Hell walk down the hall, and then hell go outside, and when he opens those doors, hell see hundreds of thousands of people cheering at him. It will be a sight that is awesome. Suarez and inaugural poet Richard Blanco discusses what it means to be a part of such a momentous occasion. Brown we have more on the fallout after Lance Armstrongs admission that he used performanceenhancing drugs to build his championship career. Suarez plus, mark shields and david brooks analyze the weeks news. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. Support also comes from Carnegie Corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what Andrew Carnegie called real and permanent good. Celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And friends of the newshour. 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 information trickled out today about the siege of a natural gas plant in algeria. There was word that one american hostage had been killed, but a definitive accounting of all the captives remained elusive. At the same time, the algerians allowed the world to see pictures of some whod been rescued. Amid continued confusion, these were the first images of natural gas workers freed by Algerian Special forces. translated we went out and waved up white banners so the National Army would recognize us as workers and let us go. Brown others were less fortunate, shown bandaged and in hospital beds. State tv broadcast the footage a day after the Army Launched its operation, and two days after islamist militants seized the ain amenas complex in the desert near the libyan border. An algerian worker said the kidnappers had separated algerians from foreign workers. nr then came the army assault. translated we were in a room, all of us, 260 people, all of us gathered there when the army started firing from a plane. So we went out through a door, the back door, to escape, to get away. The army helped. If it wasnt for the army, we would never have got out and got to the foreigners who were held hostage. Brown some of the rescued foreigners joined in praising the algerian military. I think they did a fantastic job. I was very impressed with the algerian army. Very exciting episode. I feel sorry for anybody that has been hurt. Brown algerias state news agency reported 100 of 132 foreign hostages got out, and a dozen algerians and foreigners died. It said nothing about the others. The militants had claimed to hold 41 foreigners, including seven americans. Today, u. S. State Department SpokespersonVictoria Nuland said some americans are still being held. I think weve been clear that we have american hostages. Weve been clear about that. And thats still the case . Yes. Brown later, the Associated Press reported that one american had died. Nuland flatly rejected a reported demand by the militants to trade two americans for two convicted terrorists jailed in the u. S. One is egyptian sheik omar abdel rahman, convicted of plotting to blow up major sites in new york. There were also reports that the algerian gas plant had not yet been fully secured, and that military operations were continuing. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton addressed the issue after meeting with the Japanese Foreign minister. She said she spoke today with the Prime Minister of algeria. I urged the utmost care be taken in the protection of the hostages, algerian and expatriate foreign hostages. Brown other countries raised questions as well and pressed for more information. Thank you, mister speaker. Brown in london, british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron told parliament that hed had no advance warning of the rescue. I was told by the algerian Prime Minister while it was taking place. He said that the terrorists had tried to flee, that they judged there to be an immediate threat to the lives of the hostages, and had felt obliged to respond. Brown in indonesia, japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe cut short his first overseas trip since taking office, with japanese workers among the missing in algeria. translated we must absolutely not forgive any act that takes a life of the innocent, and at the same time, the hostages lives have to be given absolute priority. Since the incident, our government has kept in touch with other nations and coordinated closely to gather information. Brown meanwhile, the algerian militants threatened today to carry out more attacks at foreignowned sites. Suarez in algerias neighbor, mali, French Forces battled again today with islamists. We have an ontheground report from Lindsey Hilsum of independent television news. Reporter crossing the river niger, heading to the towns and villages threatened by malis jihadi rebels further north. Every vehicle coming down the road is checked. Now the french have bombed the jihadis camps and convoys, the fear is that individual islamists will infiltrate themselves and start a campaign of terror further south. We speed up the road, evidence everywhere of how poor mali is how deprived, how hard life was even before war disrupted the peoples existence. As we arrived in niono, we found a truckload of exhausted people whod fled diabaly, 50 miles away, last night. The jihadis have occupied the town for a week and yesterdays french air strikes were intense. She ran for 24 miles through the bush with her children before the truck picked them up. translated so many things happened. The rebels did everything. They destroyed our houses. They did everything. Im so tired. We are very, very tired. Reporter several told me the jihadis are mainly lightskinned arabs whom they suspect are some are teenagers. translated i couldnt tell their age, i could just see their size. It was clear they were very young people. Some were too small even to carry their own backpacks. Reporter the malian army is in niono to hold the line until the french arrive. The malian soldiers say that without the french, theyd have no chance of confronting the jihadis. The people ive been talking to are terrified. Outside, with the algerian tragedy, people must be asking if the french were right to intervene in mali. Here there are no such doubts. When the jihadis took over the north last year, malian troops ran away. They couldnt believe their eyes. translated theyre really heavily armed. I dont know how they managed to get those weapons. Theyre the most sophisticated in the world. And those vehicles, how did they get the supply line . I saw hundreds of vehicles in the north of mali. There are no petrol stations there, but they keep driving. Its incomprehensible. Reporter local people bring rice to feed not just the displaced people but the soldiers, too. They know theyre not out of danger yet. translated what happened in algeria is a manifestation of what we fear in mali. After mali, surely it would happen somewhere else. Reporter the people of mali have lived with this threat for years. Now, the rest of the world is beginning to understand. Brown well have more on the developing situations in mali and algeria later in the program. Also ahead preparing for mondays grand ceremony; the inaugural poet; the Lance Armstrong doping admission; and shields and brooks. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan the u. S. House of representatives will vote next week on lifting the debt ceiling. Majority leader eric cantor said today republicans want an interim measure to provide about three more months of borrowing authority. The bill would not mandate immediate spending cuts, as House Speaker john boehner earlier promised. Instead, it would force congress to pass a budget or go without being paid. The government could reach the current debt ceiling by midfebruary. Ray nagin, the mayor of new orleans during hurricane katrina, has been indicted on charges for corruption. A federal grand jury accused him today of bribery, wire fraud, and Money Laundering while in office. Nagin was the citys mayor from 2002 until 2010. Two former new orleans officials and two businessmen have already pleaded guilty in the case. U. S. Attorney general eric holder today defended president obamas moves to curb gun violence. The president signed 23 executive orders this week, calling for such things as more research into gun violence. Today, in washington, holder told the u. S. Conference of mayors that theres no question the orders are legal. Now let me be very clear. Let me be very clear. Not one of these executive orders contrary to what a few have said impinges upon anyones Second Amendment rights or are inconsistent with the historical use of executive power. Sreenivasan some republicans have charged the president s executive action improperly bypassed congress. An especially deadly week in syrias civil war neared an end today with reports of a new massacre. Opposition activists accused a progovernment militia of killing more than 100 people on thursday in central syria. Earlier in the week, nearly 90 people died in explosions at a university in aleppo. And today, a rocket struck another building in aleppo reducing it to rubble, while suicide car bombers struck elsewhere. Reports told of numerous casualties, but gave no numbers. Indonesias capital city jakarta, struggled to recover today from heavy flooding. The downtown was swamped after a dike collapsed under the pressure of monsoon rains. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as the water crept higher. And the death toll was 11, mostly from drowning or electrocution. The lowlying city has long been prone to flooding but this years is the worst since 2007. The flu is now widespread in nearly all of the u. S. The centers for Disease Control said today that all but two states, tennessee and hawaii, show widespread flu activity. The number of older people hospitalized with the illness rose sharply in the last week and the number of children whove died increased again to 29. Honda is recalling nearly 750,000 vehicles for a possible airbag problem. The auto maker said today the affected vehicles are pilot suvs and odyssey minivans spanning the model years 2009 to 2013. The driversside airbags may not have all the rivets they need, and that could stop them from deploying. No crashes or injuries have been reported. Wall street rounded out the week on a mixed note. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 53 points to close at 13,649. The nasdaq fell one point to close at 3,134. For the week, the dow gained more than 1 ; the nasdaq rose threetenths of a percent. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to ray. Suarez we return now to north africa, and what recent developments in mali and algeria tell us about the terrorist threat in that part of the world. For that, im joined by Mary Jane Deeb, chief of the african and middle Eastern Division at the library of congress; and dirk vandewalle, an associate professor of government at dartmouth college. Mary jane deeb, were you surprised that the alger yens moved as quickly toned the standoff at the gas plant as they did . Not really. Because i think they realized that if they didnt move quickly the hostages could be taken to different parts not only of algeria but outside algeria as well. They had to act quickly. They knew that they needed to have the hostages together while they were in 1 place. It would have been much more difficult had they been spread out and taken by the terrorist. Professor, is this now a regional crisis . Well in many ways jeff this has been a regional crisis, ever since the libyan reg seem regime the qaddafi regime was replaced in libya, remember that after the civil war in libya we had kind of a power vacuum and following that power vacuum the fact that a lot of the weapons that the good avi regime had bought had been spread throughout the country and smuggled into neighboring countries. So in that kind of vacuum that existed came in a number of groups including Islamist Groups that then took the opportunity to really stand up against particularly as we now know in mali but also targeted some of the neighboring regime, some of the neighboring countries. And so in a sense it is not only a regional crisis its really a crisis that involves very closely goals outside the region as well meaning particularly the European Union and the United States and to some extent the African Union as well. Suarez why does this Mary Jane Deeb immediately implicate eu . Well because once you attack the infrastructure which produces oil gas and which link africa to europe, then you can create havoc in the institution of oil. And so it is important. I mean the french understood the importance of the movement in mali. They understood that as professor vandewalle was saying that once you have a movement, once you take over power w its not simply you know e ploding a car here or there t is actually take over power in mali, then similar movements would be allowed to do the same in the region. Suarez so you buy it that the algerians under muktar are acting under sympathy with those in mali. Absolutely. I have no doubt that the radical islamists in nrt africa and those who are in neighboring countries including in nigeria are in sympathy. So and this is what the french want to stop. And the algerian government as well. Because algeria itself is not that stable and could be further destabilized by the actions. Suarez professor, are these forces some kind of network or do they just simply want many of the same things . Well, in many ways these are networks but the interesting phenomenon s and i want to add what mary jane just said that some of these ris lambist movements but some of these are also movements that simply paste on their own label of being islamists. And some of these are frankly just bandits. And so we see a number of movement both religious and nonrelige thaws have emerged that in many ways have opportunistickically taken advantage of the power vacuum that exists within the region. Remember this is not just in the mali more tanya and niger it also deals in large part with so insecurities that remain in north africa. And because of that power vacuum theyve been able to achieve both i should say by what has happened during the arab spring in tunesia but particularly in libya and have moved their goals forward, so to speak. But if there is a range of motivation f some have a political program, and some are as the professor suggests simply bandits does the reaction of other powers in the world change . Does the way the french react dot way the algerian government reacts change depending on whether they are merely bandits or want to do something far more destabilizing . I think what they are reacting to is the ones who have an objective to overthrow a regime to take over power. The bandits just joined the larger group. So the bandits are there they will always be there but the leaders have a clear goal to take over power to create an islamist state in mali and then move further to niger, more tanya senegal and the otherni countries. And certainly algeria is also on the map. Professor what are the challenges involved. Were talking about a huge swathe of land, sparsely population sparsely populated. If you want to have a military response, if you want to respond to this kind of irregular action in the field, is this a daunting landscape on which to do it . It is a very daunting landscape, ray. And it will undoubtedly take many years before all of this is solved. The coordination between the different partners involved in this European Union the United States, the African Union to some extent peripherally the arab league will be difficult. In addition to that it also relies on the cooperation of the local states. Now luckily libya in particular, the leadership in libya has moved forward and has been trying to coordinate already all kinds of security arrangements in north africa but then north africa needs to coordinate with the states, with the African Union, with the United States, with the European Union, and there are lots of sensitivityies here undoubtedly the United States will want to play a larger role eventually. But that involves perhaps the Africa Command which is now located in student guard and out of stuudgard out of sensitive for the afteran afteran african concern and they have reason for example in algeria because algeria has this long history of relation somewhat antagonistic relation with the west but particularly with france, it will be very difficult to coordinate but already were starting to see that some measures have been taken and undoubtedly that cooperation will really nearly have to be established if indeed, that part of the world does not become highly destabilized and remain destabilized for a long period of time. Mary jane deeb, thank you both. Brown online, you can view more of our reports on algeria and mali. Those are on our world page. Suarez after months of planning for president obamas second inaugural, the moment has almost arrived. A Holiday Weekend of inaugural events in washington is about to begin. Every four years since 1789, the military has massed its personnel to prepare for one of the grandest traditions in america, the president ial inauguration. The music rose before the sun during a rehearsal this past weekend and gave a hint of what to expect when the actual parade and ceremony happen monday. This celebration will be shorter and smaller than president obamas first in