Main News of January 21

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* US President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term before several hundred thousand people at his public inauguration ceremony and called on Americans to reject divisiveness and political rancor in order to tackle pressing problems like inequality, social welfare and climate change

* Three opposition activists chained themselves to the railings around the Ukrainian presidential administration building in Kiev, demanding the release of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko

* The Suecia Seaways cargo ship with Patriot missiles onboard arrived at the Turkish port of Iskenderun, local media reported

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition has lost a key state election, with preliminary results giving the center-left opposition the edge by a small margin, media reported

RUSSIA

* The Russian Emergencies Ministry will send two planes to evacuate Russians from Syria on Tuesday, an emergencies ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius said