NPR News 2013-01-21 加文本

NPR News 2013-01-21

From NPR News, I'm Nora Raum.

President Obama's second term is officially underway after a private ceremony this morning at the White House.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear

I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear

that I will faithfully execute

that I will faithfully execute

the office of President of the United States

the office of President of the United States

Chief Justice John Roberson administers the oath of office. The Constitution requires the president take the oath before noon on January 20. He and Roberson will repeat the process tomorrow in front of hundreds of thousands of people at the public ceremony outside the US capital.

Algerian bomb-disposal teams are searching through the gas plant in the Sahara following the end of a four-day siege there. Officials say another 25 bodies have been found. It's not clear whether they're hostages or militants. As of yesterday, 23 foreign hostages were killed. But Algerian officials had expected that number to rise. NPR's Phillip Reeves has more.

Algerian forces are combing through the vast gas complex for explosives some booby traps. Reports say they found guns, grenades and suicide jackets. Now the Associated Press says they found more corpses. The Agency says it has been told by an unnamed security official that Algerian bomb squads have found numerous new bodies. The source reportedly said they are too badly disfigured to identify and could be either Algerian or foreign hostages. According to the Algerian Interior Ministry, 32 Islamist militants were killed during the siege which began when they stormed the gas plant seizing many hostages and threatening to blow up the place. Phillip Reeves, NPR News, London.

In Afghanistan, a new report by the United Nations says torture and abuse continue to be widespread in Afghan-run Detention Centers. NPR's Shorn Carberry reports as a result of the findings, NATO has suspended transferring detainees to some Afghan facilities.

Despite a variety of new protocols and training measures by Afghan Security Forces, the UN says allegations of torture increased in a number of facilities compared to the previous year. Overall, the report found that half the detainees interviewed over a one-year period provided credible evidence of ill-treatment, most often physical abuse to coerce confessions. One UN official involved in the study said that there is a persistent lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture with few investigations and no prosecutions. The Afghan government claims the level of torture in the report is exaggerated. Shorn Carberry, NPR News, Kabul.

Military officials in Yemen say at least eight suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed in Yemen last night in two drone strikes believed to have been carried out by the US. The attacks were in the southern part of the country where al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is active. Western governments consider that group to be one of the most active and dangerous wings of al-Qaeda.

This is NPR News.

The trial of five men accused of the rape and murder of a woman on a bus in New Delhi last month is scheduled to begin tomorrow. It's to take place in a special fast-track court set up for this case. A sixth suspect will be tried in a juvenile court. Authorities say 40 rapes have been reported in the last two weeks of the year after the December 16 gang rape of the 23-year-old student.

Accused online pirate, Kim Dotcom has launched a new file-sharing website. Stewart Cowen reports from Sydney. The new site went online a year after Dotcom was arrested in New Zealand.

It's been exactly one year since US authority shut down Megaupload, one of the world's largest file-sharing websites. New Zealand police raided the home of its founder, Kim Dotcom, arresting him and several other his associates. But the case has slowly been falling apart in New Zealand courts as the US tries to have Dotcom extradited. Now he has launched a new file-sharing website based in New Zealand called Mega. Dotcom's lawyer says they are satisfied that the website is perfectly legal. It features state-of-the-art encryption so that only users know what's being uploaded that could stop authorities from accusing the site of aiding online piracy, the key allegation in the Megaupload case. Dotcom claims the site's registered more than half a million users in its first 14 hours. For NPR News, I am Stewart Cowen in Sydney.

By the end of the day, we should know which teams are going to the Super Bowl. The Atlanta Falcons are hosting San Francisco 49ers to determine the winner of the NFC championship. That game is getting underway right now. Later Baltimore Ravens will play the New England Patriots in Massachusetts for the AFC championship. The winners will meet on February 3 in the Super Bowl.

I am Nora Raum, NPR News.