed, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.