Word: libya
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...perks of one-man rule is picking your national holidays. Libya's Col. Muammar Gaddafi has invented a few fêtes for his North African nation since seizing power in a 1969 coup. Three years ago, during stalled negotiations with Italy over reparations for Rome's colonial rule in Libya, he added another: Oct. 7 became "Vendetta Against Italians...
...unprecedented act of contrition by a former European colonial power, Italy has formally apologized for its past injustices during its 30-year reign in Libya early last century, and agreed to pay $5 billion in reparations to Tripoli. Gaddafi promptly declared Aug 30 - the day the deal was inked in - Libyan-Italian Friendship...
...Berlusconi insists that Libya has inched back into the international community, and that the hefty dollar figure includes a large portion in investment projects that will benefit Italian companies, including a long planned major highway to link Algeria to Tunisia and Egypt. Gaddafi also announced that Italy will get preferential deals on his country's oil and gas reserves, and threw in the return of an ancient Venus statue taken to Rome during colonial times as a sign of goodwill...
...Daniel Moeckli, a Middle East expert at the Center for Security Studies in Zurich. "Obviously, that is not a democracy." As for the threat of an oil embargo, "I am skeptical that the Libyans would carry it out," says Rolf Hartl, managing director of Swiss Oil Association, noting that Libya delivers 49% of Switzerland's supply of crude oil and owns one of the country's two refineries; those business ventures yield annual revenue of between $2 and $3 billion. "I believe they will calm down eventually, come to their senses and see what's at stake. Cutting...
...experts agree on one point: should Libya definitely halt its oil delivery, Switzerland's supply will not suffer, and the price per gallon will not increase. Hartl says the country has sufficient reserves to last four and a half months - "enough time to find other sources, such as African and central Asian countries." Meanwhile, a hastily arranged Swiss delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey was dispatched to Tripoli yesterday to keep the crisis from escalating further. Given the ire in Libya, that might be one of the toughest tests of diplomacy the normally unctuous Swiss have ever...