Libya has the world's longest-serving leader, Moammar Gadhafi. The oil-rich nation has a more equitable standard of living than neighboring countries, but it is Mr. Ghadafi's crushing, often arbitrary, political system in place more than 41 years that protesters want changed.
Protests began on the 15th of February in the eastern city of Benghazi and have spread to the capital, Tripoli. These protests are an echo of protests in Egypt and Tunisia that ended with their leaders stepping down. Demonstrators in the streets of Libya are demanding the same result.