Ling Names Her Baby After Rescuer Bill Clinton

Newborn daughter's middle name is Jefferson

Laura Ling, one of two TV reporters who was held captive for five months after straying into North Korea last year, named her newborn baby daughter after the ex-president who secured her release from demented dictator Kim Jong Il.

Ling's brand new baby was dubbed Li Jefferson Clayton, sharing the middle name of former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyong Yang to bargain for the release of Ling and Current TV colleague Euna Lee, reported People magazine. The kid's first name is a nod to Ling's sister, Lisa, who lobbied tirelessly for their freedom.

Ling and Lee were released on Aug. 4, 2009, flying home in a dramatic return with Clinton. Shortly after that, she learned she was pregnant with husband Iain Clayton's child. Ling, 33, and financial analyst Clayton, 43, welcomed ther daughter at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, Calif. She weighed 8 lbs., 2 oz.

"Her parents are too speechless," Laura's sister Lisa Ling, former co-host on The View – and now a correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show – told People.

Ling  told tha magazine last month that Clinton has kept in touch with her.

"He has checked in on me several times to see how I'm doing," she said. "He's such a wonderful human being."

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