Algeria finds dead Canadian militants as siege toll rises

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian forces have found the bodies of two Canadian Islamist fighters after a bloody siege at a desert gas plant, a security source said on Monday, as the death toll reached at least 80 after troops stormed the complex to end the hostage crisis.

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal is expected to give details on Monday about the siege near the town of In Amenas, which left American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Filipino and Romanian workers dead or missing.

Much remains unclear about events after the jihadists staged the attack last Wednesday. However, an Algerian newspaper said they had arrived in cars painted in the colors of state energy company Sonatrach but registered in neighboring Libya, a country awash with arms since Muammar Gaddafi's fall in 2011.

The Algerian security source told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of the two militants had identified them as Canadians, as special forces scoured the plant following Saturday's bloody end to the crisis.

Veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of al Qaeda, and an official Algerian source has said the militants included people from outside the African continent, as well as Arabs and Africans.

A security source said on Sunday that Algerian troops had found the bodies of 25 hostages, raising the number of hostages killed to 48 and the total number of deaths to at least 80. He said six militants were captured alive and troops were still searching for others.

A Japanese government source said the Algerian government had informed Tokyo that nine Japanese had been killed, the biggest toll so far among foreigners at the plant. Six Filipinos died and four were wounded, a government spokesman in Manila said.

The raid has exposed the vulnerability of multinational-run oil and gas installations in an important producing region and pushed the growing threat from Islamist militant groups in the Sahara to a prominent position in the West's security agenda.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack, the daily El Khabar said. The militants had used nine cars in Sonatrach colors and all with Libyan registration plates, it quoted unnamed security sources as saying.

Algerian Tahar Ben Cheneb - leader of a group called the Movement of Islamic Youth in the South who was killed on the first day of the assault - had been based in Libya where he married a local woman two months ago, it said.

ONE-EYED JIHADIST

Belmokhtar - a one-eyed jihadist who fought in Afghanistan and Algeria's civil war of the 1990s when the secular government fought Islamists - tied the desert attack to France's intervention across the Sahara against Islamist rebels in Mali.

"We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation," he said in a video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. About 40 attackers participated in the raid, he said, roughly matching the government's figures for fighters killed and captured.

Belmokhtar demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamist fighters in neighboring Mali. These began five days before the fighters swooped before dawn and seized a plant that produces 10 percent of Algeria's natural gas exports.

U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raid could have been organized quickly enough to have been conceived as a direct response to the French military intervention. However, the French action could have triggered an operation that had already been planned.

The group behind the raid, the Mulathameen Brigade, also threatened to carry out more such attacks if Western powers did not end what it called an assault on Muslims in Mali, according to the SITE service, which monitors militant statements.

In a statement published by the Mauritania-based Nouakchott News Agency, the hostage takers said they had offered talks about freeing the captives, but the Algerian authorities had been determined to use military force.

"We opened the door for negotiations with the Westerners and the Algerians, and granted them safety from the beginning of the operation, but one of the senior (Algerian) intelligence officials confirmed to us in a phone call that they will destroy the place with everyone in it," SITE quoted the statement as saying.

BLOODY SIEGE

The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian army opened fire, saying fighters were trying to escape with their prisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucks in a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.

Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners escaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven from the residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in the industrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.

The bloodshed has strained Algeria's relations with its Western allies, some of which have complained about being left in the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being taken.

Nevertheless, Britain and France both defended the military action by Algeria, the strongest military power in the Sahara and an ally the West needs in combating the militants.

Among other foreigners confirmed dead by their home countries were three Britons, one American and two Romanians. The missing include five Norwegians, three Britons and a British resident. An Algerian security source said at least one Frenchman was also among the dead.

The raid on the plant, which was home to expatriate workers from Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil, Japanese engineering firm BGC Corp and others, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara.

However, Algeria is determined to press on with its energy industry. Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi visited the site and said physical damage was minor, state news service APSE reported. The plant would start up again in two days, he said.

Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the start of the crisis there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism. France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush Islamist rebels in northern Mali.

(Additional reporting by Anton Slodkowski in Tokyo, Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, William Maclean in Dubai, Estelle Shirbon and David Alexander in London, Brian Love in Paris and Daniel Flynn in Dakar; Writing by David Stamp; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Japan PM confirms 7 deaths in Algeria crisis

TOKYO: Japan's prime minister on Monday said seven Japanese deaths had been confirmed in the Algerian hostage crisis, the first official confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals had died.

"I was informed by vice foreign minister (Minoru) Kiuchi that as a result of identifications of bodies at a hospital in In Amenas, seven were confirmed to be Japanese employees of JGC," Shinzo Abe told his ministers.

The Japanese firm had earlier said it did not know the fate of 17 of its employees, ten of whom were Japanese.

The prime minister said so far it had not been possible to confirm what had happened to the other Japanese nationals who remain unaccounted for.

"There are still three more Japanese people whose safety has not been confirmed. I want all of you to do everything possible to continue gathering information and confirm their fate," he told his ministers.

"Japanese people who work at the world's frontiers, the innocent people were victimised. It is extremely painful," Abe said.

A witness at the desert gas plant told AFP he was aware of nine Japanese deaths over the extended siege, which began on Wednesday and ended in a bloodbath on Saturday when the Algerian military moved in.

Abe was speaking as his Algerian opposite number, Abdelmalek Sellal, was giving his first full account of the crisis, which brought an initial backlash against what some world leaders hinted was a too-hasty military response.

Sellal said Algiers had confirmed the deaths of 37 foreigners of eight different nationalities after the gas plant was overrun by Islamist gunmen.

He also said that the 32 militants who staged the dramatic siege, taking hundreds of workers hostage, came from northern Mali. Twenty-nine of them were killed and three arrested.

He added that some hostages had been executed with a "bullet to the head".

- AFP/fa

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Upsurge after Delhi gang rape was necessary, says Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on Monday said that the huge public outrage and the protests that followed the brutal gang-rape of the 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi on December 16, 2012 were justified and necessary.

"I wish I could also have been there, but I can't" Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on Monday said while terming the upsurge and protest that took place in the wake of the December 16 gang-rape incident as "fully justified" and "absolutely necessary".

"What happened that day (December 16) was not something new ... but it caught the imagination of the people and led to a tremendous upsurge and this upsurge as I have said earlier also, was fully justified. What started as a protest, as a mark of showing one's anger, it was all genuine, absolutely necessary ...", Justice Kabir said.

"I salute everybody who took part (in the protests). I wish I could also have been there, but I can't," he said on the sidelines of the Sixth National Conference on the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

He, however, cautioned "that we cannot afford certain types and groups of people from exploiting such situation for their own ends".

"My nephew was also beaten up in the protest (at India Gate)," Justice Kabir said, adding "the protest was later on hijacked".

He said that it started out as a "peaceful protest", but other "things" started coming in and it "became ugly".

While addressing the gathering which comprised of sitting Delhi high court judge Justice Gita Mittal as well as several legal luminaries and academicians among others, Justice Kabir also said that what happened on December 16 was not just a crime against an individual, but against women and society in general.

Referring to the "shameful" incident of December 16, when a 23-year-old girl was brutually gang-raped in a moving bus and later thrown out of it along with her male friend, Justice Kabir said it has resulted in a tremendous rethinking of "what is going on" in the society.

Court to hear arguments 'in camera'

Trial proceedings in the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case will be held in camera before a fast track court, which decided on Monday to hear arguments on framing of charges against five accused on January 24.

Upholding the previous order of a magistrate, the special fast track court judge said, "Only those who are connected with the case will stay in the courtroom. Others should vacate the court immediately."

Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna also decided to hear "in camera" the arguments on framing of charges against the five accused on January 24 as the judicial records were sent by the magisterial court after concluding the procedural formalities.

Invoking a legal provision that bars open court hearing, the special judge said, "As per section 327 (2) of the CrPC, the proceedings will be held in camera and section 327 (3) prohibits anyone from publishing and printing the proceedings."

"I am upholding the same order passed by the metropolitan magistrate (MM)."

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir had inaugurated the fast track court at Saket district courts complex earlier this month following a decision of the Delhi government in this regard.

Earlier, the MM had allowed an application of Delhi police seeking in camera proceedings following the chaos in the courtroom when the accused were being brought.

The accused have been charged under the IPC for offences of murder, gang rape and destruction of evidence.

The 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally assaulted and gangraped in a moving bus allegedly by six persons, including a juvenile, on the night of December 16 before being dumped in a south Delhi locality here. Her male friend was also assaulted.

The victim later died at a Singapore hospital.

Earlier, special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan and Delhi Police counsel Rajiv Mohan along with the investigating officer entered inside the packed courtroom where the proceedings were to commence before the special court at 2.30pm for the first time.

Besides 30-40 security personnel, defence lawyers and journalists were also inside the court room where all the accused were brought in with their faces muffled up.

The driver of the bus Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay are the accused in the case. While their juvenile accomplice is being tried separately at the juvenile justice board here.

Except Thakur, who was arrested from Aurangabad in Bihar on December 22, rest four accused were arrested within 24 hours of the incident.

Special prosecutor Krishnan started the argument with a plea that the special court should give an order as to whether the trial proceedings would be open for all or it would be held in camera.

Citing legal provisions and the previous order of the magistrate, he said the section 327 (2) and (3) of the CrPC specifically provides that the trial in rape cases "shall be held" in camera.

He argued that even though the detailed proceedings in the case cannot be allowed to be reported as per the earlier order, but the special court needs to pass an order which should decide the issue whether it can be reported or not.

"in camera proceedings under section 327 (2) of the CrPC should go on. Reporting of proceedings by the media, under section 327 (3), is upto the court to decide," Krishnan said.

He also said that if the judge deems it fit then he can allow media to publish a brief of the proceedings or can pass an order regarding how much media can report or publish.

"But, detailed reporting of the proceedings may not be allowed," he added.

Defence lawyers VK Anand and RP Singh sought lifting of the ban on media saying that the denial may result in misreporting.

Swami Om Ji, a self-proclaimed spiritual guru who had earlier withdrawn his plea in the high court seeking a direction to allow media to cover the case, again appeared before the special judge on Monday raising the same issue.

However, the court dismissed his plea saying he does not have any locus.

Around 200-300 protesters had gathered outside the court complex for a brief period. Later, most of them left after security personnel denied them entry.

Dismissing a plea for the open court trial, the special judge, in his 5-page order, said, "All persons un-connected with the case are directed to clear the courtroom and to ensure safe passage to the accused person. It shall not be lawful for any person to publish or print any matter relating to the proceedings of this case except with the prior permission of the court, till the trial.

"Such an order is, even otherwise, necessary, considering the sensitivity of the matter, concealing the identity of victim, safety of the complainant, safety of the accused person to ensure the fair trial and also for smooth functioning of the court."

The special judge also said, "Sub section (2) and (3) of section 327 of CrPC are inserted by an Act 43 of 1983 ... hence, there is nothing much to say about the issue (of in camera proceedings) raised and I am in conformity with the metropolitan magistrate as also with the order dated January 9 passed by the judge in charge, south and southeast district ..."

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Obama to Be Sworn in for 2nd Term at White House

Jan 20, 2013 8:43am

While an estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather in Washington D.C.  Monday to watch President Obama be sworn in for a second term, his second term officially begins Sunday. He will take his oath of office in a private ceremony. Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in on Sunday morning at the Naval Observatory.

OBAMA SWEARING-IN:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office a second time to President Barack Obama in the Map Room of the White House on Jan. 21, 2009. (Pete Souz / WH Photo / Getty Images)

–Obama will take the oath of office for a second term in a small ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House at 11:55 am. Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath.

–Obama will be sworn in using a Bible today that belonged to First Lady Michelle Obama’s grandmother, LaVaughn Delores Robinson. The Robinson family Bible was a present from the first lady’s father to his mother on Mother’s Day in 1958, six years before Michelle’s birth.

–Due to constitutionally-mandated scheduling, President Obama is set to become the second president in U.S. history to have four swearing-in ceremonies. Today will be his third. Obama was sworn in twice in 2008 out of an abundance of caution after Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath of office.

Here is video of Obama’s first swearing in by Roberts:

And Here is audio of Roberts administering the oath for a second time in 2009:

–Franklin Roosevelt was also sworn-in four times but, unlike Obama, he was elected four times.

–This year will mark the seventh time a president has taken the oath on a Sunday and then again on Monday for ceremonial purposes. Reagan last took the oath on a Sunday in 1985.

PHOTOS: U.S. Presidents Taking the Oath of Office

BIDEN SWEARING-IN:

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

–Vice President Biden was sworn-in at the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory, surrounded by his family and close friends.

–Biden personally selected Associate Justice Sotomayor, who will be the first Hispanic and fourth female judge to administer an oath of office.

–Three women have previously sworn-in presidents and vice presidents: Judge Sarah T. Hughes swore-in President Johnson in 1963; Justice Sandra Day O’Connor swore-in Vice President Dan Quayle in 1989; and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg swore-in Vice President Al Gore in 1997.

–On Sunday and Monday, Vice President Biden will be sworn in using the Biden Family Bible, which is five inches thick, has a Celtic cross on the cover and has been in the Biden family since 1893. He used it every time he was sworn in as a US Senator and when he was sworn in as Vice President in 2009. His son Beau used it when he was sworn in as Delaware’s attorney general.

Tune in to the ABC News.com Live page on Monday morning starting at 9:30 a.m. EST for all-day live streaming video coverage of Inauguration 2013: Barack Obama. Live coverage will also be available on the ABC News iPad App and mobile devices.

SHOWS: This Week World News

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Algeria expects heavy hostage toll as West defends ally

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - Algeria said on Sunday it expected heavy hostage casualties after its troops ended a desert siege, but Western governments warned against criticizing tactics used by their vital ally in the struggle with Islamists across the Sahara.

An Algerian minister acknowledged the death toll would rise, and a private television station reported that 25 bodies had been found at the gas plant near the town of In Amenas after forces staged a final assault against the Islamist hostage-takers on Saturday.

Some Western governments had expressed frustration at not being informed of the Algerian authorities' plans to storm the complex. But France, which is fighting Islamist rebels across the desert in Mali, joined Britain in playing down any suggestion the response from Algeria - the main military power in the Sahara region - had been over-hasty or heavy-handed.

"What everyone needs to know is that these terrorists who attacked this gas plant are killers who pillage, rape, plunder and kill. The situation was unbearable," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

"It's easy to say that this or that should have been done. The Algerian authorities took a decision and the toll is very high but I am a bit bothered ... when the impression is given that the Algerians are open to question. They had to deal with terrorists," he told Europe 1 radio in an interview.

The Islamists' pre-dawn attack on Wednesday has tested Algeria's relations with the outside world, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara and pushed Islamist radicalism in northern Africa to centre stage.

Algeria, scarred by a civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, had insisted there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism.

Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out on Sunday its record in fighting Islamists. "Of course people will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events, but I would just say that the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack," he said in a television statement.

"We should recognize all that the Algerians have done to work with us and to help and coordinate with us. I'd like to thank them for that. We should also recognize that the Algerians too have seen lives lost among their soldiers."

France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to have a chance of crushing Islamist rebels in northern Mali. Algiers has promised to shut its porous 1,000-km border with Mali to prevent al Qaeda-linked insurgents simply melting away into its empty desert expanses and rugged mountains.

Algeria's permission for France to use its airspace, confirmed by Fabius last week, also makes it much easier to establish direct supply lines for its troops which are trying to stop the Islamist rebels from taking the whole of Mali.

HIGHER DEATH TOLL

Algeria's Interior Ministry had reported on Saturday that 23 hostages and 32 militants were killed during the assaults launched by Algerian special forces to end the crisis, with 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages freed.

However, Minister of Communication Mohamed Said said this would rise when final numbers were issued in the next few hours. "I am afraid unfortunately to say that the death toll will go up," Said was quoted as saying by the official APS news agency.

Details are only slowly emerging on what happened during the siege, which marked a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa.

Private Algerian television station Ennahar said on Sunday that 25 bodies had been discovered at the Tiguentourine plant, adding that the operation to clear the base would last 48 hours.

The bodies were believed to belong to hostages executed by the militants, said Ennahar TV, which is known to have good sources within Algerian security.

In London, Cameron said three British nationals had been confirmed killed, while a further three Britons plus a British resident were also believed to be dead.

One Briton had already was confirmed killed when the gunmen seized the hostages at the plant near the Libyan border, run by Norway's Statoil along with Britain's BP and Algeria's state oil company.

MULTINATIONAL HOSTAGE-TAKERS

Said reported that the militants had six different nationalities and the operation to clear the plant of mines laid by the hostage-takers was still under way.

Believed to be among the 32 dead militants was their leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, a Nigerien close to al Qaeda-linked commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar, presumed mastermind of the raid.

One American has also been confirmed dead. Statoil said five of its workers, all Norwegian nationals, were still missing. Japanese and American workers are also unaccounted for.

On Saturday President Barack Obama said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what had happened, but added that "the blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out".

BP's chief executive Bob Dudley said on Saturday four of its 18 workers at the site were missing. The remaining 14 were safe.

The militant attack was one of the most audacious in recent years and almost certainly planned before French troops launched the operation in Mali this month to stem an advance by Islamist fighters.

Hundreds of hostages escaped on Thursday when the army launched a rescue operation, but many hostages were killed.

Before the Interior Ministry released its provisional death toll, an Algerian security source said eight Algerians and at least seven foreigners were among the victims, including two Japanese, two Britons and a French national.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday one American, Frederick Buttaccio, had died but gave no further details.

Mauritanian news agencies identified the field commander of the group that attacked the plant as Nigeri, a fighter from one of the Arab tribes in Niger who had joined the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in early-2005.

That group eventually joined up with al Qaeda to become Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). It and allied groups are the targets of the French military operation in Mali.

The news agencies described him as "one of the closest people" to Belmokhtar, who fought in Afghanistan and then in Algeria's civil war of the 1990s. Nigeri was known as a man for "difficult missions", having carried out attacks in Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the country's outwardly tough security measures.

Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site.

Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a preoccupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.

The most powerful Islamist groups operating in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in the civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.

(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, Estelle Shirbon and David Alexander in London, Brian Love in Paris, Daniel Flynn in Dakar; Writing by David Stamp; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Badminton: Lee trounces Kuncoro to lift crown

KUALA LUMPUR: World number one Lee Chong Wei trounced Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-7, 21-8 to win a record nine Malaysia Badminton Open singles title on Sunday.

Lee dominated the court with flawless net play, strokes and lethal smashes and has now set his eyes on victory at the March All-England Superseries Premier.

The Malaysian has won his home country event every year since 2004, apart from in 2007 when victory went to Denmark's Peter Gade.

The 30-year-old Lee was in top form, outfoxing three-time Asian champion Kuncoro time and again at the net.

The energetic Lee dominated his opponent from the start, sending the 29-year-old bronze medallist in the 2004 Athens Olympics scurrying to all four corners of the court.

But Lee reserved some praise for Kuncoro.

"The pressure was very high on me to win the ninth title. The scoreline makes it look easy but it was tough. Sony was relentless, I had to keep lifting his shots, read his game before I can find the openings," he told reporters.

The home favourite's leaping smashes and controlled net play eventually gave him a one-sided victory over Kuncoro in just 32 minutes.

Lee said he would now concentrate on the upcoming All-England in Birmingham.

In the women's singles final, 18-year-old Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan outfought China's Yao Xue 21-17, 21-14.

The men's and women's singles champions earned $30,000 while the runner-up walked away with US$15,200.

There was some joy for Europe as second seeded Danish pair Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen upset top seeded Malaysians Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying 21-13, 21-18 in the mixed doubles.

The Danes were a delight to watch as they dominated the young Malaysians at the front of the court.

"Malaysia is a lucky place for me. I won the women's doubles here last year (with Kamilla Rytter Juhl) and this year it is the mixed doubles," said Pedersen.

In other finals, Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan defeated South Korea's Ko Sung Hyun/Lee Yong Dae 21-15, 21-13, to win the men's doubles crown, while China's Bao Yixin/Tian Qing outplayed Matsutomo Misaki/Takahashi Ayaka of Japan 21-16, 21-14 to take home the women's doubles title.

All the doubles champions walked away with $31,600 while the runners-up pocketed $15,200.

- AFP/fa

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Rahul Gandhi calls for change in 'unaccountable, centralized system'

JAIPUR: A complete overhaul of the system is needed as "young and impatient India" now demands "a greater role" in decision making, newly-appointed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday in an impassioned speech outlining the need for his 127-year-old party to develop leadership and give prominence to grassroots workers.

Gandhi, 42, in his first speech after being made the party number two, also asked the party to respect the youths' demand for a greater role in decision-making.

"We don't need better systems, we need a complete transformation in the system, we need 40-50 leaders at the national level (anyone of whom can be prime minister) and seven to 10 at the state level (for chief minister)," Rahul Gandhi said while addressing over 1,200 delegates at the All India Congress Committee session here.

Gandhi, who heads the party's coordination panel, is expected to lead the party in the 2014 general elections.

"The job of the Congress is to create leaders for the country," he said adding that "no other party has so much depth".

But Gandhi also said there was no need to rush with change, which, he said, has to be backed by careful thought.

Gandhi, who was Saturday named the Congress vice-president, making him officially the number two in the party after his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, said his new responsibility was a big one and told party workers that he will treat all of them equally, will learn from their experiences but will only play a judge.

"It is a big responsibility. I will work for everybody from today but I will play the judge and not the lawyer," he said.

According to him, the time has come to question the "centralised, unaccountable system and decision making must shift from Delhi to the panchayats".

Gandhi said there is a "young and impatient India" which is now demanding "greater role" in decision making.

"Why do a handful of people control the entire political space," he asked, adding that "people with little understanding were sitting at high positions".

He said the youth was angry and feeling alienated with the existing system.

"Until we start to respect and empower people, we cannot change anything in this country... all are closed systems, designed for mediocrity, mediocrity dominates," he said.

Hinting at things to come, he also said that action will be taken against party deserters who become election rivals or fight as Independents.

Noting that "one cannot achieve anything without hope," he said "we should not chase power, we should use power to empower people."

Gandhi struck an emotional chord when he related how his mother and the Congress president had cried when she met him Saturday night.

"Last night, everyone congratulated me and hugged me. But last night, my mother came to my room and she sat near me and cried. Why did she cry.. she cried because she understands that the power that so many see is poison. She can see it because she is not attached to it (power)," he said.

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Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study

Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.

The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.

Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's but it showed some promise against milder disease. Researchers think it might work better if given before symptoms start.

"The hope is we can catch people before they decline," which can come 10 years or more after plaques first show up in the brain, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Alzheimer's center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

She will help lead the new study, which will involve 1,000 people ages 70 to 85 whose brain scans show plaque buildup but who do not yet have any symptoms of dementia. They will get monthly infusions of solanezumab or a dummy drug for three years. The main goal will be slowing the rate of cognitive decline. The study will be done at 50 sites in the U.S. and possibly more in Canada, Australia and Europe, Sperling said.

In October, researchers said combined results from two studies of solanezumab suggested it might modestly slow mental decline, especially in patients with mild disease. Taken separately, the studies missed their main goals of significantly slowing the mind-robbing disease or improving activities of daily living.

Those results were not considered good enough to win the drug approval. So in December, Lilly said it would start another large study of it this year to try to confirm the hopeful results seen patients with mild disease. That is separate from the federal study Sperling will head.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's. Current medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.

___

Online:

Alzheimer's info: http://www.alzheimers.gov

Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org

___

Follow Marilynn Marchione's coverage at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Te'o Denies Involvement in Girlfriend Hoax

Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o told ESPN that he "never, not ever" was involved in creating the hoax that had him touting what turned out to be a fictional girlfriend, "Lennay Kekua."

"When they hear the facts, they'll know," Te'o told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap in his first interview since the story broke. "They'll know that there is no way that I could be a part of this."

"I wasn't faking it," he said during a 2 1/2-hour interview, according to ESPN.com.

Te'o said he only learned for sure this week that he had been duped. On Wednesday, he received a Twitter message, allegedly from a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, apologizing for the hoax, Te'o told Schaap.

The sports website Deadspin, which first revealed the hoax this week, has reported that Tuiasosopo, a 22-year-old of Samoan descent who lives in Antelope Valley, Calif., asked a woman he knew for her photo and that photo became the face of Kekua's Twitter account.

Te'o told Schaap that Tuiasosopo was represented to him as Kekua's cousin.

"I hope he learns," Te'o said of Tuiasosopo, according to coverage of the interview on ESPN.com. "I hope he understands what he's done. I don't wish an ill thing to somebody. I just hope he learns. I think embarrassment is big enough."

Click Here for a Who's Who in the Manti Te'o Case

AP Photo/ESPN Images, Ryan Jones

Manti Te'o Hoax: Was He Duped or Did He Know? Watch Video

Manti Te'o Hoax: Notre Dame Star Allegedly Scammed Watch Video

Tale of Notre Dame Football Star's Girlfriend and Her Death an Alleged Hoax Watch Video

Te'o admitted to a few mistakes in his own conduct, including telling his father he met Kekua in Hawaii even though his attempt to meet her actually failed. Later retellings of that tale led to inconsistencies in media reports, Te'o said, adding that he never actually met Kekua in person.

Te'o added that he feared people would think it was crazy for him to be involved with someone that he never met, so, "I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away."

The relationship got started on Facebook during his freshman year, Te'o said.

"My relationship with Lennay wasn't a four-year relationship," Te'o said, according to ESPN.com. "There were blocks and times and periods in which we would talk and then it would end."

He showed Schaap Facebook correspondence indicating that other people knew of Kekua -- though Te'o now believes they, too, were tricked.

The relationship became more intense, Te'o said, after he received a call that Kekua was in a coma following a car accident involving a drunk driver on April 28.

Soon, Te'o and Kekua became inseparable over the phone, he said, continuing their phone conversations through her recovery from the accident, and then during her alleged battle against leukemia.

Even so, Te'o never tried to visit Kekua at her hospital in California.

"It never really crossed my mind," he said, according to ESPN.com. "I don't know. I was in school."

But the communication between the two was intense. They even had ritual where they discussed scripture every day, Te'o said. His parents also participated via text message, and Te'o showed Schaap some of the texts.

On Sept. 12, a phone caller claiming to be Kekua's relative told Te'o that Kekua had died of leukemia, Te'o said. However, on Dec. 6, Te'o said he got a call allegedly from Kekua saying she was alive. He said he was utterly confused and did not know what to believe.

ESPN's 2 1/2-hour interview was conducted in Bradenton, Fla., with Te'o's lawyer present but without video cameras. Schaap said Te'o was composed, comfortable and in command, and that he said he didn't want to go on camera to keep the setting intimate and avoid a big production.

According to ABC News interviews and published reports, Te'o received phone calls, text messages and letters before every football game from his "girlfriend." He was in contact with her family, including a twin brother, a second brother, sister and parents. He called often to check in with them, just as he did with his own family. And "Kekua" kept in contact with Te'o's friends and family, and teammates spoke to her on the phone.

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Algerian army stages "final assault" on gas plant

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - The Algerian army on Saturday carried out a "final assault" on al Qaeda-linked gunmen holed up in a desert gas plant, killing 11 of the Islamists after they took the lives of seven foreign hostages.

"It is over now, the assault is over, and the military are inside the plant clearing it of mines," a local source familiar with the operation told Reuters.

The state oil and gas company, Sonatrach, said the militants who attacked the plant on Wednesday and took a large number of hostages had booby-trapped the gas complex with explosives.

The exact death toll among the gunmen and the foreign and Algerian workers at the plant near the town of In Amenas close to the Libyan border remained unclear.

Earlier on Saturday, Algerian special forces found 15 burned bodies at the plant. Efforts were underway to identify the bodies, the source told Reuters, and it was not clear how they had died.

Sixteen foreign hostages were freed on Saturday, a source close to the crisis said. They included two Americans, two Germans and one Portuguese.

Britain said fewer than 10 of its nationals at the plant were unaccounted for.

The attack on the plant swiftly turned into the biggest international hostage crises in decades, pushing Saharan militancy to the top of the global agenda.

Reports earlier put the number of hostages killed at between 12 to 30, with many foreigners still unaccounted for, among them Norwegians, Japanese, Britons and Americans.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday one American, Frederick Buttaccio, had died but gave no further details. The French defense minister said he understood there were no more French workers among the hostages.

Two Norwegians were released overnight, leaving six unaccounted for, while Romania said three of its nationals had been freed. A number of Japanese engineering workers were still unaccounted for.

Scores of Westerners and hundreds of Algerian workers were inside the heavily fortified compound when it was seized before dawn on Wednesday by Islamist fighters who said they wanted a halt to a French military operation in neighboring Mali.

Hundreds escaped on Thursday when the army launched its operation, but many hostages were killed.

(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo, Eamonn Mallie in Belfast, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Mohammed Abbas in London, Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries in Dublin, Andrew Quinn and David Alexander in Washington, Brian Love in Paris; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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