TASS (, "Soobshchyeniye TASS"). TASS included affiliated news agencies in all 14 Soviet republics in addition to Russia: RATAU (Ukrainian SSR, now Ukrinform), BelTA (Byelorussian SSR), ETA (Estonian SSR), Latinform (Latvian SSR, now LETA), ELTA (Lithuanian SSR), ATEM (Moldavian SSR, now Moldpres), Armenpress (Armenian SSR), Gruzinform (Georgian SSR), Azerinform (Azerbaijan SSR, now AZERTAC), UzTAG (Uzbek SSR, now UzA), KazTAG (Kazakh SSR, now Kazinform), KyrTAG (Kyrgyz SSR, now Kabar), Turkmeninform (Turkmen SSR, now TDH) and TajikTA (Tajik SSR, now Khovar). Over the history other affiliates existed, e.g. KarelfinTAG for the Karelo-Finnish SSR. TASS news and photos were received by 4,000 Soviet newspapers,
Jamahiriya News Agency Jamahiriya News Agency The libya News Agency, also known as wal, was the official state news agency of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. It continues to operate online on WordPress.com. It was founded in 1964 as the Libyan News Agency by a royal decree, amended in 1970 after the 1969 coup d'état and fall of the Kingdom of Libya. It was taken off the air during the Battle of Tripoli in August 2011, as rebel forces overran the capital. Under Muammar Gaddafi's government, the agency was the only authorised distributor of foreign news and most domestic news in the country. It