September 4, 2008 - 11:00pm
By Therese Lahlouh
In an unprecedented political move, Italy has agreed to pay $5 billion in reparations to Libya for its 32-year occupation of the country over half a century ago. According to the BBC, Libya is the first African country to be compensated for colonial rule.
Libya, which seceded to the Italians in 1911 from the Ottoman Empire, became a unified Italian colony in the early 1930s. Italy relinquished claims to the country in 1947, and Libya officially declared independence in 1951.