From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishLibyaLib‧y‧a /ˈlɪbiə/ an oil-producing country in North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea. Population: 6,173,579 (2007). Capital: Tripoli. Colonel Gaddafi became leader in 1969 and introduced a new political and economic system that was based on Islam, and which was different from both communism and capitalism. For many years the relationship between Libya and the West was not good. In 1986 the US bombed Libya, and two men from Libya were blamed when a US plane exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. Libya attempted to improve its relationship with the West by admitting that it was responsible for Lockerbie and announcing that it did not intend to develop weapons of mass destruction. In 2011, following a civil war, NATO military forces helped to remove Libya's leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, from power. Since then the country has been governed under a temporary constitution (=set of laws). —Libyan noun, adjective
