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Secretary Clinton Is In Libya To Unveil New Aid, Hail Country's Freedom

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Tripoli today and while in Libya will both congratulate the Libyan people on their freedom from Moammar Gadhafi and announce several new types of aid headed their way from the U.S., NPR's Jackie Northam reports.

Clinton will hail Libya's "new beginning," says Jackie, who is among the reporters traveling with the secretary and called our Newscast Desk a short time ago. And among the initiatives she will announce are donations of medical equipment, plans to bring some of the most seriously wounded victims of the conflict to the U.S. for treatment and a joint effort with Oberlin College of Ohio to map and document the many historical sites in Libya.

Clinton is the highest-level U.S. official to visit Libya since the Gadhafi regime's collapse. For security purposes, her visit to Libya was kept secret until after she had arrived.

According to The Associated Press, "the fresh aid Clinton is bringing totals about $11 million and will boost Washington's contribution to Libya since the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi began in February to roughly $135 million."

The AP adds that:

"Clinton [will] also raise the case of the Lockerbie bombing with Libyan officials. Last month, Scotland asked Libya's new authorities to help track down those responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town. It killed 270 people, most of them American. The only person charged with the bombing — former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi — was freed on compassionate grounds in 2009 because of illness. His release infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.