LIVE: Barack Obama's inauguration

With his wife Michelle at his shoulder, President Barack Obama waves to crowds gather for his ceremonial swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol. Source: AP

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is set for his second inauguration and will begin a second term that he hopes will help unite America.

Mr Obama will take the oath again before the crowd early on Tuesday morning Australia time (live here from 3am AEDT) and is expected to follow the recent tradition of walking at least part of the way back to the White House, surrounded by cheers.

Barack Hussein Obama will raise his right hand and place his left on Bibles once owned by Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and swear the oath of office before mustering for four years threatened by strife at home and abroad

The 44th US president, and the first African American to hold the office, launched his second term with a private swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, before basking in the full pomp of his office with public celebrations today.

People wave American flags as people gather near the US Capitol building on the National Mall for the Inauguration ceremony.

Mr Obama and his family are beginning inauguration day by attending services at St John's Episcopal Church near the White House.

The presidential motorcade arrived shortly after 830am local time (12.30am AEDT) under crisp, cold skies outside the sanctuary. The president and first lady Michelle Obama emerged to pose briefly for photos with their daughters Sasha and Malia before entering the church. The first family sometimes attends Sunday worship at the church, which is across Lafayette Park from the White House.

Vice President Joe Biden and his family also attended.

Mr Obama began inauguration day listening to a church pastor counsel him to use his power to benefit others, and the nation.

Jay-Z and Beyonce arrive at the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

Inside, R&B singer Ledisi, a favourite of Mrs. Obama's, sang a solo titled I Feel Like Goin' On.

The sermon was delivered by Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, who asked what one does when they realise they're the most powerful person in that room. "You leverage that power for the benefit of other people in the room," Stanley said.

To the president, he said: "Mr. President, you have an awfully big room. It's as big as our nation."

Mr Obama stood for a blessing from Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the Tenth Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church. She prayed for the president to be a "soothing presence in the White House when the stress and strain of leadership seeks a resting place."

A vendor sells newspapers at the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

Mrs Obama is wearing a navy Thom Browne coat and dress for her husband's inauguration.

The fabric for the first lady's Inauguration Day attire was developed based on the style of a man's silk tie. The belt she is wearing is from J.Crew and her necklace was designed by Cathy Waterman. She is also wearing J.Crew shoes.

Her daughter Malia is also wearing a J.Crew ensemble. Sasha Obama is wearing a Kate Spade coat and dress.

Mr Obama will set the rhetorical tone for the remainder of his presidency with an inaugural address to a crowd expected to reach half a million, will headline a parade and then waltz with the first lady at glittering inaugural balls.

Musicians John Mayer and Katy Perry attend the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

Bundled-up Obama supporters trekked into town to join snaking lines for Secret Service checkpoints guarding the entry to a steel-fenced secure zone around the White House and the inaugural parade route.

Armoured military vehicles and parked buses blocked major roads, as part of a tight security vice which included air and river exclusion zones, road closures and a heavy presence of police and National Guard reserve troops.

The white domed US Capitol building, draped with huge Stars and Stripes, where Mr Obama was set to take the oath of office at just before 4am AEDT, was etched against the dark pre-dawn sky with spotlights.

Temperatures were forecast for a somewhat comfortable 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, much warmer than the bitter chill that has had crowds shivering at some previous inaugurations.

A woman carries a cardboard cut out of US President Barack Obama as she attends the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

Though the mood was festive, as revellers crammed into coffee shops and subway trains heading downtown, Mr Obama's second inauguration lacks the sense of historic promise and hope that greeted his first term in 2009.

His political brand has been damaged by an exhausting first term battling the worst economic storm in decades and brutal partisan warfare with his Republican rivals, notably over taxes and spending.

Yet Mr Obama, 51, has a legacy to defend, including a historic health care law and a retrenchment from draining wars abroad, and he is vowing to make good on the promise of a fairer economy, which anchored his re-election win.

He signalled late Sunday, at a reception for supporters, that he would dwell on the "common good" and the "goodness, the resilience, neighbourliness, the patriotism," of Americans in his address.

Eva Longoria arrives at the ceremonial swearing-in for President Barack Obama.

"What we are celebrating is not the election or the swearing in of the president, what we are doing is celebrating each other and celebrating this incredible nation that we call home," Mr Obama said.

"And after we celebrate, let's make sure to work as hard as we can to pass on an America that is worthy not only of our past, but also of our future. "

Mr Obama's senior advisor David Plouffe said on Sunday that the president will ask Americans in his inaugural address to remember what unites them, rather than political divisions which have split the country down the middle.

"He is going to talk about how our founding principles and values can still guide us in today's modern and changing world," Mr Plouffe said on US network ABC's This Week.

People crowd the National Mall as they gather to attend the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

"He is going to say that our political system does not require us to resolve all of our differences or settle all of our disputes, but it is absolutely imperative that our leaders try and seek common ground."

In the briefest of ceremonies on Sunday, with family gathered in the White House, Mr Obama took the oath of office shortly before noon, as required by law. With his left hand on a family bible held by first lady Michelle Obama, the 44th president raised his right hand and repeated the time-honored words read out by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Gallery: White House ceremony

The intimate swearing-in met the legal requirement that presidents officially take office on January 20. Because that date fell on a Sunday this year, the traditional public ceremonies surrounding the start of a president's term were put off to Monday, which coincides this year with the birthday of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

President Barack Obama, is greeted by Rev. Luis Leon, as he and his family arrives at St. John's Church in Washington.

Mr Obama, with a slight smile, took the oath on Sunday in a private ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House.

Justice Roberts, who stumbled when swearing in Mr Obama to open his first term in 2009, slowly read each line of the oath out loud, before the president repeated phrases first intoned by George Washington, 224 years ago.

Mr Obama hugged his wife and children Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, before quipping: "I did it" to his youngest daughter.

The cheeky Sasha shot back: "You didn't mess up!"

Lisa Hogue wears pins as she and others gather near the US Capitol.

Michelle Obama later sent a personal tweet saying: "Barack just took the official oath at the @WhiteHouse & used my grandma's bible for the ceremony. I'm so proud of him. -- mo."

The Constitution states that US presidential terms end at noon on January 20. When that date falls on a Sunday, there is a private swearing-in ceremony before public celebrations and a second oath taking the next day.

Four years on, Mr Obama's status as the first black president in a nation born on a racial fault line almost seems like an afterthought now -- perhaps a sign of progress.

But poignantly, Mr Obama will takes his second, second term oath of office on the federal holiday marking civil rights pioneer King's birthday.

Workers and the press prepare for Barack Obama's second inauguration. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB

In another historic echo, Mr Obama will become the second president to be sworn in four times - thanks to the Justice Roberts stumble in 2009 and his double oath duty this year, joining Democratic icon Franklin Roosevelt.

Mr Obama faces several boiling foreign crises likely to shape his legacy.

'Lone wolf' security fear

As he enters his second term, Americans increasingly see Mr Obama as a strong leader, someone who stands up for his beliefs and is able to get things done, according to a survey by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press. The survey shows him with a 52 percent job approval rating, among the highest rankings since early in his presidency. His personal favorability, 59 percent, has rebounded from a low of 50 percent in the 2012 campaign against Republican Mitt Romney.

Crowds are gathering in Washington, DC as President Obama begins his second term in a private White House ceremony. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

When the partying is done, it's back to business for a president who is leading a nation that is, perhaps, as divided as at any time since the Civil War 150 years ago. That conflict put down a rebellion by southern states and ended slavery.

In light of the nation's troubled racial history, Mr Obama's election to the White House in 2008 as the first black president was seen by many as a turning point. In his first inaugural address, he vowed to moderate the partisan anger engulfing the country, but the nation is only more divided four years on.

While Mr Obama convincingly won a second term, the jubilation that surrounded him four years ago is subdued this time around - a reality for second-term presidents. He guided the country through many crushing challenges after taking office in 2009: ending the Iraq war, putting the Afghan war on a course toward US withdrawal and saving the collapsing economy. He won approval for a sweeping health care overhaul. Yet onerous problems remain, and his success in resolving them will define his place in history.

- with AP and AFP

President Barack Obama is officially sworn-in by Chief Justice John Roberts in the Blue Room of the White House alongside his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha.

Souvenirs are displayed for sale at a sidewalk stand near the US Capitol building during preparations for U.S. President Barack Obama's second inauguration. John Moore/Getty Images/AFP

US President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office to begin a second term threatened by strife.

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Suicide squad attacks police complex

Security officers on the roof of the Kabul traffic police headquarters as it came under attack by insurgents on January 21, 2013. Picture: Ahmad Jamshid Source: AP

NATO troops joined a fight against a Taliban suicide squad that stormed a Kabul police headquarters at dawn Monday, killing three police officers and unleashing a stand-off that lasted for more than eight hours.

The Taliban claimed the attack, which turned into the longest stand-off between the insurgents and security forces in Kabul since a major co-ordinated raid on the capital lasted 18 hours in April last year.

Three of the five attackers were killed in the early part of the assault while two others wearing suicide vests holed up in the five-storey building in west Kabul and fired on security forces, a police officer told AFP.

They were later also killed.

"It's over. The last two terrorists are dead and they were not even given the chance to detonate their suicide vests," Kabul police chief General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.

The reason it took so long to overpower the last two men was "because our boys acted very carefully," he said. "There were lots of important documents so we acted very carefully to not cause any damage to those documents."

Afghan forces at the scene of an attack on the Kabul traffic police headquarters by Taliban insurgents wearing suicide vests. Picture: Ahmad Jamshid

Four traffic police, two members of the special forces and half a dozen civilians were wounded, deputy interior minister General Abdul Rahman said.

An AFP photographer said Norwegian soldiers were seen firing at the police building.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed its participation in the operation but insisted it was small.

"We do have a very small number of people assisting the Afghan security forces officials in the scene. It's primarily an advising role and absolutely the Afghan officials are in the lead," an ISAF spokesman told AFP.

NATO says the Taliban insurgency has been weakened and characterised the attack as a ploy to attract media attention, but the time it took to mop up the insurgents will be seen as an embarrassment.

"They (the Taliban) are losing the fight," said General Gunter Katz, ISAF military spokesman.

"They cannot fight face to face. These attacks are only to attract media. They carry out their attacks in the cities and crowded areas where civilians suffer."

He praised the role of the Afghan security forces in countering the attack.

The assault began with a massive car-bomb explosion that shattered the windows of nearby homes.

A local resident described the initial explosion as "very very big - it was massive". It was followed by several other explosions and gunfire.

Taliban insurgents, who are waging an 11-year war against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, claimed credit for the attack, which it said began at 5:00 am (0030 GMT).

"A large number of fedayeen (suicide bombers) entered a building in Dehmazang and are attacking an American training centre, a police centre and other military centres and have caused heavy casualties on the enemy," a Taliban spokesman said.

There is no US or NATO-run training facility in the area and the Taliban are known to exaggerate when claiming attacks.

Monday's attack came less than a week after a squad of suicide bombers attacked the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul, killing at least one guard and wounding dozens of civilians.

All six attackers were killed in the brazen attack on the National Directorate of Security (NDS), also claimed by the Taliban.

Afghan police and other security forces are increasingly targets of Taliban attacks as they take a bigger role in the battle against the insurgents before NATO withdraws the bulk of its 100,000 combat troops by the end of 2014.

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

India's gang-rape trial begins

Indian women protest along with a man dressed as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outside the court where the high-profile gang-rape trial has begun. Source: AP

FIVE men went on trial overnight over the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi as the victim's father called for her attackers to hang.

With the case being held behind closed doors and subject to a gagging order, it was left to one of the prosecutors to announce the start of the case to reporters packed outside the sessions court in New Delhi.

"The trial has begun," Dayan Krishnan said. "The chargesheet has been submitted before the judge and the arguments will begin on January 24."

The trial is being held in a special "fast-track" court in the capital set up to circumvent India's notoriously slow justice system, with the victim's family leading widespread calls for quick closure on the horrifying case.

The start of the trial was delayed until late afternoon New Delhi time by a failed application to overturn the gagging order while a lawyer for one defendant also sought to move the trial out of New Delhi.

The father of the 23-year-old victim said her family would rest only once the culprits were convicted and hanged and he urged judge Yogesh Khanna to complete his work quickly.

"We have finished the mourning rituals for my daughter in the village but our mourning will not end until the court passes down its verdict. My daughter's soul will only rest in peace after the court punishes the men," the father said.

"It is the duty of the court and the judges to ensure that the final order to punish all the accused is handed down quickly and all the men are hanged.

"No man has the right to live after committing such a heinous crime."

The assault last month on the medical student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sparked mass protests across India - in particular in New Delhi which has been dubbed the country's "rape capital" over the incidence of such attacks.

Though gang-rapes and sexual harassment are commonplace in India, the case has touched a nerve, leading to an outpouring of criticism of the treatment of women in Indian society.

Sonia Gandhi, president of India's ruling Congress party, on Sunday condemned the "shameful" social attitudes which she said led to crimes like gang-rape. The New Delhi case had "shaken the entire country," she added.

The five men face murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and other charges, with prosecutors expected to demand the death penalty. A sixth suspect, who claims he is 17, will be tried by a separate juvenile court.

Defence lawyers say they will enter not-guilty pleas and accuse police of torturing the adult defendants - aged between 19 and 35 - to confess.

The woman, a promising student whose father worked extra shifts as an airport baggage handler to educate her, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault on the bus in which she was raped and violated with an iron bar.

She died 13 days later after the government airlifted her to a Singapore hospital in a last-ditch bid to save her life.

In a move that could lead to a significant delay to proceedings, the Supreme Court agreed to consider a request to transfer the trial to a venue outside New Delhi.

M.L. Sharma, counsel for defendant Mukesh Singh, said it would be impossible for his client to receive a fair hearing in the city where the December 16 attack took place.

The application for a transfer will be considered by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

V.K. Anand, a defence lawyer for another suspect called Ram Singh, asked the judge to lift the reporting ban on proceedings, but his request was refused.

"Crime is against society at large. Society has the right to know what happens in the court," he said.

Senior prosecutor Rajiv Mohan, who has vowed to seek the death penalty for the "heinous" crime, has said that he has "sufficient evidence" against all the accused to secure a conviction.

Police have gathered DNA evidence allegedly linking the defendants to the attack while the victim's hospital-bed declaration before her death and testimony from her 28-year-old companion are also set to be crucial.

India says it only imposes the death penalty in the "rarest of rare cases". Two months ago, it hanged the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks - the country's first execution in eight years.

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man 'bit possessed son to death'

A 53-year-old man fatally attacked his 23-year-old son in Japan, after the young man began writhing around and claiming to be a serpent. Picture: William West Source: AFP

A 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of biting his adult son to death to get rid of a "snake haunting him", Japanese media have reported.

TV Asahi said Katsumi Nagaya seriously injured his son, Takuya, on Friday at the younger man's apartment in Anjo, central Japan, by head-butting and biting him after the 23-year-old began writhing around and claiming to be a serpent.

Takuya was taken to hospital but declared dead a short time later, the broadcaster said.

The suspect reportedly told police he had attacked his son in order to remove the snake from his mind.

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google chief's daughter on 'strange' trip

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (2nd R) and US Internet giant Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt (rear C) visiting Kim Il-Sung University in Pyongyang. Source: AFP

THE teenage daughter of Google chairman Eric Schmidt has shed some light on her father's secretive trip to North Korea.

In a blog posting at the weekend entitled "It might not get weirder than this", Sophie Schmidt provided a candid take on the controversial three-day trip earlier this month that was criticised by the US government.

Ms Schmidt, 19, had accompanied her father on the visit as part of a delegation led by Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations.

On their return, the two men answered a few questions about the nature of the visit, but Sophie Schmidt's informal account was in many ways far more revealing.

"Our trip was a mixture of highly-staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments," she wrote.

"We had zero interactions with non-state-approved North Koreans and were never far from our two minders."

While much of the blog posting is taken up with the sort of observational musings common to any first-time visitor to Pyongyang, it had some interesting insights into the official side of the delegation's trip.

In particular, it fleshed out the main photo-opportunity of the entire trip when they visited an e-library at Kim Il-Sung University, and chatted with some of the 90 students working on computer consoles.

"One problem: No one was actually doing anything," Ms Schmidt wrote.

"A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in ... not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli.

"They might as well have been figurines," she added.

One of the world's most isolated and censored societies, North Korea has a domestic Intranet service with a very limited number of users.

Analysts say access to the Internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1000 at most.

On his return, Eric Schmidt said he had told North Korea it would not develop unless it embraces Internet freedom - a prospect dismissed by most observers as inconceivable.

Sophie Schmidt's description of the "unsettling" e-library visit suggests the delegation was all too aware that it was being shown a facade.

"Did our handlers honestly think we bought it? Did they even care? Photo op and tour completed, maybe they dismantled the whole set and went home," she wrote.

And her top "take-aways" from the whole experience?

1) Go to North Korea if you can. It is very, very strange.

2) If it is January, disregard the above. It is very, very cold.

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia moves against gays

Gay rights campaigner Pavel Samburov (centre left) and five other activists kiss during a protest near the State Duma, Russia's lower parliament, in Moscow. Picture: Misha Japaridze Source: AP

KISSING his boyfriend during a protest in front of Russia's parliament earned Pavel Samburov 30 hours of detention and the equivalent of a $US16 ($15) fine on a charge of "hooliganism."

But if a bill that comes up for a first vote later this month becomes law, such a public kiss could be defined as illegal "homosexual propaganda" and bring a fine of up to $US16,000.

The legislation being pushed by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church would make it illegal nationwide to provide minors with information that is defined as "propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism."

It includes a ban on holding public events that promote gay rights. St Petersburg and a number of other Russian cities already have similar laws on their books.

The bill is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values as opposed to Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as corrupting Russian youth and by extension contributing to a wave of protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Mr Samburov describes the anti-gay bill as part of a Kremlin crackdown on minorities of any kind - political and religious as well as sexual - designed to divert public attention from growing discontent with Mr Putin's rule.

The lanky and longhaired Mr Samburov is the founder of the Rainbow Association, which unites gay activists throughout Russia. The gay rights group has joined anti-Putin marches in Moscow over the past year, its rainbow flag waving along with those of other opposition groups.

Other laws that the Kremlin says are intended to protect young Russians have been hastily adopted in recent months, including some that allow banning and blocking web content and print publications that are deemed "extremist" or unfit for young audiences.

Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center, an independent pollster, says the anti-gay bill fits the "general logic" of a government intent on limiting various rights.

But in this case, the move has been met mostly with either indifference or open enthusiasm by average Russians. Levada polls conducted last year show that almost two thirds of Russians find homosexuality "morally unacceptable and worth condemning."

About half are against gay rallies and same-sex marriage; almost a third think homosexuality is the result of "a sickness or a psychological trauma," the Levada surveys show.

Russia's widespread hostility to homosexuality is shared by the political and religious elite.

Lawmakers have accused gays of decreasing Russia's already low birth rates and said they should be barred from government jobs, undergo forced medical treatment or be exiled. Orthodox activists criticised US company PepsiCo for using a "gay" rainbow on cartons of its dairy products.

An executive with a government-run television network said in a nationally televised talk show that gays should be prohibited from donating blood, sperm and organs for transplants, while after death their hearts should be burned or buried.

The anti-gay sentiment was seen Sunday in Voronezh, a city south of Moscow, where a handful of gay activists protesting against the parliament bill were attacked by a much larger group of anti-gay activists who hit them with snowballs.

The gay rights protest that won Mr Samburov a fine took place in December. Seconds after Mr Samburov and his boyfriend kissed, militant activists with the Orthodox Church pelted them with eggs. Police intervened, rounding up the gay activists and keeping them for 30 hours first in a frozen van and then in an unheated detention center. The Orthodox activists were also rounded up, but were released much earlier.

Those behind the bill say minors need to be protected from "homosexual propaganda" because they are unable to evaluate the information critically. "This propaganda goes through the mass media and public events that propagate homosexuality as normal behavior," the bill reads.

Cities started adopting anti-gay laws in 2006. Only one person has been prosecuted so far under a law specifically targeted at gays: Nikolai Alexeyev, a gay rights campaigner, was fined the equivalent of $160 after a one-man protest last summer in St Petersburg.

In November, a St Petersburg court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trade Union of Russian Citizens, a small group of Orthodox conservatives and Putin loyalists, against pop star Madonna. The group sought $US10.7 million in damages for what it says was "propaganda of perversion" when Madonna spoke up for gay rights during a show three months earlier.

The federal bill's expected adoption comes 20 years after a Stalinist-era law punishing homosexuality with up to five years in prison was removed from Russia's penal code as part of the democratic reforms that followed the Soviet Union's collapse.

Most of the other former Soviet republics also decriminalised homosexuality, and attitudes toward gays have become a litmus test of democratic freedoms. While gay pride parades are held in the three former Soviet Baltic states, all today members of the European Union, same-sex love remains a crime in authoritarian Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In Russia, gays have been whipsawed by official pressure and persistent homophobia. There are no reliable estimates of how many gays and lesbians live in Russia, and only a few big cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg have gay nightclubs and gyms. Even there, gays do not feel secure.

When a dozen masked men entered a Moscow night club during a "coming out party" campaign that Mr Samburov organised in October, he thought they were part of the show. But then one of the masked men yelled, "Have you ordered up a fight? Here you go!" The men overturned tables, smashed dishes and beat, kicked and sprayed mace at the five dozen men and women who had gathered at the gay-friendly Freedays club, Mr Samburov and the club's administration said.

Four club patrons were injured, including a young woman who got broken glass in her eye, police said. Although a police station was nearby, Mr Samburov said, it took police officers half an hour to arrive. The attackers remain unidentified.

On the next day, an Orthodox priest said he regretted that his religious role had not allowed him to participate in the beating.

"Until this scum gets off of Russian land, I fully share the views of those who are trying to purge our motherland of it," Reverend Sergiy Rybko was quoted as saying by the Orthodoxy and World online magazine. "We either become a tolerant Western state where everything is allowed - and lose our Christianity and moral foundations - or we will be a Christian people who live in our God-protected land in purity and godliness."

In other parts of Russia, gays feel even less secure. Bagaudin Abduljalilov moved to Moscow from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia where he says some gays have been beaten and had their hands cut off, sometimes by their own relatives, for bringing shame on their families.

"You don't have any human rights down there," he said. "Anything can be done to you with impunity."

Shortly before moving to Moscow, Mr Abduljalilov left Islam to become a Protestant Christian, but was expelled from a seminary after telling the dean he was gay. He also has had trouble finding a job as a television journalist because of discrimination against people from Dagestan.

"I love Russia, but I want another Russia," said Mr Abduljalilov, 30, who now works as a clerk. "It's a pity I can't spend my life on creative projects instead of banging my head against the wall and repeating, 'I'm normal, I'm normal.' "

Police officers detain gay right activists during a protest in Moscow. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" will be heard on January 22. Picture: Misha Japaridze

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stubborn streak saved hostage nurse

Empty coffins are transported to collect victims killed during the hostage crisis at a desert gas plant in Algeria's deep south. Picture: Farouk Batiche Source: AFP

A FRENCH nurse caught up in the Algeria hostage crisis has revealed how the fear of being raped and an overwhelming determination "not to submit to terrorists" ensured she survived.

The nurse, identified only as Muriel, escaped from the gas complex after spending the first day of the siege hidden with three other expatriates in offices the Islamist gunmen failed to scour.

"Two of us wanted to try and get out, the two others said it was safer to stay," she told Europe 1 radio.

After hours of agonised indecision, her sceptical colleagues were finally convinced that it was better to die trying to escape than leave their destiny in the hands of fate.

"I told them we had to take our chance. You can't submit to them, otherwise you are giving in to the terrorists," Muriel said, explaining how this defiant mindset had enabled her to avoid being paralysed by terror.

"Even with a little act, saying to yourself they are trying to capture me but I won't let them succeed, you regain your identity," she said.

"These people were ready to commit any kind of barbaric act but I succeeded in thwarting them."

Muriel and her colleagues escaped into the desert with the help of a pair of pliers she found in the ambulance on the site and she used to cut a hole in the exterior fence.

But she admitted she had feared the worst in the hours after the plant was seized at dawn on Wednesday in a raid linked to France's military action in neighbouring Mali.

"I said to myself they cannot find me, I am a women and I am French. With what is happening in Mali they'll kill me immediately.

"At best I'd get a bullet in the head straight away. At worst, as a woman - well, I don't need to draw you a picture.

"We stayed hidden in the office for hours, jumping out of our skin at every little noise. Every time we heard someone in the corridor, we said 'that's it, the terrorists are coming to get us'.

"It was our good fortune that they didn't come and search where we were, in a little corner out of the way. But for those left behind it was really awful."

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Algeria: '37 foreigners died in siege'

Firemen carry a coffin containing the body of a person killed during the hostage crisis in a gas plant near In Amenas. The Algerian Prime Minister says 37 foreigners were killed. Picture: Anis Belghoul Source: AP

ALGIERS said on Monday that 37 foreigners of eight different nationalities, as well as an Algerian, were killed by hostage-takers in a well-planned attack on a remote gas plant.

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said five other foreigners were still missing and that several of the hostages had been executed "with a bullet to the head" as the four-day crisis ended in a bloodbath on Saturday.

Most of the 32 militants who took hundreds of people hostage at the In Amenas gas complex in the Sahara on Wednesday had entered the country from neighbouring Mali, Mr Sellal told a news conference in Algiers.

The premier gave the final grim figures after Algeria had warned other nations to prepare for a higher body count, amid fears as many as 50 captives may have died in the world's deadliest hostage crisis in almost a decade.

"Thirty-seven foreigners of eight different nationalities," were killed during the siege, Mr Sellal told reporters, adding an Algerian was also killed, giving an overall toll of 38.

He said the group's leader was Mohamed el-Amine Bencheneb, an Algerian militant known to the country's security services, and was killed during the army's assault.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said seven Japanese people were known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, the first confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals had died.

A total of 29 hostage-takers were killed and three captured. As well as the three Algerians among them, the kidnappers comprised six foreign nationalities, namely Canadian, Egyptian, Tunisian, Malian, Nigerien and Mauritanian.

Governments have been scrambling to track down missing citizens as more details emerged after the final showdown on Saturday between special forces and extremists who had taken the hostages, demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.

Survivors' photos seen by AFP showed bodies riddled with bullets, some with their heads half blown away by the impact of the gunfire.

"They were brutally executed," said an Algerian who identified himself as Brahim, after escaping the ordeal, referring to Japanese victims gunned down by the hostage-takers.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said seven Japanese people were known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, the first confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals had died.

Govts are scrambling to track down missing nationals after the bloody end to a gas plant siege in Algeria.

Witnesses had said nine Japanese people connected to plant builder JGC were killed in the 72-hour ordeal.

One Japanese survivor was quoted in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper as telling colleagues how the gunmen had dragged him from his barricaded room, handcuffed him and executed two hostages standing nearby.

The Philippine government said six Filipino hostages were among the dead, killed "mostly by gunshot wounds and the effects of the explosions."

As more harrowing accounts emerged of the siege, a Filipino survivor described how the militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire.

Joseph Balmaceda told reporters in Manila he was the only survivor out of nine hostages in a van that blew up on Thursday, apparently from C-4 explosives the militants had rigged to the vehicle.

Bodies of people killed during a siege on a remote Algerian gas plant are unloaded from a refrigerated truck in In Amenas. Picture: Anis Belghoul

"I was the only one who survived because I was sandwiched between two spare tyres. That is why I am still here and can talk to you," said the visibly distressed father of four.

The alleged mastermind of the hostage-taking, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, said in a video posted online that it was carried out by 40 fighters from the Muslim world and "European countries".

His Al-Qaeda-linked group "Signatories in Blood" threatened to stage attacks on nations involved in the French-led operation to evict Islamists from Algeria's neighbour Mali, and said it had been open to negotiations.

"But the Algerian army did not respond ... preferring to stage an attack which led to the elimination of the hostages," it said in a message published by the Mauritanian news agency ANI.

Most hostages were freed on Thursday in the first Algerian rescue operation, which was initially viewed by foreign governments as hasty, before the focus of public condemnation turned on the jihadists.

The In Amenas plant is run by Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria.

An Algerian employee of BP who identified himself as Abdelkader said he was at a security post with colleagues on Wednesday morning when he saw a jeep with seven people inside smash through the barrier and screech to a halt.

One of the militants got out of the vehicle, demanded their mobile phones and ordered them not to move, before disabling the security cameras.

"He said: 'You are Algerians and Muslims, you have nothing to fear. We're looking for Christians, who kill our brothers in Mali and Afghanistan and plunder our resources'."

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More