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Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans, died yesterday in Libya, at the age of 60. His death comes nearly three years after Scotland released him from prison on humanitarian grounds, and eleven years his conviction for planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. John Ashton is Megrahi’s biographer and the author of "Megrahi: You Are My Jury," and Eileen Monetti's 20-year-old son Rick was returning from an academic semester abroad on Pan Am 103.

With the first Libyan elections in 40 years just a month away, the shadow of the Gaddafi regime looms large. The National Transitional Council (which holds power in Libya until those elections) recently passed a law that criminalizes glorifying Gaddafi as well as offending the revolution. Bob speaks with Libya Herald editor Sami Zaptia about the implications of the law for speech in Libya.

Journalists have become increasingly reliant on digital technology in their work, but weak or nonexistent digital security measures open their sources to risk of exposure. Brooke speaks to journalist Matthieu Aikins about the need for reporters to take more precautions to protect their digital information, especially in conflict areas.

The debate over whether to intervene in Syria continues, and many questions remain. What role would the U.S. play in an intervention? How should Americans engage the international community? Should we arm the Syrian opposition? 

Today we have the opportunity to reflect on the U.S.’s role in two recent conflicts. One year ago today, the American troops joined their French and British counterparts on the battlefield in Libya. Nine years ago today, the U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. What have we learned from these conflicts, and how do they inform U.S. foreign policy today? 

After Ben-Ali fled Tunisia, and Mubarak ran from Egypt, the Libyan revolution began in Benghazi and then traveled east, to Tripoli. After an intense civil war bolstered by international support, Moammar Gadhafi’s 40-year reign finally ended last October in his hometown of Sirte. As Libyans celebrate the anniversary of their revolution, the state of their government is still in flux, and the role of women in Libyan civic life is particularly uncertain.

Iman Traina escaped from Libya in April, fleeing on a boat  with her baby as Moammar Gadhafi's forces moved on Misrata. When she was last on the program, she reported not having clean water, lack of food and electricity. After spending many months in Ireland, she is home again. Traina says things have gotten much better in Libya and looks and hopes to settle down, raise her children, and rebuild her country.

Moammar Gadhafi may be gone, and Libya may be free, but for the nation's women, the battle is just beginning. After being marginalized in the deeply conservative, male-dominated country for the 42 years of the Gadhafi regime, Libya's women are struggling to play a more assertive role in their country. Women already head two ministries in the new government — health and social affairs. Caroline Hawley, correspondent for the BBC, filed this report.

The seven month NATO operation that helped rebels in Libya drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi from power has been heralded as a model air war that utilized technology to deliver blunt force while minimizing civilian causalities. But according to an investigation by The New York Times, dozens of Libyan civilians were killed by NATO airstrikes during the operation, which ended on October 31. The Times estimates that between 40 and 70 people, including at least 29 women and children, were killed by NATO.

A $16 million house on London's "Millionaire Row" could be the first Gadhafi family asset in the UK to be returned to the Libyan government. The luxury property with more than a half-dozen bedrooms and an indoor swimming pool is currently occupied by a group of squatters from an organization called Topple the Tyrants, but attorneys have discovered that it is actually belongs to Saadi Gadhafi, a son of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi. 

Confidential documents found in Libyan government offices show a group of Americans tried to assist Col. Moammar Gadhafi and his family flee the country for at least $10 million. The group, which called themselves the "American Action Group," also offered Gadhafi lobbying services to sway the U.S. government to support his regime after NATO became its bombing campaign. Made up of a former CIA officer, a Kansas City lawyer, a GOP operative, and a terrorism expert, the group claims their goal was to avoid a Libyan civil war, not to help Gadhafi. Scott Shane broke the news for The New York Times. He discusses the details of the story.

On April 5, freelance journalist Clare Morgana Gillis was violently captured by loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi while reporting from the front lines of the Libyan conflict. She was captured alive, along with two other journalists, when gun-wielding loyalists surrounded the group near the eastern Libyan oil town of Brega. A South African photojournalist who was with the group at the time of the capture was shot and killed in the melee.

In August, The Takeaway first spoke with Matthew VanDyke and his mother Sharon. VanDyke, an American who described himself as a journalist, was captured by loyalists to Moammar Gadhafi in Brega, and held in solitary confinement for six months, before escaping on August 24. He finally escaped captivity in August, but has stayed on in Libya out of a sense of loyalty to the other men he was imprisoned with, joining the NTC fighters. Over the weekend, VanDyke returned home after eight months.

A number of peculiar stories have emerged since the demise of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. There was the story about his crush on former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, which she has called "weird and a bit creepy." Rice may not have liked Gadhafi's attention, but Louis Schlamowitz, an 81-year-old Jewish florist from Brooklyn, was happy to have corresponded with him for a number of years. A hobby collector of over 6,000 autographs, Schlamowitz first wrote to Gadhafi in the late 1960s and continued to receive letters from the dictator for forty years.

After four decades of tyrannical rule, and a bloody seven month uprising with the assistance of the international community, a new chapter begins in Libya today. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced the end of the alliance's seven month mission in Libya on Monday. Shortly thereafter, Libya's National Transitional Council elected a new interim prime minister.

It's been a week and a half since rebels killed Muammar Gadhafi, after taking his hometown of Sirte. Libya is now a country in the midst of healing old wounds and trying to rebuild a nation. Dr. Catherine Mullaly, an anesthesiologist with Massachusetts General Hospital, was working in Qasr Ahmed Hospital in Misrata the day Gadhafi was captured and killed. She’s just returned from a six week assignment there with Médecins Sans Frontières, and shares what she saw in the days after Gadhafi's death.

Libyan officials confirmed on Tuesday that the body of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, his son Muatassim, and former Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis were buried at dawn in a secret location. Questions over how and when to dispose of the former dictator's body created a challenge for Libya's transitional government. Islamic law dictates that burial should happen within a day after death, but Libya's National Transitional Council took several days to decided how to act. Katya Adler, correspondent for the BBC, reports on the latest from Tripoli.

When Anne-Marie Slaughter joined the Obama administration as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's director of policy planning she became the first woman to hold the position. In February, Slaughter left the job as protests were beginning in Libya. Since leaving office, she's been very vocal about her concerns regarding the U.S. approach to Libya through blogging for The Atlantic, appearing on many news outlets, and maintaining an active presence on Twitter. 

Libya's new leadership officially declared liberation in Benghazi, the revolution's birthplace, on Sunday. It officially brought to a close the civil war that ended Moammar Gadhafi's rule over Libya and marks the start of a two-year transition to democracy.

It’s been ten months since the series of revolutions and protests known as the Arab Spring sprung out across the region. It began in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Tunisians go to the polls this Sunday in the first democratic elections of the Arab Spring. How will the developments in Libya may affect the entire region, particularly the elections in Tunis and then Egypt?