NPR News

An independent commission has released a blistering human rights report that says Syria's security forces have carried out widespread abuses against protesters, including murder and torture.

The commission, appointed by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, based its report on interviews with more than 220 witnesses or victims of abuse by Syrian security forces. The panel says it collected a solid body of evidence and identified patterns of human rights violations.

Thanhha Lai was 10 years old the day in 1975 that North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon and fear spread through the city on rumors that Communist troops were about to begin a massacre. Lai recalls fleeing with her eight older siblings and her mother to the nearby port and boarding a crowded South Vietnamese Navy ship that then headed to sea.

A day after denying an Atlanta woman's claim that she had shared a 13-year affair with him, Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain said during a morning conference call that he is "reassessing" his candidacy.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is campaigning this week in South Carolina, which holds its primary on January 21. Gingrich has been surging in the polls recently, though he's drawn attacks from his Republican rivals over remarks on immigration at a debate last week. But many voters in South Carolina are not bothered by Gingirch's position on immigration.