Rice arrives in Libya on historic visit (AP)
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago
TRIPOLI, Libya - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Libya, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit the North African country in more than a half-century and opening a new chapter in U.S. relations with the one-time pariah state.
Rice touched down in Tripoli on Friday for talks with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to mark the change after five years of halting but steadily improving ties that began when Libya abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism in 2003.
Libya has since agreed to pay compensation to the families of victims of the 1998 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and those of a 1986 attack on a disco in Berlin, which prompted President Reagan to order retaliatory airstrikes on Libyan targets.
Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)" class="newsimage" />