Libyan parliament elects independent lawmaker as its president

Libya's new House of Representatives on Monday elected Aguila Saleh Iissa, an independent lawmaker from the eastern town of al-Qobba as its president after its first formal meeting in the Mediterranean town of Tobruk.

Elected in June, the House of Representatives replaces the General National Congress (GNC) in a country where rival militias have turned its two biggest cities to battlefields during three weeks of fighting.

Saleh Iissa is seen as a legalist and had occupied many functions in the judicial sector at the time of the former ruler Muammar Gaddafi.