Live Updates: Obamas Watch Inaugural Parade


Four years and one day after President Obama first took his first oath of office, America is once again celebrating his Inauguration. This time the schedule includes performances by Beyonce and Katy Perry, a parade with more than 2,000 members of the military and two Inaugural balls.


Refresh here for updates throughout the day.


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.


Read Obama’s second Inaugural address here.


All times are in Eastern Standard Time.



4:30 p.m. – Wrapping Up the Route


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(Image Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)


ABC’s Devin Dwyer reports the President, the first lady, the Vice President and Dr. Biden will soon make their way to the reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Ave. where they will be joined by Congressional leaders, Supreme Court Justices, governors, the Joint Chiefs and White House staff as well as area elementary school students and some of the Tuskegee Airmen and their families, according to the White House.



4:00 p.m. – Obama, Roberts Sign King Bible


ABC’s Avery Miller reports President Obama and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts signed Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Bible today, at the request of the family.


In his life time, it was King’s “traveling Bible,” according to the Presidential Inaugural Committee.


“An avid reader who was constantly on the road, Dr. King typically traveled with a selection of books that included this Bible,” the PIC wrote in a statement about the Bible written when they announced Obama would use it in his ceremony. “It was used for inspiration and preparing sermons and speeches, including during Dr. King’s time as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.”


Read more about President Obama’s choice of Bibles here.



3:56 p.m. – Justice Scalia and the Mystery of the Funny Hat


Michelle Obama wasn’t the only one drawing eyes with her fashion choices at the inaugural ceremonies today. Many on Twitter – including Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., – remarked on Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s choice of headgear during President Obama’s swearing-in.


Some compared it to Aretha Franklin’s extravagant hat at the 2009 inauguration. Others simply wondered where it came from.


To find that answer, ABC’s Sarah Parnass spoke with Scalia’s former clerk, Kevin Walsh.


Walsh, who now teaches at University of Richmond School of Law, said the association of Catholic lawyers to which he belongs, St. Thomas More Society of Richmond Va., presented Scalia with the hat in 2010.


The hat is a replica of one worn by St. Thomas More in his most iconic portrait, done by Hans Holbein, according to Walsh.


When giving Justice Scalia the hat, the members of the St. Thomas More Society thought it would be a nice memento. “If nothing else it would be suitable for university functions,” Scalia said.


Walsh said the significance of Scalia’s wearing the hat likely doesn’t go beyond function. In the past, Scalia has worn a skull cap, much like the one Justice Breyer sported today. But the skull cap doesn’t have earflaps – the More hat does.


“That one’s warmer,” Walsh said, comparing the hat Scalia wore today with the one he wore to the 2009 inauguration. “I’d say it’s more functional.”


ABC’s Bob Murphy adds this historical background:


Thomas More was the Lord Chancellor or Chief Legal Officer of England when Henry VIII was King. He famously lost his head (the one the hat was made for) rather than reinterpret the laws of divorce and allow the King to dispatch his Queen. He is a hero to the Catholic legal community for his commitment to moral and legal authority over the whim of the chief temporal power.


The ultraconservative Catholic jurist may or may not be making a statement but the significance is interesting.





3:39 p.m. – Inauguration Day in Pictures


Click the picture below for a slideshow of some of the 2013 inauguration’s most memorable moments so far.


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(Image Credit: Jonathan Ernst-Pool/AP Photo)



3:33 p.m. – Obama Pauses for Final Glimpse of Fans


ABC’s Devin Dwyer reports:


After a bruising campaign, and unusually contentious post-election period, President Obama savored his second and final Inauguration Day as a brief respite from political storms and celebratory moment for his hundreds of thousands of adoring supporters.


As he walked off the inaugural platform on the west front of the U.S. Capitol, Obama turned and paused to look out at the crowd on the National Mall, even as his family and other guests continued ahead without him.


“I want to take a look one more time,” Obama was heard saying. “I’m not going to see this again.”


Read more on that poignant moment with the president here.



3:22 p.m. – Obama Makes History Citing Gay Rights in Inaugural Address


ABC’s Shushannah Walshe reports:


President Obama made history in his inaugural address today mentioning the word “gay” and the issue of gay rights for the first time in a speech at the presidential swearing in.


“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said in his address on the Capitol steps after his swearing in.


Obama also mentioned the word Stonewall when citing milestones of the civil right struggle. It was a reference to a riot and subsequent protests over a police raid in June 1969 of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The president mentioned it along with the first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848 and the civil rights march in Selma, Ala., in 1965.


“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” Obama said.


Brian Ellner who led the successful campaign to make same sex marriage legal in New York state called the speech “historic.”


Read more from Walshe here.


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3:12 p.m. –  Obama Sticks to His Script in Second Inaugural Address


ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports:


By their very nature, the texts of presidential inaugural addresses become historical documents as soon as they are delivered. Obama’s speech, like all the others before, will be scrutinized for years to come.


So, how closely did President Obama, who is known for his oratorical prowess, hew to the prepared text of his remarks? With the exception of a few minor words,


It turns out he stuck almost exactly to the script.


“We must harness new ideas and technology” became “So we must harness…” and “Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright” ended up as “Let us, each of us, now embrace…” He sprinkled in an extra “and” at the beginning of one paragraph and turned a “that is” into “that’s.”


Otherwise, the president delivered the speech he had in front of him with almost no changes.


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2:26 p.m. – Tell the President What You Want


Whether you voted for him or not, tell President Obama what you’d most like to see him tackle in his second term and why.


Upload a video or photo, or send your comments telling the president what is most important to you in the next four years.


The best submissions may be featured today on ABCNews.com.


Click the photo below to see how you can participate.


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(Image Credit: ABC News Photo Illustration)


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2:11 p.m. – Obama Address References Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, Immigration


Univision’s Jordan Fabian reports:


Obama, the nation’s first black president, delivered his address on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and drew strong parallels between the civil rights battles of King’s generation to the social issues facing today. Perhaps most notable was Obama’s reference to gay rights, believed to be a first for a presidential inaugural address.


“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said. “For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”


The president also made a forceful statement in support of comprehensive immigration reform, a campaign pledge from 2008 that remains unfulfilled. Obama has repeatedly pledged to make it one of his top legislative priorities this year.


“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country,” he said.


Read more from Fabian here.




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2:05 p.m. – Obama’s Inaugural Declaration: ‘Our Time’ for Changing Nation


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(Image Credit: Win McNamee/AP Photo)


Analysis by ABC’s Rick Klein:


President Obama used a brief pause in the partisan warfare that’s scarred his time in office to return to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, with his own declaration of urgency and a call to action that reflects shared sacrifice and responsibility.


This was no centrist conciliator. It was the speech of a committed, unapologetic progressive, an Obama doctrine for domestic policy that included concrete commitments in areas he made little progress on over his first four years. Above all, he was speaking to a changing America – the nation that propelled him to a second term, and whose voices he will need to channel to be effective over the next four years.


“My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together,” the president declared.


Read more on what Obama meant and what opportunities he sees going forward here.



1:30 p.m. – More on Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco


Univision’s Jordan Fabian reports:


There has not been another inaugural poet like Richard Blanco.


Out of the five people selected to read an original poem at a presidential inauguration, the 44-year-old Blanco is the first Latino, first gay man, and youngest person to serve the role. The presidential inaugural committee officially announced the choice of Blanco, the son of Cuban exiles, last Wednesday.


Read more from Fabian here.


Blanco wrote the poem he read, called “One Today,” in the past 11 days. It included several references to America’s workers, including the following:


One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.


Read the full poem here.


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1:24 p.m. – Sen. McCaskill Calls Out SCOTUS Hats





1:24 p.m. – Terry Moran: Inauguration Fits ‘Next America’


In response to remarks about Obama’s reference to gay marriage, Nightline’s Terry Moran analyzes the firsts of this inauguration:


Has Spanish been spoken before? Has there ever been a bigger crowd for a second inaugural?


To me, Obama’s speech, this crowd, the whole program, seemed deliberately designed to confirm the “next America”–younger, more diverse, more non-native, socially liberal–as the source of authority, even legitimacy in the nation going forward.


That’s what the election was really about, deep down. And the feeling out here seems more than the usual inaugural victory lap of the party in power. It seems cultural–and historic. It’s their moment. And so is tomorrow–not in a partisan sense. In a factual one.


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1:14 p.m. – Inaugural Performances


Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor and Beyonce sang during the inaugural ceremonies this year.




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1:09 p.m. – What’s On the Menu?


President Obama now joins members of Congress and the Supreme Court for the inaugural luncheon.


ABC’s Devin Dwyer reports the inaugural luncheon menu from the JCC:


First Course: Steamed lobster with New England chowder


Wine: Anthony Road Winery, Fox Run Vineyards & Newt Red Cellars, Tierce 2010 Dry Riesling, Finger Lakes, N.Y.


Second Course: Hickory grilled bison with wild huckleberry reduction and red potato horseradish cake


Wine: Bedell Cellars, 2009 Merlot, North Fork, Long Island, N.Y.


Third Course: Hudson Valley apple pie, sour cream ice cream, aged cheese and honey


Wine: Korbel Natural, Special Inaugural Cuvée Champagne, Calif.


NOTE the New York food/wine: Water in the holding rooms is to be Saratoga Springs (a NY label), per a PIC official. And the wines to be served at the inaugural luncheon are from New York vineyards —- all thanks to NY Sen. Chuck Schumer, who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies


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12:46 p.m. – Timing Is Everything: Chris Christie Makes Announcements Minutes Before Obama’s Speech


ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports:


During the very same hour of President Obama’s second inauguration, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is often mentioned as a potential 2016 Republican presidential contender, sent out two separate announcements.


The first from his gubernatorial campaign: “Governor Chris Christie will be visiting the Hilton Newark Airport on Tuesday morning to accept the second major endorsement of his campaign.” (The campaign did not provide information about who will be endorsing him). And the second, a statement commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. (Christie, who praised President Obama’s efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated portions of coastal New Jersey, did not mention the president’s inauguration):


“Dr. King was the paradigm of strength in triumphing over adversity and racial injustice to achieve what seemed impossible to so many for so long. His legacy stands as an eternal reminder of his sacrifice and the progress he achieved and which we are obliged to protect for every citizen of our state and nation. I join New Jerseyans in honoring Dr. King’s life and work and his uncompromising commitment to peacefully working toward freedom and equality for all Americans,” Christie said in the statement.


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12:16 p.m. – Richard Blanco Delivers Inauguration Poem


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12:09 p.m. – Obama Gives Shout Out to Same-Sex Couples in Inaugural Address


In his inaugural address today, President Obama called for treating same-sex couples equal under the law. ABC News’ Arlette Saenz reports:


Of the group of 215 members in the Lesbian and Gay Band Association marching in the inaugural parade, four couples are legally married.


Leslie Becker and Lindsay Famula of Hackensack, N.J., met when Famula joined the band in 2006, and the two women, who are both percussionists, were married in May.


“It’s validation. The fact that we have been denied this right for so long when really all we want to do is be seen in the government as a couple means a lot,” Becker said. “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was repealed. We’re making big advancements in civil rights for gay couples, and it means a big deal to be one of the few married couples to march in this parade.”


New Jersey has allowed civil unions since 2006, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a same-sex marriage bill in February.


Becker played at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1997, but the LGBA only played on the side of the parade. During President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, the LGBA, including Becker, marched in the actual parade.


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11:56 a.m. – Hundreds of Thousands Turn Out for Inauguration


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(Image Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)


As of 11:00 a.m., Washington Metro Area Transit Authority reported 308,000 people used their rail service this morning. Metro was preparing last week for an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people to come to D.C. for the events.


In 2009, 1.8 million people gathered to welcome in Obama’s first term.


Around 11:30 a.m., the U.S. Park Police released a statement about the crowding: “The National Mall is now full and closed. All visitors not on the Mall should proceed to the overflow area at the Washington Monument.”



11:50 a.m. – Obama Takes Oath for Fourth Time


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(Image Credit: ABC NEWS)


With his hand on two Bibles held by his two daughters, President Barack Obama took the inaugural oath for a fourth time. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath.



11:38 a.m. – Evers-Williams Delivers Invocation





11:33 a.m. – ABC Correspondent Tweets from Pakistan




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11:30 a.m. – Ryan Congratulates Obama


ABC’s Elizabeth Hartfield reports:


No word from Mitt Romney, but his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan sent out a congrats to President Obama.




Ryan posted a longer congratulations on his Facebook page.


I congratulate President Obama on his inauguration, and I join the country in celebrating this American tradition.


The president and I were political opponents. We had strong disagreements over the direction of the country—as we still do now. But today, we put those disagreements aside. Today, we remember what we share in common.


We serve the same country, one that is still in need of repair—and is still the freest on earth. We serve alongside men and women from both parties, who govern in good faith and good will. Finally, we serve the same people, who have honored us with their charge.


We may disagree on matters of policy. But today we remember why we take those matters so seriously—because we seek the public good. It’s our highest duty—one that we share—and one for which we’re grateful.


I’m happy to mark this historic occasion—for the president and for the country. And I look forward to tackling the big challenges ahead.


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11:20 a.m. – A Look Back at Obama’s First Inaugural Address


ABC’s Elizabeth Hartfield reports:


As Obama’s prepares to give his second inaugural address, a look back at the first: Obama’s speech in 2009 ran 2,395 words.


According to a handy word count breakdown from the Wall Street Journal, Obama used the word “people” eight times, the word “God” five times, and the word “government” four times. We can expect that those words will pop up again in today’s speech, as the president is expected to talk about unity and finding common ground among our nation’s leaders.


A word he only uttered once in 2009, that we might expect him to bring up again more this time- “war” – as the president looks back on the drawdown of America’s military presence in Iraq, and ahead to the drawdown in Afghanistan.


Today’s speech is expected to be shorter than his speech four years ago – but by how much will remain to be seen. The high bar of second inauguration speeches is Abraham Lincoln’s address in 1965- where he managed to say a lot, in just a few words- 698 to be exact.


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11:16 a.m. – Obama Enters Arena


President Obama has entered the Capitol. Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are close behind.


ABC’s Michael Falcone points out President Obama will be getting down to business shortly after he delivers his second inaugural address, officially submitting the names of his nominees for the posts of CIA Director, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, according to a White House official.


Today, at the Capitol the President will be signing:


1. A Proclamation to commemorate the inauguration titled, “National Day of Hope and Resolve, 2013.”
2. Four Nominations:
a. John Owen Brennan to be Director of the CIA
b. Charles Timothy Hagel to be Secretary of Defense
c. John Forbes Kerry to be Secretary of State
d. Jacob J. Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury


ABC’s Devin Dwyer notes that four years ago, Obama signed a similar proclamation and nominations to the Senate. This occurs in the President’s Room, just off the Senate chamber, immediately following the address.


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11:08 a.m. – The Biden Family Bible


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(Image Credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)


A large Bible being carried in is attracting some attention for its size. The Bible belongs to the Biden family, and it’s the one Vice President Joe Biden will use to swear his oath of office, as he did four years ago.


The 120-year-old book has a Celtic cross on the front and has been passed down through the Biden clan. It is 5 inches thick, according to the Presidential Inaugural Committee.


Biden also used it Sunday in his private swearing-in ceremony at the Naval Observatory.


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Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo


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11:04 a.m. – Powell Slams GOP’s ‘Idiot Presentations’


ABC’s Michael Falcone reports:


In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos during ABC’s special inauguration day coverage this morning, former Secretary of State Colin Powell lashed out at people in the Republican Party who spent the last four years spreading “birther nonsense” and other “things that demonize the president,” calling on GOP leaders to denounce such talk — publicly.


“Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president. I mean, why aren’t Republican leaders shouting out about all this birther nonsense and all these other things? They should speak out. This is the kind of intolerance that I’ve been talking about where these idiot presentations continue to be made and you don’t see the senior leadership of the party say, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ In fact, sometimes by not speaking out, they’re encouraging it. And the base keeps buying the stuff.


“And it’s killing the base of the party. I mean, 26 percent favorability rating for the party right now. It ought to be telling them something. So, instead of attacking me or whoever speaks like I do, look in the mirror and realize, ‘How are we going to win the next election?”


Read more from Falcone here.


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10:59 a.m. – Former President Carter Enters


Thirty-ninth President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, entered the Capitol to applause from the crowd. The former president shook hands and exchanged greetings with others awaiting President Obama. Carter is 88 years old and one of two former presidents expected at today’s ceremony.


The second, former President Bill Clinton, entered moments later with Sec. of State Hillary Clinton by his side.


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10:56 a.m. – How to Crash a Party


Not invited to any of the official inaugural shindigs? No sweat.


ABC’s Chris Good got the scoop on how to sneak into the festivities from Fred Karger, former 2012 Republican presidential candidate and self-proclaimed party-crasher extraordinaire.


“Karger says he has crashed an inauguration party before, plus the Oscars and Fashion Week. He has fooled rope-line workers, he says, and even the Secret Service,” Good reports.


“He twice found himself onstage at the Oscars, he says, once singing the final number alongside Liza Minnelli.”


A few of Karger’s tips: call ahead under a fake name, blend in with the entourage and don’t look back. Find all of Karger’s tips and more reporting from Chris Good here.


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10:52 a.m. – Presidential Limo: Belly of the Beast


President Obama got an upgraded presidential limo when he took office four years ago.


Pierre Thomas got an exclusive look at the unveiling back then. Take a look:


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10:41 a.m. – POTUS Departs


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(Image Credit: DC Vote)


President Obama has left the White House and entered his motorcade, on the way to the Capitol.


The president’s limo is sporting special plates today, in support of the D.C. statehood movement. Read more about those plates here.


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10:39 a.m. – First Lady and Vice President on Their Way


First lady Michelle Obama left the White House, followed shortly by Vice President Joe Biden.


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10:34 a.m. – Obamas Leave White House


President Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, left the White House in their pink and purple coats just a moment ago. They’re headed for the Capitol, where they will watch their father take the presidential oath for the fourth time.


They were followed minutes later by a band of Marines, then by Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden’s wife.


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10:31 a.m. – Events Heating Up


Members of Congress can be seen streaming into the Capitol. The inaugural pre-show began at 9:30 a.m., but Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., won’t begin introducing the president for another hour.


Across the National Mall, attendees are waving American flags, in a sea of red, white and blue.


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10:17 a.m. – Presidential Imperfections


It’s a not-so-secret understanding that even the most well-respected president’s weren’t perfect. Turns out neither were their inaugural ceremonies.


Find the funniest and quirkiest inaugural slip ups here.


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9:58 a.m. – How Do You Spell the Event of the Day?


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(Image Credit: Joanna Stern / ABC News)


ABC’s Joanna Stern reports:


Nope, it’s not inaugration. Not inaguration either. Inaugiration? Not correct. And it’s definitely not innoguration or anauguration.


Inauguration. That’s the correct spelling of the word for that big event today, at which, you know, the president officially becomes the president again.


But don’t be embarrassed if you spelled it incorrectly. It turns out it’s a pretty popular thing to do.


Over 2,500 people have tweeted about the “inaguration,” according to Topsy, which tracks tweets on Twitter. Topsy says 866 of those tweets have been in the last 30 days. “Inaugration” has been used in over 700 tweets.


Read more from Stern on the many misspellings of this historic event here.


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9:42 a.m. – Obamas on the Move


The Obama family has left church services at St. John’s Episcopal Church and headed back to the White House.


To see where the president will go next, check out ABC’s interactive map here.


Pastor Andy Stanley from the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta Georgia delivered the sermon, according to pool reports, calling the president “pastor in chief.”




This tweet from the president posted while the Obama family was still in church.




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9:15 a.m. – Obama’s View


ABC’s Jonathan Karl is on the platform at the West Front of the Capitol Building where Obama will give his inaugural address later today. He’s got the best view of the crowds, which won’t come close to the 1.8 million of four years ago, but which already number hundreds of thousands.




9:11 a.m. – Members of Congress Honor MLK on Twitter


Today America remembers the legacy of another great leader: Martin Luther King, Jr. Members of the House and Senate are taking to Twitter to express their admiration for King this morning.








9:04 a.m. – On the Ground with Good Morning America.




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9:03 a.m. – Best and Worst Inaugural Addresses


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(Image Credit: Getty Images)


ABC’s Chris Good reports on the best and worst inaugural speeches of all time:


Inaugural addresses, it is said, are usually not very good. Most have been long forgotten, and historians themselves point to few as memorable.


It’s not entirely clear why, but the moment might have something to do with it. Book-ending divisive national campaigns, inaugural addresses offer token unity sentiments, hopefulness but not always specific hopes, and even some good ones sound myopic.


“Most inaugural addresses are not remembered,” said Princeton University professor and noted presidential historian Eric Foner. “Grover Cleveland? I have no idea what he said in his.”


“I have actually read every single inaugural, and it was a really boring experience,” said Robert Lehrman, a former speechwriter for vice president Al Gore, who now teaches the craft at American University in Washington. “Most of the speeches are terrible. Even the ones we remember, I don’t think there is any reporter working anywhere that couldn’t write language as crisp or concrete as the majority of them.”


Read the rest of the worst and the best here.


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8:56 a.m. – Outfits of the Inauguration: Obama Style


ABC’s Mary Bruce reports:


The President, First Lady, in a dark blue jacket, and daughters Malia, in a pink overcoat, and Sasha, in dark purple, arrived just after 8:40 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church for morning services.


The First Lady is wearing a navy Thom Browne coat and dress. The fabric was developed based on the style of a man’s silk tie. The belt she is wearing is from J.Crew and her earrings are designed by Cathy Waterman. She is also wearing J.Crew shoes. At the end of the Inaugural festivities, the outfit and accompanying accessories will go to the National Archives.


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


The Bidens arrived moments later.


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8:47 a.m. – Tailor to the Presidents: Republicans Dress Better




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8:45 a.m. – Great American Quotes


Inaugural addresses are an opportunity for presidents on the nation’s front lawn – a place that Americans come to in turns inaugurate their leaders, protest their government and mourn their dead – to place a marker for their legacy.


There have been some weighty and remarkable things said as presidents took the oath of office looking down on the Mall and also, from nearby, as other Americans have looked up and let their voices be heard at gatherings as varied as the March on Washington and the Promise Keepers.


What can Barack Obama say, come Monday, as he begins a second term with lower expectations and less inspiration, to place himself on this list of great American words?


Click below for an interactive look at the competition:


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(Image Credit: ABC News: Ma'ayan Rosenzweig)


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8:38 a.m. – Aretha Franklin’s Hat Makes a Comeback




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8:22 a.m. – Martha Raddatz: Women Rule




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8:08 a.m. – Eva Longoria Wakes Up to with the White House




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Curated by ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf and Sarah Parnass

Read More..

Obama's speech: Learn from Lincoln






STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • Julian Zelizer: Second term inaugural addresses are always a challenge

  • He says the public has had four years to make a judgment about the president

  • Obama can learn from second term speeches of Lincoln, Wilson, FDR

  • Zelizer says they did a good job of unifying America and sketching vision of the future




Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and of "Governing America."


(CNN) -- The second inaugural address is always more difficult than the first. When a president-elect first steps onto the national stage, he still enjoys a certain degree of innocence and hope. Americans are waiting to see if the new president will be different. When a new president delivers his speech, voters don't yet have a record that might make them cynical.


But by the second term, voters are familiar, and often tired, with the occupant of the White House. Even though they liked him more than his opponents, the president has usually been through some pretty tough battles and his limitations have been exposed. It becomes much harder to deliver big promises, when the people watching have a much clearer sense of your limitations and of the strength of your opponents.



Julian Zelizer

Julian Zelizer



So President Barack Obama faces a big test when he appears before the nation Monday.


Opinion: Presidents shouldn't swear in on a Bible


Obama now is Washington, and no longer someone who will be able to shake up the way Washington works. Voters believe that Congress is dysfunctional and have little confidence that legislators will respond to his proposals.


Overseas, the instability and violence in the Middle East has shaken the confidence of many Americans that Obama can achieve the kind of transformative change he promised back in 2009.



Obama, who is a student of history, can look back at some past second inaugural addresses if he wants guidance. Three of the best of these addresses offer a roadmap.


Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865: The strongest was from Lincoln, who gave his talk amid the brutality of the Civil War but chose to stress the theme of healing and unity, Lincoln gave a masterful performance that offered inspiration and encouragement for the reunification of the nation. Lincoln famously said: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Rather than boasting of military victory or threatening Southern forces, he stepped outside the battle to offer the nation, as a whole, the path forward.










Woodrow Wilson, March 5, 1917: Although Wilson had run on a campaign to keep America out of world war, he was aware that such intervention was inevitable. During his second inaugural address, Wilson took the opportunity to start preparing the nation for what was about to come. He told America to think about the global responsibilities it had to accept, even if much of the nation was not prepared to do so. "We are provincials no longer," he said, "The tragic events of the thirty months of vital turmoil which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back."


Opinion: Why 'Hail to the Chief' remains unsung


Franklin Roosevelt, January 20, 1937: Roosevelt gave a rousing performance that outlined the fundamental vision which shaped the wide array of policies he had put forward in his first term. While many people had criticized FDR for lacking any ideology and for being a pragmatist without principle, in his second address he explained the rationale behind his actions: "I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." For Democrats, the speech remains a powerful defense of government and the rationale behind his program.


To replicate some of this success, Obama will need to figure out how to inspire a nation that is frustrated by the gridlock of Washington and the laggard state of the economy and worried about instability overseas.


Obama can learn from all three of these presidents.


Like Wilson, he can talk to Americans about goals they should aspire to achieve, ways in which the country can accept new obligations in a changing world.


Like Lincoln, he can urge the nation to move beyond the discord and division that has characterized political debate in the past four years.


Finally, like Roosevelt, he can use his speech to provide some of the justification and outlook that has shaped his policies. This would undercut the ability of Republicans to define his policies for him, as has been the case for much of his first term, and motivate supporters who have often felt that Obama remained too much of a mystery.



Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.


Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.






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Colombia's FARC rebels end ceasefire






HAVANA: Colombia's FARC rebels announced Sunday the end of a two-month unilateral ceasefire declared in November at the outset of talks in Cuba aimed at ending Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had said they were willing to extend the ceasefire, due to expire at midnight on Sunday (0500 GMT Monday), if the Colombian government agreed to a bilateral truce.

But President Juan Manuel Santos and his government rejected that idea from the start, portraying the ceasefire as a negotiation tactic and preferring to maintain military pressure on the FARC during the negotiations.

"With heartache again we must admit the return of the military phase of the war, which nobody wants," FARC chief negotiator Ivan Marquez told reporters at the start of a new day of talks with government representatives.

Marquez, the FARC number two, urged the Colombian government to reconsider "the possibility of a bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, to surround the peace talks with a calm atmosphere."

The government delegation, headed by former vice president Humberto de la Calle, made no comment to reporters ahead of Sunday's discussions.

Santos, who has given a deadline of November for a peace deal to be achieved, scolded the guerrillas for only partially fulfilling their ceasefire pledge.

"They know perfectly well what they need to do after Sunday," the Colombian leader said on Saturday, urging the FARC to refrain from new operations.

The Colombian military says it has registered at least 52 violations by the rebels over the past two months.

And on Friday, Colombian police accused the FARC of seizing a shipment of explosives to use for attacks against security forces after the ceasefire ended.

In a statement on the FARC's website on Sunday, guerrilla leaders denied violating the ceasefire, saying they had met their pledge with a "serious and responsible commitment."

The statement claimed that any injuries or deaths caused by FARC militants during the ceasefire had resulted from "defensive" battles sparked by government actions.

Both the government and independent experts have noted a significant decrease in overall violence compared to the same period a year ago.

Negotiations between the government and the FARC resumed in Havana earlier this month after a three-week holiday break with both sides vowing to quicken the pace of the talks.

Discussions have so far have focused on rural development, the first item of an agreed five-point agenda. The other items include drug trafficking, political participation, disarmament and victims' rights.

This is the fourth attempt to end the bloodshed, and the first new bid in a decade.

The FARC was set up in 1964 as an agrarian and anti-imperialist movement determined to redistribute land to the poor. Its fighters take refuge in Colombia's vast expanses of remote jungle.

For decades, the FARC has financed its guerrilla insurgency through taxation of the illegal drug trade, kidnappings and extortion.

In February 2012, it renounced the practice of kidnapping for ransom.

The government estimates that 600,000 people have been killed by armed groups and the security forces during the near 50-year conflict, and some 3.7 million Colombians have been displaced.

A long string of setbacks has seen FARC ranks cut in half from their late 1990s prime, to as few as 8,000 fighters.

-AFP/ac



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Barbara Walters hospitalized after fall

NEW YORK Veteran ABC newswoman Barbara Walters has fallen at an inauguration party at an ambassador's home in Washington and has been hospitalized.

Walters, 83, fell Saturday night on a step at the residence of Britain's ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. The fall left Walters with a cut on her forehead, he said.

Walters, out of an abundance of caution, went to a hospital for treatment of the cut and for a full examination, Schneider said Sunday. She was alert and "telling everyone what to do, which we all take as a very positive sign," he said.

It was unclear when Walters might be released from the hospital, which ABC didn't identify.

Walters was TV news' first female superstar, making headlines in 1976 as a network anchor with an unprecedented $1 million annual salary. During more than three decades at ABC, and before that at NBC, her exclusive interviews with rulers, royalty and entertainers have brought her celebrity status. In 1997, she created "The View," a live weekday talk show that became an unexpected hit.

Walters had heart surgery in May 2010 but returned to active duty on "The View" that September, declaring, "I'm fine!"

Even in her ninth decade, Walters continues to keep a busy schedule, including appearances on "The View," prime-time interviews and her annual special, "10 Most Fascinating People," on which, in December, she asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he considered himself fit enough to be president someday. (Christie, although acknowledging he is "more than a little" overweight, replied he would be up to the job.)

Last June, Walters apologized for trying to help a former aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad land a job or get into college in the United States. She acknowledged the conflict in trying to help Sheherazad Jaafari, daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the United States and a one-time press aide to Assad. Jaafari helped Walters land an interview with the Syrian president that aired in December 2011.

Walters said she realized the help she offered Jaafari was a conflict and said, "I regret that."

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President Obama Sworn In for Second Term













President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today officially embarked on their second term, taking the Constitutionally mandated oath of office in two separate private ceremonies inside their homes.


Shortly before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama raised his right hand, with his left on a family Bible, reciting the oath administrated by Chief Justice John Roberts. He was surrounded by immediate family members, including first lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Malia and Sasha.


As he hugged his wife and daughters, Sasha said, "Good job, Daddy."


"I did it," he said.


"You didn't mess up," she answered.


Biden was sworn in earlier today by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to administer a presidential oath, in a ceremony at his official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. He was joined by more than 120 guests, including cabinet members, extended family and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.


Because Jan. 20 -- the official date for a new presidential term -- falls on a Sunday this year, organizers delayed by one day the traditional public inauguration ceremony and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.








Vice President Joe Biden Sworn in for 2nd Term Watch Video











President Obama's 2nd Inauguration: Hundreds of Thousands to Attend Watch Video





Obama and Biden will each repeat the oath on Monday on the west front of the Capitol, surrounded by hundreds of dignitaries and members of Congress. An estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather on the National Mall to witness the moment and inaugural parade to follow.


The dual ceremonies in 2013 means Obama will become the second president in U.S. history to take the presidential oath four times. He was sworn in twice in 2008 out of an abundance of caution after Roberts flubbed the oath of office during the public administration. This year Roberts read from a script.


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.


Both Obama and Biden took the oath using a special family Bible. Obama used a text that belonged to Michelle Obama's grandmother LaVaughn Delores Robinson. Biden placed his hand on a 120-year-old book with a Celtic cross on the cover that has been passed down through Biden clan.


The official inaugural activities today also included moments of prayer and remembrance that marked the solemnity of the day.


Obama and Biden met at Arlington National Cemetery for a brief morning ceremony to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns, honoring military service members who served and sacrificed. The men stood shoulder to shoulder, bowing their heads as a bugler played "Taps."


Biden, who is Catholic, began the day with a private family mass at his residence. The president and first family attended church services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically black church and site of two pre-inaugural prayer services for former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and their families.


The Obamas and Bidens plan to participate in a church service on Monday morning at St. John's Episcopal, across Lafayette Park from the White House. They will also attend a National Prayer Service on Tuesday at the National Cathedral.


Later on Sunday evening, the newly-inaugurated leaders will attend a candlelight reception at the National Building Museum. The president and vice president are expected to deliver brief remarks to their supporters.






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Why Africa backs French in Mali





























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STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • French intervention in Mali could be turning point in relationship with Africa, writes Lansana Gberie

  • France's meddling to bolster puppet regimes in the past has outraged Africans, he argues

  • He says few in Africa would label the French action in Mali as 'neo-colonial mission creep'

  • Lansana: 'Africa's weakness has been exposed by the might of a foreign power'




Editor's note: Dr. Lansana Gberie is a specialist on African peace and security issues. He is the author of "A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone." He is from Sierra Leone and lives in New York.


(CNN) -- Operation Serval, France's swift military intervention to roll back advances made by Jihadist elements who had hijacked a separatist movement in northern Mali, could be a turning point in the ex-colonialist's relationship with Africa.


It is not, after all, every day that you hear a senior official of the African Union (AU) refer to a former European colonial power in Africa as "a brotherly nation," as Ambroise Niyonsaba, the African Union's special representative in Ivory Coast, described France on 14 January, while hailing the European nation's military strikes in Mali.


France's persistent meddling to bolster puppet regimes or unseat inconvenient ones was often the cause of much outrage among African leaders and intellectuals. But by robustly taking on the Islamist forces that for many months now have imposed a regime of terror in northern Mali, France is doing exactly what African governments would like to have done.



Lansana Gberie

Lansana Gberie



This is because the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), Ansar Dine and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are a far greater threat to many African states than they ever would be to France or Europe.


See also: What's behind Mali instability?


Moreover, the main underlying issues that led to this situation -- the separatist rebellion by Mali's Tuareg, under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who seized the northern half of the country and declared it independent of Mali shortly after a most ill-timed military coup on 22 March 2012 -- is anathema to the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).


Successful separatism by an ethnic minority, it is believed, would only encourage the emergence of more separatist movements in a continent where many of the countries were cobbled together from disparate groups by Europeans not so long ago.










But the foreign Islamists who had been allies to the Tuaregs at the start of their rebellion had effectively sidelined the MNLA by July last year, and have since been exercising tomcatting powers over the peasants in the area, to whom the puritanical brand of Islam being promoted by the Islamists is alien.


ECOWAS, which is dominated by Nigeria -- formerly France's chief hegemonic foe in West Africa -- in August last year submitted a note verbale with a "strategic concept" to the U.N. Security Council, detailing plans for an intervention force to defeat the Islamists in Mali and reunify the country.


ECOWAS wanted the U.N. to bankroll the operation, which would include the deployment a 3,245-strong force -- to which Nigeria (694), Togo (581), Niger (541) and Senegal (350) would be the biggest contributors -- at a cost of $410 million a year. The note stated that the objective of the Islamists in northern Mali was to "create a safe haven" in that country from which to coordinate "continental terrorist networks, including AQIM, MUJAO, Boko Haram [in Nigeria] and Al-Shabaab [in Somalia]."


Despite compelling evidence of the threat the Islamists pose to international peace and security, the U.N. has not been able to agree on funding what essentially would be a military offensive. U.N. Security Council resolution 2085, passed on 20 December last year, only agreed to a voluntary contribution and the setting up of a trust fund, and requested the secretary-general "develop and refine options within 30 days" in this regard. The deadline should be 20 January.


See also: Six reasons events in Mali matter


It is partly because of this U.N. inaction that few in Africa would label the French action in Mali as another neo-colonial mission creep.


If the Islamists had been allowed to capture the very strategic town of Sevaré, as they seemed intent on doing, they would have captured the only airstrip in Mali (apart from the airport in Bamako) capable of handling heavy cargo planes, and they would have been poised to attack the more populated south of the country.



Africa's weakness has, once again, been exposed by the might of a foreign power.
Lansana Gberie



Those Africans who would be critical of the French are probably stunned to embarrassment: Africa's weakness has, once again, been exposed by the might of a foreign power.


Watch video: French troops welcomed in Mali


Africans, however, can perhaps take consolation in the fact that the current situation in Mali was partially created by the NATO action in Libya in 2010, which France spearheaded. A large number of the well-armed Islamists and Tuareg separatists had fought in the forces of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and then left to join the MNLA in northern Mali after Gadhafi fell.


They brought with them advanced weapons, including shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles from Libya; and two new Jihadist terrorist groups active in northern Mali right now, Ansar Dine and MUJAO, were formed out of these forces.


Many African states had an ambivalent attitude towards Gadhafi, but few rejoiced when he was ousted and killed in the most squalid condition.


A number of African countries, Nigeria included, have started to deploy troops in Mali alongside the French, and ECOWAS has stated the objective as the complete liberation of the north from the Islamists.


The Islamists are clearly not a pushover; though they number between 2,000 and 3,000 they are battle-hardened and fanatically driven, and will likely hold on for some time to come.


The question now is: what happens after, as is almost certain, France begins to wind down its forces, leaving the African troops in Mali?


Nigeria, which almost single-handedly funded previous ECOWAS interventions (in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s, costing billions of dollars and hundreds of Nigerian troops), has been reluctant to fund such expensive missions since it became democratic.


See also: Nigerians waiting for 'African Spring'


Its civilian regimes have to be more accountable to their citizens than the military regimes of the 1990s, and Nigeria has pressing domestic challenges. Foreign military intervention is no longer popular in the country, though the links between the northern Mali Islamists and the destructive Boko Haram could be used as a strategic justification for intervention in Mali.


The funding issue, however, will become more and more urgent in the coming weeks and months, and the U.N. must find a sustainable solution beyond a call for voluntary contributions by member states.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Lansana Gberie.






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Algeria hostage crisis ends in bloodshed






IN AMENAS, Algeria: Algerian troops stormed a remote gas plant on Saturday to end a hostage crisis that killed 23 foreigners and Algerians, seven of them executed by their Islamist captors in a final military assault.

Twenty-one hostages died during the siege that began when the Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen attacked the In Amenas facility deep in the Sahara desert at dawn on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed, and special forces were able to free "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners," it said.

Among the dead were an unknown number of foreigners -- including from Britain, France, Romania and the United States -- and many were still unaccounted for, including Japanese.

The kidnappers led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaeda commander in North Africa, killed two people on a bus, a Briton and an Algerian, before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the gas plant.

Belmokhtar's "Signatories in Blood" group had been demanding an end to French military intervention against jihadists in neighbouring Mali.

In Saturday's assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages," state television said, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities.

A security official who spoke to AFP as army helicopters overflew the plant gave the same death tolls, adding it was believed the foreigners were executed "in retaliation".

As experts began to clear the complex of bombs planted by the Islamists, residents of In Amenas breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"We went from a peaceful situation to a terror situation," said one resident who gave his name as Fouad.

"The plant could have exploded and taken out the town," said another.

Brahim Zaghdaoui said he was not surprised by the Algerian army's ruthless final assault.

"It was predictable that it would end like that," he said standing outside the town's hospital, where coffins were seen arriving in the morning.

Most of the hostages had been freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a rescue operation, which was widely condemned as hasty.

But French President Francois Hollande and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta refused to blame Algeria.

The response by Algiers was "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages," said Hollande.

Panetta added: "They are in the region, they understand the threat from terrorism... I think it's important that we continue to work with (Algiers) to develop a regional approach."

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the crisis had been "brought to an end by a further assault by Algerian forces, which has resulted in further loss of life".

The deaths were "appalling and unacceptable and we must be clear that it is the terrorists who bear sole responsibility for it," he said.

The hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, and the biggest by jihadists since hundreds were killed in a Moscow theatre in 2002 and at a school in the Russian town of Beslan in 2004, according to monitoring group IntelCenter.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said a total of six British nationals and one resident of the United Kingdom were either dead or unaccounted for.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said he had received "severe information" about 10 of his country's nationals who were still missing.

The gunmen said on Friday that they were still holding "seven foreign hostages" -- three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese and a Briton.

However, Brussels said it had no indication any of its nationals were being held.

Algeria was strongly criticised for launching Thursday's assault, which the kidnappers said had left dead 34 of the hostages and 15 of their own fighters.

Belmokhtar also wanted to exchange American hostages for the blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in the United States on charges of terrorist links.

At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's assault.

But the State Department said "the United States does not negotiate with terrorists".

France, which said on Saturday that 2,000 of the 2,500 troops it had pledged were now on the ground in Mali, said that no more of its citizens were being held.

President Hollande said French troops would stay in Mali as long as is needed "to defeat terrorism" in the West African country and its neighbours.

Algerian news agency APS quoted a government official as saying the kidnappers, who claimed to have come from Niger, were armed with machineguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles.

This was confirmed by an Algerian driver, Iba El Haza, who said the hostage-takers spoke in different Arabic dialects and perhaps also in English.

"From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or (another) foreign language," Haza told AFP after escaping on Thursday.

"The terrorists said: 'You have nothing to do with this, you are Algerians and Muslims. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners.'"

- AFP/de



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Historic D.C., hidden in plain sight














Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know


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Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know


Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know


Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know


Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know


Locals reveal the D.C. you don't know








STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • Washington, D.C. holds a lot of nearly hidden history

  • A tennis court occupies the site of the execution of Lincoln assassination conspirators

  • A present-day parking garage once hosted a historic Beatles show




Washington (CNN) -- Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of vandalism.


But years ago I spotted some graffiti in Washington that struck a chord. Someone had spray painted the symbol for anarchy -- a circled "A" -- on a Chinatown grocery store.


And I wondered: Did they know?


Did they know that that building, a century earlier, had been Mary Surratt's boarding house? Did they know that conspirators had gathered there to plot the kidnapping and assassination of an American president? Did they know that the site had played a role in the biggest act of anarchy in this country's history?


Was the graffiti just accidentally appropriate? Or could punks with paint be profound?


I don't know the answer, of course. But I know that this city is teeming with people who, like me, relish its hidden history.


Washington is a town of majestic monuments and memorials. And those are worth visiting. But if you limit your sightseeing to the obvious -- if you ignore the obscure -- you'll miss the good stuff.


That is what I had in mind when I asked historians and history buffs to show me places -- off the beaten path -- that have stirred their love of history and this great town.


WASHINGTON COLISEUM: "I Saw Them Standing There"


Four boys, in dire need of haircuts, come to town, looking to conquer it.


The British tried it once before, in 1814. Burned the city. It left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.


But this time, they try soft diplomacy. A little twist and shout. A little ditty about wanting to hold your hand.


And it works.


Improbable as it sounds, it happened in a barrel-shaped architectural ruin just north of the Capitol on 3rd Street NE.


Shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, 1964 -- two days after appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" -- the Beatles took the stage in Washington Coliseum. It was the Beatles' very first stage concert in the United States.


Critics later say the concert is as singular moment in rock history -- a moment when the early Beatles seemed even more joyous than their shrieking teen-age fans.


Richard Layman, who fought to preserve the Coliseum, cherishes this place for many reasons. Built in 1940 and 1941, the building served as an ice rink, sports arena, worship hall, trash transfer station and parking garage. Nation of Islam leaders Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed spoke here. It hosted numerous professional sports teams, and was home to the Ice Capades.


For Beatle devotees, this is a shrine.


They still have ticket stubs, and remember whether they paid $2, $3 or $4. They gush about how Paul smiled at them.


An age of innocence? Not exactly. The Russians threatened us from outer space. The pains of segregation and integration were rocking the country. And, just three months earlier, an assassin felled the leader of the free world.


But for about 35 minutes on a cold February night in 1964, four boys from Liverpool entered a converted ice rink and warmed a generation's heart.


COURTROOM DRAMA: Last act of the Civil War


The man, a tavern owner, took the witness stand.


"I was acquainted with John Wilkes Booth," he said. "Booth came into my restaurant [adjoining Ford's Theater] on the evening of the 14th of April."


Booth "walked up to the bar, and called for some whiskey, which I gave him; he called for some water, which I also gave him; he placed the money on the counter and went out. I saw him go out of the bar alone, as near as I can judge, from eight to ten minutes before I heard the cry that the President was assassinated."


Peter Taltavul spoke those words, in this room, just one month after Lincoln died.


By then, authorities had already tracked down Booth, cornered him, and killed him. And they had rounded up eight people who they believe had assisted him.


They convened a military commission to conduct the trial in the third floor of what was then a federal penitentiary. The co-conspirators, they reasoned, were not "civilians," but were "enemy belligerents." The nation was seeking justice and vengeance, and it would come swiftly.


On July 6, 1865 -- less than three months after the assassination -- the commission found all eight conspirators guilty. It sentenced four to hang, and four to prison terms. The condemned were hanged the next day.


A year later, the Supreme Court would rule that a defendant could not be tried by military commission when civilian courts were functioning. But it was too late.


The penitentiary is now closed and largely demolished. The land is part of Fort McNair at the southernmost point of Washington.


Visitors -- mostly lawyers and Civil War buffs -- are frequently overwhelmed when they enter the room, said Susan Lemke, a special collections librarian who has accumulated artifacts related to the trial. "There's no substitution for actually witnessing or being in the middle of a historic site like that," she said.


THE GALLOWS: Where generals "serve," conspirators hanged


Michael Kauffman is struck by the incongruity of it all.


On the edge of a Fort McNair tennis court, where generals now casually toss their gym bags, Abraham Lincoln's death was avenged.


Here in this spot, near the penitentiary room where the sentences were handed down, on a miserably hot day in July 1865, Union Army Capt. Christian Rath raised his hands and clapped three times. On the third clap, soldiers knocked supports out from under a gallows, and four prisoners fell. Their bodies jerked violently at the ends of their ropes. The prisoner in the dress appeared to die instantly. But one of her three accused accomplices writhed for five minutes before surrendering his ghost.


"I am one of those people who think that if you really want to understand history, you have to go to where it happened," says Kauffman, an expert on the Lincoln assassination.


So Kauffman leads me to this empty tennis court. It is drizzly and cold, and there is little here to evince the images and emotions of that hot July day. The penitentiary's tall wall has been demolished, and a building prominent in photos of the hanging has been altered almost beyond recognition.


Almost.


Kauffman shows me the place where the wall met the building. And in my mind's eye, the gallows fall into place.


"There's this strange sort of excitement that you get when you've read about something, and you visualize it, and you think you know all about it. And then all of a sudden you go there and it's right in front of you. It surrounds you. And it's always somehow different from what you had imagined," Kauffman said.


Different, to be sure. But more real than ever.


CHADWICKS: Where the U.S. was shaken, and stirred


It is known as "The Big Dump."


On June 16, 1985, CIA officer Aldrich Ames walked into Chadwicks, a Georgetown pub, with two shopping bags full of classified information and, over lunch, gave them to a Soviet diplomat.


"In those bags was every piece of paper he could get his hands on that revealed almost all of our operations in the Soviet Union," said Peter Earnest, a former CIA official who is now executive director of the International Spy Museum in D.C.


Five to seven pounds of secrets.


The enormity of the breach became known only after the Soviet Union began rounding up some of the United States' most valuable assets in Russia. At least 10 were executed.


The CIA launched a hunt for a possible mole. It compiled a list of 190 CIA officers with access to relevant classified information, and culled it to 28. And in 1994 -- nine years after the Big Dump -- Ames and his wife were arrested.


Earnest says he doesn't "romanticize" the Chadwick's site, but says "the repercussions of what he did ripple through the government today -- the need to have more polygraphs, the concerns about our records ... the nature of the questions asked."


It's also a waypoint in the Spy Museum's bus tour, which notes the role that Ames' "high-maintenance" wife Rosario played in his betrayal of his country.


Tour guides note that after Ames was arrested, FBI agents who eavesdropped on their conversations made an astonishing comment: They were so disgusted with Rosario's constant badgering about money, her criticisms of Ames and her treatment of their son that although they could never forgive Ames for spying, they said, they would have understood if he had killed his wife.


ALEXANDRIA SLAVE PEN: From slave to freeman


"PRICE, BIRCH & CO," the sign read. "DEALERS IN SLAVES."


The sign is long gone, but the building, known as the "Alexandria Slave Pen," still stands in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the river from Washington.


"I often tell my students, 'You've gone into towns where you just see row after row of car dealerships. Duke Street was that -- but slave dealerships,'" says Chandra Manning, associate professor of history at Georgetown University.


In 1861, the slave trade was thriving when Virginia seceded from the union. But on May 24 of that year, the Union Army's First Michigan Infantry marched into town, and one of the first things it did was liberate the slaves.


Ironically, the slave pen became a refuge for runaway and freed slaves seeking the protection of the Union Army.


Today, 1315 Duke Street is home to the Alexandria branch of the National Urban League, a civil rights organization. A historical marker stands outside, and there's a small museum in the basement.


But Manning believes most passersby have no idea about the building's horrific past.


Most, but not all.


"If you're walking with me," Manning says, "you have no choice but to know what happened here."


THE FORGOTTEN CRASH: History lost and relived


On a fog-shrouded evening on the penultimate day of 1906, a dead-heading train roared down this stretch of tracks near Washington's Catholic University, coming upon a slower passenger train heading the same direction on the same track. There was no time to stop.


Railroad workers have an antiseptic -- but descriptive -- word for what happened next: Telescoping.


The massive steel engine of the speeding train plowed through the flimsy wooden passenger car of the slower train, killing and dismembering its occupants. It plowed through the next car as well, and the one after that. When the trains came to a stop, cinders and soot from the locomotive's fire box rained down on the splintered wooden planks, clothing, Christmas gifts and human remains. Fifty-three people died, and more than 70 were injured.


Today, the "Terra Cotta" crash is all but lost to history. Every day, thousands pass the site, where there isn't even a hint of the horror that happened.


But Richard Schaffer, a D.C. firefighter who spent 10 years researching the crash, says Terra Cotta nonetheless changed railroading. It hastened the conversion of passenger cars from wood to steel and led to improvements in railroad signaling. That happened, he says, because the crash happened on "the route to Congress."


There's a saying, sometimes attributed to Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."


History rhymed in June 2009 -- nearly 103 years later -- when a D.C. Metro subway train plowed into another subway train. The cars telescoped, killing nine and injuring dozens.


"The irony was it was practically the same location and practically all the same problems, human error, signaling problems, construction quality of the trains," Schaffer said.


Both wrecks deserve to be remembered.


"If you forget what's happened before you," Schaffer says, "you don't have a foundation to live upon."


CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY: The last hurrah


Can there be any doubt what happens here when the sun goes down?


Can there be any doubt that, when the gates close and the last visitor leaves this historic burial ground, band leader John Philip Sousa reaches for his baton, Civil War photographer Mathew Brady tweaks his camera, and J. Edgar Hoover tries to keep the whole mess under control?


This is Congressional Cemetery, where Washington's political and social establishment rests in eternal peace. In the 1800s, its heyday, this was the site of grand funeral processions. Tens of thousands of Washingtonians would gather to watch soldiers carry fallen leaders down a slate path to graves or crypts.


"I'm sure there are quite a few secrets buried here," says Abby Johnson.


Abby and her husband Ronald, professors of literature and history respectively at Georgetown University, take me to the "Public Vault," a crypt the size of a one-car garage. Built in the 1830s, the vault was used to store the bodies of public officials until the ground thawed, or until they were moved to other locations.


You need a skeleton key, of course, to get inside.


Dolly Madison slept here. As did three presidents: William Henry Harrison (1841), John Quincy Adams (1848), and Zachary Taylor (1850). Harrison's three-month stay was three times longer than his presidential term. All the presidents' bodies have since been moved to their home states.


Today, Congressional Cemetery, which boasts of being "in the shadow" of the U.S. Capitol, is overshadowed by a more prominent cemetery -- Arlington. But the Johnsons are devoted to keeping Congressional's memory alive. At least as long as they are alive. And then maybe, just maybe, beyond.







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Hundreds join pro-gun rallies in state capitals

Last Updated 4:02 p.m. ET

Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals nationwide Saturday to rally against stricter gun control measures.


An estimated 600 people turned out so far for Saturday speeches in Austin, Texas. Many carried signs with messages such as, "An Armed Society is a Polite Society," and "The Second Amendment Comes from God."


Meanwhile, police say hundreds more joined rallies in New England, while organizers also have plans to gather in capital cites to the west.


Organized by the Washington D.C.-based group Political Media, the "Guns Across America" rallies have been promoted by activists via social media, and come days after President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping package of gun-control proposals.



Larry Ward, president of Political Media, says the "Gun Appreciation Day" is modeled after last summer's "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day." That's when supporters of the fast food chain were asked to rally outside restaurants after the company came under fire for its stance on gay marriage.


Ward says the rallies are a chance for the public to see that gun owners aren't scary people.



First-term Texas state Rep. Steve Toth was among attendees in Austin. He's one of several state officials nationwide who have proposed trying to curb federal gun restrictions in states.



In Hartford, Conn. -- less than 50 miles from the site of the December 14 mass school shooting in Newtown -- police say about 1,000 people showed up on the Capitol grounds Saturday, urging state and federal authorities not to introduce new restrictions on gun ownership, saying such moves would erode their Second Amendment rights.


Task forces created by the legislature and Gov. Dannel Malloy are considering changes to state gun laws.

In Maryland, where Gov. Martin O'Malley is backing a comprehensive measure that includes a ban on assault weapons and new licensing requirements for handguns, a demonstration in Annapolis drew a large crowd to Lawyer's Mall in front the state capitol, where demonstrators carried signs reading, "Guns Save Lives," and "It's not about Guns, It's about Control."

A demonstration was also held in Albany, N.Y., where the nation's toughest assault weapon and magazine restrictions were passed and signed into law last week.


Demonstrators rally outside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, to assert their right to own firearms and to denounce recent gun-control efforts.


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AP Photo/Tim Roske

Republican Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin told the crowd in Albany that New York's new law was an "abuse of power" by the governor.


"This is an outrage against humanity, what we're seeing," said protester Robert Candea, of Warwick.

In Frankfort, Ky., tea party leader David Adams spoke to the crowd, saying that the "government is out of control."

In Augusta, Me., dozens of gun-rights advocates gathered in front of the Maine State House, many standing in the snow and some holding flags and placards during Saturday's mid-day rally.


One demonstrator, Joe Getchell of Pittsfield, said every law-abiding citizen has a right to bear arms, and it's a constitutional right no one can take away.


Another demonstrator held a sign that said, "Educate Not Legislate."

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