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From Our Own Correspondent: Libya and Argentina

Libya and Argentina

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Libya and Argentina

Owen Bennett Jones presents insights from BBC correspondents Kevin Connolly and Peter Day.

Owen Bennett Jones presents despatches from BBC correspondents. Kevin Connolly reflects on the many personae of the late Colonel Gaddafi, while Peter Day inspects the rebounding Argentinean economy.

Owen Bennett Jones presents insight, wit and analsis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Kevin Connolly reflects on the many personae of the late Colonel Gaddafi, while Peter Day inspects the rebounding Argentinean economy.

From Motown backing vocalist to desert mystic

In Libya, hopes are sky-high, freedom is in the air and the cold realities of rebuilding a political system are on hold for a while, as people in the country and abroad contemplate the death of Colonel Gaddafi. For decades he attracted accusations and headlines in equal measure. His loyalists fought right to the end, but eventually they were overwhelmed and now their leader is dead. 

Kevin Connolly remembers some of his encounters with Gaddafi in earlier days - and wonders whether he will turn out to have been the last of the "great theatrical tyrants" who change personae as other men change their socks.

Is there life after debt default?

The Presidential election campaign that's just taken place in Argentina was fought largely on economic issues - tax, inflation and trade policy. You may remember that between 1999 and 2002 Argentina was in economic meltdown, with rocketing unemployment and savers literally storming the banks to try and get their money back. But now, some people are wondering whether the country's apparent recovery might in fact serve as a model for Europe's debt-ridden economies. 

Peter Day was in Argentina during that earlier crisis, and he's just been back; he found an unexpectedly resurgent economy, but not as many useful lessons for Greece and the Eurozone as some people believe.

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