That has are messages that came out from bin laden asking for specific documents that were released. Specifically documents regarding it will war logs of iraq and afghanistan. Brown from india, fred de sam lazaro has the story of an unlikely solution to massive blackouts and powergrid problems, using the byproduct of a staple. The newly electrified homes stand out in the darkwith children clustered around the single light bulb doing home work. Just one, low power turbine is enough to make the enterprise viable. Suarez and we remember Pauline Phillips whose dear abby column offered straight talking but sympathetic advice about love and life to readers around the globe. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown algerias state news agency now says special forces have completed a mission to rescue dozens of foreign hostages, including some americans. Theyd been held by militants tied to alqaeda. But there are wildly varying accounts of how many got out alive, and how many were killed. Because of the fluidity and the fact that there is a lot of planning going on, i cannot give you any further details at this time about the Current Situation on the ground. Brown even this afternoon, as secretary of state Hillary Clinton suggested, the situation in algeria remained confused. The focus was this natural gas compound in the Sahara Desert seen here in footage from last month. The vast, natural gas facility at in amenas is owned in part by b. P. And located just 60 miles from algerias border with libya. Islamists apparently led by this man Mokhtar Belmoktar attacked the plant yesterday, claiming they took 41 foreign hostages, including seven americans. Early today, the algerian military stormed the sprawling site, as the militants were attempting to leave with the hostages. Hours later, the countrys Communications Minister told algerian radio, an important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists were neutralized and we regret the few dead and wounded, but we dont have numbers. U. S. Officials said an american drone watched the operation from overhead, but the algerians refused u. S. Military assistance. Confusion reigned, the militants claimed 35 hostages died, while algerian state t. V. Said four were killed. And, hundreds of local workers apparently escaped. There was relief for at least one family in ireland. They got word their son was now free. In his video message, the militant leader belmoktar had said the attack on the gas complex was retaliation for french intervention in neighboring mali against another alqaedalinked group. In washington today, after meeting with the president of somalia, secretary clinton said the u. S. Is ready to help the french. We are supporting the french operation in mali with intelligence and airlift. Were working with a half a dozen african countries as we did with respect to somalia over so many years to help them be prepared to send in african troops. Brown clinton said u. S. Trainers will arrive in the region by this weekend to work with those troops. In addition, the European Union approved sending a military Training Mission to mali during an emergency meeting in brussels. In mali today, French Forces encountered stiff resistance from islamic extremists controlling the northern part of out chentry. The town of bana, 0ju 9 cst fmiesmalro crosliitssapwa, put a art cle angndtiofont enwa lyro hughed odriaun malnen soldiers sped there after reported sightings of jihadists in the area. Meanwhile the first detachment of troops from a west African Regional force arrived to reinforce french and malian troops. A short while ago i spoke with Lindsey Hilsum mf ilsependent f levision news. Shes at a military base in markala. Lindsey hilsum, thanks for joining us. I want to ask you first about the reaction in mali to whats now happening in neighboring algeria. Is the connection obvious . The connection is very obvious. The french know that they have kicked the hornets nest. But at the same time, what they believe is that the situation would have been worse if they had not moved. What they say is that these jihadists were preparing to move south down the road to the maliian capital. If they had taken the capital than they would have controlled all of the country so it would have been like afghanistan was under the taliban a whole country controlled by jihadists who would use it as a base for terrorism across the world. So although there is a lot of concern, anxiety, and upset obviously about what has happened in algeria from the french point of view theyre preventing a worse outcome. Brown give us a sense of the fighting now, particularly in and around the town of diable. What kind of resistance are the french meeting . Well, the jihadi fighters are very mobile, they have armored vehicles. Theyre not heavily armed. An officer i spoke today today said they didnt are have sfarz s surfacetoair missile, for example, but they have a. K. 47s and rockett propelled grenades. There are air raids going on in diable about 100 miles up the road where from i am. I understand those jihadists are still in the town controlling the town and others have melted out into the bush. And i think that the great concern is while the french can stop the advance of the jihadis with air strikes and they can then do more with a ground assault alongside mallian forces what will then happen is that these jihadis, theyll melt away theyll go underground and then theyll come back. Weve seen in the afghanistan, weve seen it in iraq. Improvised explosive device, gorilla style attacks. Brown we heard reports of the arrival of the first African Forces in mali. Whats their mission and whats the expectation of the extent of the French Military mission in the coming days . Well, the french say that there will be 2,500 French Forces here. Were talking about marines, foreign legion, air force, many of them trained in desert warfare in chad. Others whove been in the ivory coast, so neighboring african countries. Their job will be to spearhead this and to have these first assaults that weve seen over the last few days. The african troops will probably be in more of a peacekeeping mission if there is a peace to keep. The problem that the african troops have including the mali is that they have no logistics. Its extremely difficult for them to keep their troops fed and waters and sheltered, provide ammunition and so on. So they will not be affected unless french, other european and American Forces help with logistics. Brown Lindsey Hilsum in mali thanks for talking to us. Youre welcome. Suarez for more on the situation in mali and the wider region in north africa we get two views. J. Peter pham is the director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in washington, d. C. And retired colonel Cedric Leighton had a 26 year career in the air force where he focused on intelligence and did a number of stints in the middle east. He now has his own Risk Management consulting firm. Peter pham, youve heard lynn Lindsey Hilsum talk about france kicking the hornets nest. Do you agree that the action in algeria signals a regionalization of this conflict . That its a very different thing now . Very much so. Although its been a regional challenge for some time except our attention wasnt focused upon it. But to remind us al qaeda in the islamic maghreb certainly staged this. I think they had several goals in mind. Servely if they had been successful, grab a few more hostages, theyre already holding half a dozen french hostages to add to the number they could use and leverage. But whats interesting is what they didnt do. They didnt blow up that gas installation. That was reminder to the algerian government that we can strike, we didnt choose to do so but next time we could hit the vital oil and natural gas facilities which supply, by the way, onefifth of europes energy needs. So there are serious implications that could come out of this. Suarez youve got a nato partner in france fighting against a Guerrilla Army in mali. Its not an easy task, is it . Not at all. From a logistical standpoint i thought the itn reporter was spot on when she talked about the logistical issues that are inherent in any kind of war, but they are particularly in hernt in one where the climate is difficult, where the terrain is almost impossible and where youre really not used to configureing your forces in a way that allows you to move rapidly in this kind of terrain. Its very much adown the american southwest and it is a very, very difficult area not only from the standpoint of things like temperature and mountains and things of that nature, its the nature of the terrain that makes it very difficult to move from one point to another. Suarez weve been covering the fight in mali over the last several days but algeria hasnt been in the news for a long time. Whats the state of play there . Whos running the place . Theres a government in algeria, its one that probably we would describe as formerly a republic but an authoritarian ceate. Rtainly not a democracy. Its t oone nhert african country that hasnt seen the arab spring. The extremists inrnorerthema li, many of the leaders come from algeria. Theyre veterans of that war. Mokhtar belmokhtar, the one responsible for this attack an algerian, gone to afghanistan, came back, fought in algeria for a while then moved south as pressure was put on him and now hes obviously making a play back in algeria yah again. Suarez so are a lot of the countries across the sahara vulnerable to this activity . Every single country across the sahara is vulnerable. You talk about algeria, peter mentioned that this is in essence an authoritarian government. Authoritarian governments by their very nature are brittle governments. Theyre authoritarian far reason because they dont allow their population to do things because they dont dare allow the population to do things like democratic movements, peaceable assembly, things we take for granted in the United States. But every single country if you take mali, look mauritania to mo o to thet of mali,ook fea ost mali you have niger, o huge uranium deposits in niger, fourth largest producer in the world. These are the kinds of things that could happen to each of these areas and they could then spread south into other parts of africa. The french difference the ivory coast is another big factor in all of this and it allows them a logistical jumping off point for the conflict in mali. But its also a vulnerable area which has had its own difficulties of late. Suarez you mentioned the arab spring. Was the fall of qaddafi and libya something that lit the fuse across these other countries . I wouldnt say it lit the fuse. I call it to follow on that metaphor perhaps it would be accelerant. There was always a spark. Northern mali had been marginalized politically and economically for some time. The tuaregs were seeking some legitimate grievances to be redressed but then suddenly you had fighters who would experienced freed up former mercenaries of qaddafi. You had enormous stockpiles of weapons unleash and you had al qaeda in the islamic maghreb has been for ten years a pretty good criminal organization, making money off kidnapping for ransom, protecting narco trafficers, other contraband. Then with this war chest they took it to market when the weapons became available and the fighters and now theyre in business. Suarez so you mention it had natural endowments of these lands. Theyre very sparsely populated, practically empty, you might say. Right. Suarez does the United States have a real interest in what goes on here and how does it express that interest without getting involved . It becomes very difficult. The real problem we have is to make sure that this does not become another jumpingoff point for an al qaedalike organization to attack the rest of the world. And thats the big danger. Thats why the french acted. They believe that this is their version of afghanistan, in essence. In other words, the base for militant groups to use to attack the homeland. In this case metropolitan france, the french part of europe. And for the United States, of course, its extremely important that the european integrity be kept hole. Then when you look at other things that could possibly happen you look at the possible cutting off of uranium supplies and other Energy Supplies from this part of the world, natural gas in the case of algeria, oil in other parts of the middle east and north africa, uranium and niger, all of these things become exceptionally important and if, for example, in nigeria, which is further south, if the oil supply from there is disrupt that could have a significant effect on the oil markets and on all of our Strategic Interests in and around the world. Suarez in recent years, the United States opened an Africa Command. What does it do and would it be naturally involved in either watching or actively participating in suppressing this mallian revolt . Certainly the Africa Command will have responsibility when our civilian leaders decide what it is that america is going to do here. As cedric just said, we clearly have interest in the region but we need to define our objectives and the french, to be quite frank, need to define their objectives. So far weve gotten a grab bag of list of ziterata but we need objectives to find and then we need to match resources and means and approaches to achieving those objectives and i think thats the key to managing the challenge we have there. Otherwise were going to find ourselves quickly sucked into a veritable quagmire. Suarez but its a big challenge . A huge challenge. And to playoff of peters point, its essential in the essence of what were talking about is developing a strategy and the strategy is the ends that youre seeking, the means that you use to get to those ends and the way in which you do that. So its an ends, ways, and means type equation that you have to go through from a military perspective. And if the ends, ways, and means arent clear then we get into a position where you can actually get into a quagmire, it would be very, very difficult to extricate ourselves from and thats the big danger with mali. You dont want that to happen. You want to continue whats going on there and you want to make it a very clear delineation between the areas that are held by the tuaregs and Ansar Al Dine as well as the government in mali and that structure is subject to change. Suarez Cedric Leighton, peter pham, thank you both. My pleasure. Brown still to come on the newshour increasing treatment for the mentally ill; limiting evidence in the wikileaks trial; turning on the lights in rural india and ask amy remembers dear abby. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan the alshabab militant group in somalia announced today it executed a french hostage. He was identified as intelligence agent denis allex, whod been held since mid 2009. The militants, who are linked to alqaida, said they killed him last night. French Officials Say they believe allex was killed last weekend when french commandos tried and failed to rescue him. In iraq, another round of bomb attacks killed at least 26 people. Most of the victims were shiite pilgrims. The worst of the attacks killed 11 people and wounded more than 60 near dujail, north of baghdad. Two car bombs exploded near pilgrims who were headed to a shrine. The bombings extended a wave of violence thats killed nearly 60 iraqis since yesterday. A u. S. Military judge has ordered a sanity review for a soldier accused of murdering 16 afghan civilians last march. The ruling came after Staff Sergeant robert bales declined to enter a plea. He was arraigned today at joint base lewismcchord, near seattle. Outside court, defense lawyers said bales has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. Questions swirled today around notre dame football star manti teo. It came out wednesday that the story of his online girlfriend, who supposedly died of leukemia, was all a hoax, and that she never existed. The website deadspin. Com broke the story, and said teo may have been complicit in the ruse. The University Said its investigation showed the middle linebacker was duped. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick spoke last night. I want to stress as someone who has probably been engaged in this as anyone, in the past couple of weeks, that nothing about what i have learned has shaken my faith in manti teo. One iota. Sreenivasan in his own statement, teo said he was the victim of a sick joke. Notre dame officials said the motive for the scam remains unclear. The International Olympic committee stripped Lance Armstrong today of the bronze cycling medal he won in the 2000 summer games. The announcement came amid reports that armstrong confessed to doping, in an interview with oprah winfrey. The interview airs in two parts, starting tonight, on her t. V. Channel. The i. O. C. Said the timing of its decision was unrelated to the interview. Nearly all the new boeing 787 dreamliners in service have now been grounded worldwide. The jets sat idle on tarmacs today as europe, india and oth