Over 200 migrants attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean were feared to have drowned Wednesday after their overcrowded fishing boat capsized off Libya.

The boat, believed to have been carrying over 600 migrants including women and children, ran into difficulty about 15 nautical miles off Libya and sent out a distress call, which was picked up by the coastguard in Sicily.

The FBI has started investigating Hillary Clinton's controversial use of private email as Secretary of State and has contacted a firm that managed the setup, along with her attorney, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Clinton's electronic correspondence has been under scrutiny since her admission in March that she had used a private account for her email correspondence while secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.

Human Rights Watch called Tuesday on Libyan authorities to immediately investigate the alleged ill-treatment of detainees including a son of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi at a prison in Tripoli.

An undated video published by Arabic news website clearnews on August 2 appears to show officials and guards at al-Hadba prison ill-treating several detainees, including Gadhafi's third-oldest son Saadi, the rights watchdog said.

More than 2,000 people have died so far this year trying to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday, making it the world's most dangerous migrant route.

"Unfortunately, we have now reached a milestone whereby over 2,000 migrants and refugees have died as of this past weekend," IOM spokesman Itayi Virri told reporters in Geneva.

Two Indian teachers who were detained in an area of Libya that the Islamic State group claims to control have been released but two of their colleagues are still being held, the New Delhi government said Friday.

India's foreign ministry said it was able to "secure the release" of the two after the group was detained at a checkpoint around 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Sirte late Thursday and taken to the southern coastal city.

U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon was to hold talks with members of the General National Congress parliament which boycotted a UN peace deal for the conflict-hit country, both sides said Thursday.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya said Leon would hold "consultations" with GNC representatives in Algiers Thursday night and Friday "to discuss ways to reinforce and move forward the dialogue process."

A Libyan court Tuesday sentenced a son and eight aides of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi to death for crimes during the 2011 uprising, in a verdict denounced by rights campaigners.

The United Nations also said it was "deeply disturbed" by the outcome and criticized the trial for failing to meet international standards.

Hillary Clinton will testify publicly on October 22 before a congressional panel probing the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, her presidential campaign said Saturday.

The attack left ambassador Chris Stevens dead, along with three other Americans, and has haunted Clinton as a policy-maker and presidential candidate ever since.

The internationally recognized Libyan government claimed on Friday that Tunisia had foiled a plot to assassinate its acting Interior Minister Moustafa Dabachi, an allegation denied by Tunis.

"There was an attempt to assassinate the interim interior minister in Tunis. We informed the Tunisian authorities and they thwarted it," government spokesman Hatem el-Ouraybi said, adding that a Tunisian had been arrested.

Libyan security forces searching for four Italians kidnapped west of the capital this week have so far made no progress in finding them, an official said Friday.

The four, working for the Bonatti construction company, were near a complex of Italian oil giant ENI in the region of Mellitah when they were nabbed on Monday, the Italian foreign ministry said.