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• But plenty of fresh challenges lie ahead as the president and his team begin the first working day of the second term Tuesday.
• Obama will quickly confront three fiscal deadlines that demand cooperation with the Congress, including raising the debt ceiling, which the House scheduled for a vote Wednesday. The deaths of three Americans in a siege on a natural gas plant in Algeria have renewed fears about the rise of terrorism in North Africa. And Obama must soon finalize the next phase of the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
• In his inaugural address Monday, the president also previewed an ambitious progressive agenda, one that will require cooperation from a divided Congress in an era of looming budget cuts.
• ___

• SEGOU, Mali (AP) -- Malian forces on Tuesday controlled the strategic town that was under extreme Islamist rule for four months, as the French-led military intervention pushed northward in its second week.
• Douentza had been the outer edge of Islamist rebel control until the militants surged southward earlier this month. While far from the capital, Douentza is only 190 kilometers (120 miles) northeast from Mopti, which marks the line-of-control held by the Malian military.
• On Monday, French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza to find that the Islamists already had retreated from the town, local adviser Sali Maiga told The Associated Press.
• "The Malian military and the French army spent their first night and the people are very happy," Maiga said Tuesday.
• A curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., and there was no gunfire or other incidents reported overnight, he said.
• ___

• BEIJING (AP) -- Xiao Ru spent her last year of high school studying from morning until late at night. That didn't help her complete one particular assignment in her first year of college: a 1,500-meter run.
• With two friends setting the pace beside her, she finished the university fitness requirement -- barely. Moments later, she doubled over and vomited.

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