January 2010

• At least 18 FARC rebels are killed while celebrating the New Year in an air raid by the Colombian Air Force in the south of the country. (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Al Jazeera)
• A study suggests that teenagers who go to bed late are more likely to develop depression and to have suicidal thoughts. (BBC News) (CBC) (Sleep)
• 2010 Lakki Marwat suicide bombing: At least 95 people are killed, more than 100 more are injured and 20 houses are destroyed after a suicide bomber blows himself up at a volleyball game in Lakki Marwat, northwest Pakistan. (The Times) (Express India) (BBC News)
• At least 19 people are dead and five are injured as mudslide hits an island resort near Angra dos Reis, Ilha Grande. Large numbers also killed elsewhere in Brazil. (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• Researchers announce that the likely origin of devil facial tumour disease, a transmissible cancer which has caused the population of Tasmanian devils to collapse by 60% in the past decade, is Schwann cells. (BBC) (Time) (New York Times) (Science)
• A Cambodian court issues an arrest warrant for opposition leader Sam Rainsy, for failing to turn up at court over a border dispute with Vietnam. (BBC) (Phnom Penh Post)
• North Korea calls for the end of hostilities with the United States and a nuclear free Korean Peninsula, to restart talks; in its annual New Year editorial. (Yonhap) (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
• Spain takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Sweden. (BBC News) (Deutsche Welle) (euronews)
• Russians are surprised by a cartoon "gently lampooning" Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin who are portrayed dancing, singing and playing musical instruments. (BBC) (France 24)
• China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launch a Free Trade Area. (New York Times) (Xinhua)

• A quarter of voters in Iceland sign a petition asking President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to veto a bill on repaying US$5 billion to foreign savers who lost their money when Icelandic banks collapsed. (ABC News) (Iceland Review)
• The Ugandan army announces it has killed Bok Abudema, a senior member of the Lord's Resistance Army, in the Central African Republic. (AFP) (BBC)
• The Afghan Parliament rejects 17 out of 24 cabinet nominees proposed by President Hamid Karzai. (The Daily Telegraph) (Hürriyet) (Al Jazeera)
• Somali pirates seize an Indonesian chemical tanker with 24 crew in the Gulf of Aden and a British cargo ship with 26 cars 620 miles off the Horn of Africa. (Times of India) (RTT News) (BBC)
• The Israeli Air Force launches an attack against tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel in response to missile attacks and mortar fire. (Haaretz) (Al Jazeera)
• 19-year-old Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is confirmed as the youngest-ever world number one in the official January 2010 FIDE rating list. (Reuters) (TIME) (AFP) (Chessbase)
• An Antarctic expedition finds remains of the first aeroplane brought to the continent, a single-propeller Vickers plane of explorer Douglas Mawson. (Reuters)
• Atheist Ireland purposefully publishes the words of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Salman Rushdie, Mark Twain and Pope Benedict XVI on its website despite a new law banning them on grounds of blasphemy. (BBC) (CNN) (Irish Times)
• Police in Denmark shoot a 28-year-old male Somali after he breaks into the Viby J home of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist at the centre of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005, and threatens his family with an axe. (BBC) (The Times) (Sky News)

• A 5.1 magnitude earthquake leaves 20,000 homeless and causes US$1.5 million in damage in eastern Tajikistan. (CNN) (UPI) (RIA Novosti)
• The death toll as a result of recent mudslides which have hit Brazil rises to more than 85, including at least 29 in a hotel collapse, and two nuclear power stations are intended to be shut down as a precaution. (ABC News)(BBC)
• The Eritrean military claims at least 10 Ethiopian soldiers were killed and 2 captured when Ethiopia launched an armed incursion into Eritrea. The Ethiopian military claims 25 Eritrean soldiers were killed while attacking Ethiopian positions. (TVNZ) (AFP)
• At least 47 people are killed during heavy fighting in the Somali town of Dhuusa Mareeb. (BBC) (Gulf Times)
• A fire destroys one of Africa's most popular markets in Kumasi, Ghana. (My Joy Online) (BBC) (UPI)
• Remains of the first plane taken to Antarctica in 1912 are discovered by Australian researchers. (The Independent) (BBC) (AFP)
• More than 1,000 people are evacuated after days of flooding in New South Wales, Australia. (ABC News Australia) (BBC)
• The United States and United Kingdom close their embassies in Yemen, citing threats from Al-Qaeda. (CNN) (euronews)
• The Supreme Court of Peru upholds a 25 year prison sentence for former President Alberto Fujimori, convicted of mass human rights violations. (Andina) (AFP) (RTT News)
• Mexican police arrest alleged drug lord Carlos Beltrán Leyva in Culiacán, Sinaloa. (The Guardian) (People's Daily) (CNN)
• Japan doubles a state-sponsored credit line to troubled airline Japan Airlines to Y200bn (US$2.2bn). (Financial Times) (AFP)
• Hundreds of people attempt to control a large diesel leak into a major tributary of the Yellow River, the Wei River, in Shaanxi, China. (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (China Daily)
• Two trains collide near the city of Bilecik in northwestern Turkey, killing one and injuring at least four others. (Hürriyet) (CNN)
• Several British Muslim writers speak out about Prime Suspect writer Lynda La Plante's complaint against the BBC regarding how much more difficult it is to have her scripts commissioned than it would be for a "little Muslim boy". (The Independent) (Scotland on Sunday)
• At least seven Iranian police and two drug traffickers die in a shootout between Iranian police and drug traffickers in Khorosan. (BBC) (INO News) (Islamic Republic News Agency)
• The Colombian volcano Galeras erupts, forcing the evacuation of 8,000 people. (Colombia Reports) (TVNZ)
• Mount Nyamuragira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo erupts, threatening rare wildlife in the Virunga National Park. (France 24) (BBC)
• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces that full body scanners will be introduced at UK airports following the failed attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. (BBC)

• Johan Ferrier, first President of Suriname and the world's oldest living former head of state, dies in the Netherlands at the age of 99. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (Winnipeg Free Press)
• NASA's Kepler telescope detects its first five exoplanets. (BBC) (National Geographic) (New Scientist)
• Egyptian archaeologists discover the largest tomb yet discovered in the ancient Saqqara necropolis. (Discovery News) (AFP) (Xinhua)
• 52 unmarried couples in Malaysia face charges of sexual misconduct and possible imprisonment after being caught alone in hotel rooms by the country's Islamic morality police. (BBC)(Las Vegas Sun)
• American media report that the attacker who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian triple agent. (MSNBC) (AFP)
• The Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure ever built, opens to the public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Al Jazeera) (WAM Emirates News Agency)
• South African President Jacob Zuma marries his fifth and currently third wife. (Times LIVE) (Reuters) (BBC)
• Burmese military junta leader General Than Shwe urges people to make the "correct choices" in elections later this year. (Bernama) (BBC)
• At least 500 homes are damaged after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hits the Solomon Islands. (AFP) (Washington Post)
• A diesel fuel leak in Shaanxi, China reaches the Yellow River, a water source for millions of people. (China.org.cn) (Reuters)
• The Government of Serbia sues Croatia for genocide before the International Court of Justice with historical account of the Holocaust. (B92) (BusinessWeek)
• Large parts of northern China and South Korea are affected by the heaviest snowfall in 60 years, causing widespread disruption. (People's Daily) (BBC) (Korea Times)
• Met Éireann says Ireland is experiencing its most extreme cold spell of weather since 1963. (RTÉ)
• Police search for a mystery man who goes missing after sparking a security alert at Newark Liberty International Airport in the United States, causing the airport to be completely locked down. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• A representation of President of the United States Barack Obama is found hanging by a noose with the epitaph "Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President". (BBC)
• A gunman opens fire in the lobby of the Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada, containing the offices of Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign. A court security officer was killed and a U.S. Marshal injured before the assailant was shot dead. (NY Daily News) (KRSO)

• As many as 1,000 people in the Solomon Islands are reportedly homeless following the two major earthquakes and tsunami which struck the country earlier this week. (Time Magazine)
• At least seven people are killed and 20 missing after a bridge collapse in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. (Latin American Herald Tribune) (China Daily) (IOL)
• The Yemeni government launches campaigns in three provinces to battle Al-Qaeda fighters. (Al Jazeera) (Times of India)
• Slovakia admits responsibility for a major bomb alert on Dorset Street in Dublin, Ireland, after planting explosives on a civilian as a test. (RTÉ) (The Belfast Telegraph) (BBC)
• Iran bans its citizens from contact with 60 international organisations and media outlets over claims they conspired against the country. (Press TV) (Global Times) (The Times)
• The President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson announces a referendum during a live televised speech. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Iceland Review)
• Facebook blocks a social network suicide website. (France 24) (The Guardian) (IOL)
• Andal Ampatuan, Jr., charged with 41 counts of murder in the Maguindanao massacre in November, pleads not guilty at the beginning of his trial in the Philippines. (Philippine Inquirer) (CNN) (AFP)
• Opposition parties in Nigeria raise their concerns over "missing" President Umaru Yar'Adua who has been at a hospital in Saudi Arabia for six weeks. (BBC) (Nigeria Guardian) (Afrique en ligne)
• The World Food Programme suspends its operations in southern Somalia due to rising instability in the region. (Bloomberg) (Xinhua)
• The US State Department announces that they are revamping how foreign delegations are handled, in response to a Secret Service report that a third man had crashed the state dinner for the Prime Minister of India. (Reuters)(Associated Press)
• The suicide bomber from Jordan, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan, is reported to be an al-Qaeda triple agent. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• The United States reopens its embassy in Yemen after strikes on al-Qaeda. (CNN) (BBC)
• The United Kingdom is once again deluged by heavy snowfall as the country endures its worst cold snap since 1979. (BBC)
• A Learjet cargo plane on approach to Chicago Executive Airport crashes into the Des Plaines River in Wheeling, Illinois. (Chicago Tribune)
• Warren Buffett who through Berkshire Hathaway controls a significant block of the shares of Kraft came out in opposition to Kraft's proposal to float 370 million shares in order to fund its bid for the UK based confectioner Cadbury. (Washington Post)

• Terrorist of the Japanese Whaling Fleet's Shōnan Maru delibrately ram and sunk the Sea Shepherd ship; the Ady Gil.
• Algerian US ambassador Abdellah Baali and Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili are upset at the decision of the United States to subject Algerians and Nigerians to tougher than usual security tests at airports, saying it is "discrimination" and "risks ties". Both have officially complained. (BBC)
• Extreme weather across Europe leads to dozens of deaths, including at least 122 in Poland and at least 7 as a result of an avalanche in Switzerland. (BBC)
• At least 25 people are killed and at least three others are trapped in a mine fire in Xiangtan County in Hunan. (Xinhua) (Reuters Africa) (Press TV) (Times of India)
• Iris Robinson, the wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister, admits having previously attempted suicide. Her husband Peter Robinson gives an emotional interview in which he speaks of being "deeply hurt" after learning of her extramarital affair. (BBC) (RTÉ) (RTÉ)
• Yemen arrests three suspected Al-Qaeda members, including one leader, northwest of the capital Sana'a. (Yemen News Agency) (AFP)
• 50-year-old Chinese journalist Li Junqi is imprisoned for 16 years after accepting bribes for his part in a mass three-month cover-up of a coal mine disaster in Hebei in which 35 people, including a rescue worker, were killed prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. (China Daily) (Press Trust of India)
• The Dauletabad – Salyp Yar gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Iran is opened. (Press TV) (Channel News Asia)

(euronews) (AFP)

• Three soldiers are killed and 11 wounded in a bomb attack in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. (Press Trust of India) (Associated Press of Pakistan) (Xinhua)
• At least six police officers are killed and another 16 injured in a suicide car bomb attack in Dagestan, southern Russia. (Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
• Palestinians kill an Egyptian border guard and 50 people are injured in clashes between pro-Palestinian activists and Egyptian police as a Viva Palestina convoy nears the border with Gaza. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post)
• Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii resigns at the age of 77 due to ill health. (BBC) (Kyodo)
• The U.S. government lowers the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list, or have their visa revoked. (CNN)
• China becomes the largest exporting country, pushing Germany from first place. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Ex-Cabinet Ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt call for a secret ballot to settle the debate over the leadership of the Labour Party of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (BBC)
• China's tourism revenue hits USD 185 billion in 2009. (Xinhua)
• Computer scientist Fabrice Bellard claims he has computed π to almost 2.7 trillion digits. (BBC) (The Times of India) (The Daily Telegraph)

• The Xinhua news agency responds to claims by The Guardian newspaper that China had tried “hijack” the Copenhagen summit's Accord by claiming that the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao was not invited to secret US-initiated talks on December 17. (China Dialogue)
• A weekend killing in Australia has prompted the Indian government to issue an advisory for its college students studying in that country. (CNN) (Indian Express)
• Extreme weather in Europe kills nine people in Germany, traps a Eurostar train in the Channel Tunnel, disrupts flights at international airports in Amsterdam, Dublin, Knock and Paris, shuts hundreds of schools in Ireland and disrupts Norway's bus service in Oslo. (BBC)
• An ABB employee commits suicide after shooting eight people, three fatally, at the ABB Power building in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. (CNN)
• James Cameron's film Avatar is expected to become the second-highest grossing movie of all time, just passing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. (MTV)
• The BBC's Spotlight programme reveals that Iris Robinson, former UK MP and wife of the First Minister of Northern Ireland, helped a 19 year old male who she was having a relationship with receive funding for a business project. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• A Burmese court sentences two officials to death and one to imprisonment for leaking details of secret government visits to North Korea and Russia. (BBC)
• The governments of Australia and New Zealand announce an investigation into an incident where a boat belonging to the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was damaged in a confrontation with a Japanese ship in the Southern Ocean. (Reuters)
• Kenya deports to Gambia a radical Jamaican Muslim cleric who is on a global terror watch list. (KBC) (AFP) (AllAfrica.com)
• Palestinians fire mortars and Katyusha rocket from Gaza, causing widespread panic in Ashkelon, Israel, in the first such rocket attack on Israel in a year. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Guinea's interim leader, General Sékouba Konaté, proposes a unity government led by a Prime Minister from the opposition. (The Guardian) (African Press Agency)
• At least four militants are dead after a 23-hour gun battle at a hotel in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. (Sify) (New York Times) (Indian Express)
• The United States approves arms sales to Taiwan, amid opposition from China. (Radio Taiwan International) (BBC) (AFP)
• Aid agencies warn of renewed violence in Southern Sudan unless there are attempts to save the 2005 peace agreement, as 140 people are killed in ethnic clashes. (BBC) (Xinhua) (Khaleej Times)
• At least six Coptic Christians are killed in a drive-by shooting at a church in Nag Hammadi, southern Egypt, with clashes later taking place between police and Copts. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (CNN)
• Nepal begins discharging child soldiers who fought for the Maoists as part of a process of national reconciliation. (Reuters) (The Rising Nepal) (The Guardian)
• United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston says three independent experts have confirmed that mobile phone video footage showing extra-judicial killings by the Sri Lankan military is authentic. (BBC) (Channel 4 News)

• A large statue of the Pharaoh Taharqa is discovered deep in Sudan. (The Independent)
• Police in England respond to a security alert on a Dubai-bound flight from London Heathrow Airport. (Reuters) (Sky News) (Toronto Star)
• Two brothers die after falling through ice on a frozen lake in Leicestershire, UK. (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (Sky News)
• A PSNI officer is seriously injured after a bomb detonates under his car in County Antrim. (RTÉ) (The Belfast Telegraph) (Irish Independent)
• Sékouba Konaté, the interim head of the junta in Guinea, is flown to Senegal after falling ill. (BBC) (Reuters South Africa)
• The Portuguese parliament approves a bill to legalise same-sex marriage. (CBC) (RTÉ) (Deutsche Welle)
• China Mobile, the world's largest mobile telephone operator, sacks its vice chairman Zhang Chunjiang. (The Washington Post)
• The Ugandan death penalty for homosexuality may be declared "not necessary". (BBC) (The Philadelphia Enquirer)
• Mehdi Karroubi's car is hit by fire in Qazvin, Iran. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (ABC News) (The New York Times)
• China becomes the number one automobile market in the world. (Reuters)
• Two people are arrested over a bomb plot in New York City last year. (BBC) (AFP)
• A Georgian flight lands in Moscow, Russia, the first since the 2008 war. (RIA Novosti) (China Daily)
• Two Burmese whistleblowers are sentenced to death for leaking details of secret government visits to North Korea. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New York Times)
• Several churches in Malaysia are attacked amid tensions over the use of "Allah" by non-Muslims in the country. (Malaysia Star) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
• Riots break out amongst immigrants and local inhabitants in the town of Rosarno in southern Italy in a protest against an attack on African workers by white youths. (TVNZ) (AFP)
• Three people are arrested for their involvement in the killing of six Copts as they left a church in southern Egypt. (AFP) (BBC)
• The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's anti-whaling speedboat Ady Gil, which was damaged on Wednesday during a confrontation with the Japanese security vessel Shonan Maru 2, sinks in the Southern Ocean shortly before 3:30 a.m. AEDT as the Society's Bob Barker attempts to salvage the boat. (ABC News)
• French research in Analytical Chemistry suggests that the heavy eye make-up of Cleopatra could be medically useful. (BBC) (ANSAmed)
• British MP George Galloway is deported from Egypt. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• One person is killed and several are injured after gunmen open fire on a bus carrying the Togo national football team to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. (BBC) (ESPN) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)

• A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes offshore near Eureka, California, with reports of damage and local power outages. (CNN)
• British MP and MLA Iris Robinson is expelled by the Democratic Unionist Party after further details emerge of her involvement in a political and sex scandal(The Belfast Telegraph) (The Guardian)
• Hundreds of flights are cancelled in Germany as the severe weather conditions across Europe continue. The government asks people to buy several days worth of food and retreat indoors for the rest of the week. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle)
• 30 people are injured after bottles of acid are thrown from a building into in a busy street in Hong Kong. (Radio Television Hong Kong) (BBC)
• The United States warns against an attack by "regional extremists" on an Air Uganda flight between Uganda and Sudan. (BBC) (New Vision) (Sudan Tribune)
• South African President Jacob Zuma urges party unity and warns economic recovery will be slow at a gathering celebrating the 98th anniversary of the African National Congress. (Times LIVE) (Reuters) (BBC)
• Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party wins all three seats in by-elections against the ruling Kuomintang. (Taiwan News) (Radio Television Hong Kong) (Reuters India)
• Egypt bans all future aid convoys to Gaza, following recent clashes with Viva Palestina. (Al Jazeera) (AFP)
• A bomb explodes outside the Greek Parliament in Athens with no casualties. (CNN) (China Radio International)
• The Sri Lankan army releases over 700 former Tamil Tiger fighters after a rehabilitation program. (The Hindu) (AFP)
• Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai resubmits his proposal for forming the cabinet after his previous selection was rejected by the National Assembly. (Press TV) (AFP)
• Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announces that the national currency, the bolívar, will be devalued for the first time since 2005, by between 17% and 50%. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• An Indian man is set on fire in Melbourne, Australia, in the latest in a series of attacks on Indian nationals in the country. (Sydney Morning Herald) (Press Trust of India) (AFP)
• A fourth church is attacked in Malaysia as a row over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims deepens. (Reuters) (Malayasian Star) (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Togo national football team bus attack:
  • The Togo national football team withdraw from the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations as a third member of the team is confirmed dead following the attack on their team bus. (BBC) (Angola Press) (IOL) (The New York Times)
  • The Confederation of African Football announces that football matches will continue to be played in Cabinda Province where the attack took place. (The Daily Telegraph)
  • The Togo national football team later decide to reverse their decision to pull out of the Africa Cup of Nations. (AP via ESPN) (L'Équipe, in French)
  • The Togo government decides to pull them out anyway. (BBC Sport) (Philippine Times)

• Three Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives are killed while firing mortars into Israel from Gaza. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Winter of 2009–2010 in Europe: More than 160 people are trapped in vehicles overnight in Germany, dozens of flights are cancelled, Berlin and Leipzig are buried under 30cm of snow, parts of Schleswig-Holstein remain unreachable. The electricity of 80,000 people is cut off by snow in Poland. Eurostar services are affected in Belgium, Britain and France. (BBC)
• Ivo Josipović wins in the second round of the presidential election, and is elected third President of Croatia. (Deutsche Welle) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is acquitted of beating a former business partner in a videotaped attack. (Reuters) (The Daily Telegraph) (Al-Bawaba)
• China overtakes Germany to become the world's largest exporter. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010, the De-Ba'athification Commission recommends banning the leaders of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the Coalition for Iraqi National Unity and 13 other parties for links to Saddam Hussein's banned Ba'ath Party. (The Washington Post)
• With the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations due to get underway in Angola, confusion surrounds the participation of Togo following the fatal attack on their team bus. Their Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo sends a plane to bring them home. (BBC)
• The Sunday Mirror's defence correspondent Rupert Hamer is killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, becoming the first British journalist to be killed there and the first to be killed in a war zone since 2003. (BBC) (Channel 4 News) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Britain is set to ban a Muslim group, Al-Muhajiroun, also known as Islam4UK, that recently caused outrage by proposing a demonstration in the town that receives the bodies of British war dead killed abroad, the Home Office says. (CNN)
• President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams receives a death threat. (RTÉ) (Ireland Online) (The Irish Times)
• It is revealed that AHS Centaur, an Australian hospital ship dating from World War II, has been viewed for the first time since it was torpedoed by the Japanese in May 1943 killing 268 people. (BBC) (ABC News) (news.com.au) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Some more churches are attacked in Malaysia. (BBC) (News24)
• 15 people are killed and 15 are injured, five seriously, when a bus and truck collide on a major highway in the Sahara Desert in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. (Press TV) (Reuters)

• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlines seven priorities for 2010 and urges a renewed focus on sustainable development, ending poverty, disease and hunger. (UN News Centre) (Sudan Tribune)
• The People's Republic of China conducts a land-based high-altitude anti-ballistic missile test. (SINA News) (Yahoo! News)
• Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a challenge to California Proposition 8 and likely a landmark case regarding same-sex marriage rights in the United States, begins in San Francisco. (The Associated Press)
• Hundreds of prisoners are transferred from the Ignacio Allende prison in Veracruz, Mexico, in preparation for a controversial Mel Gibson film shoot. Protests from relatives of the prisoners are ignored. (BBC) (Hindustan Times) (CBC News)
• Wolfgang Wodarg, the Council of Europe's head of health affairs, claims that the 2009 flu pandemic was a "false pandemic" orchestrated by the pharmaceutical industry to sell vaccines. (The Sun)
• Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson temporarily hands over his position to Arlene Foster in the wake of the ongoing political scandal surrounding his wife and fellow politician Iris Robinson.
• North Korea proposes a peace treaty, replacing the Korean War armistice. (Yonhap) (AFP)
• The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reports that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age will be without spouses by the end of the decade, citing an uneven birth rate. (Global Times) (BBC)
• Thousands of supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gather outside the home of a royal adviser accused of involvment in the 2006 coup that ousted the Prime Minister. (Thai News Agency) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• Angola makes two arrests over an attack on the Togo national football team in Cabinda Province. (Angola Press)(CNN) (Xinhua)
• The 2010 African Cup of Nations continues without Togo as Malawi unexpectedly beat World Cup qualifiers Algeria by three goals. (BBC) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
• Tombs discovered near Egypt's great pyramids reinforce the theory they were built by free workers rather than slaves. (BBC News)
• People in 16 countries in 44 cities from Adelaide to Zürich cause "scenes of chaos and joy in public places" by removing their trousers in public, with 3,000 people doing it in New York alone. (BBC) (The Independent) (Ottawa Citizen)
• The New York City Health Department seeks national reduction of salt in food. (CNN)
• The United Nations seeks to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Michel Sidibé visited Sauri in western Kenya, which is a village of the Millennium Villages Project. (UN News Centre)

• The European Court of Human Rights rules that powers contained in the UK Terrorism Act 2000 violate the European Convention on Human Rights. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• The United Kingdom bans the Islamist organisation Al-Muhajiroun and an offshoot group, Islam4UK. (VOA)
• A severe 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti. Tsunami watches issued across the Caribbean. (CTV) (USGS) (BBC)
• Google says it may end its operations in China as it is no longer willing to continue censoring its search results. (Reuters) (BBC) (Google blog) (The Guardian)
• U.S. talk show host Conan O'Brien announces his intention to quit The Tonight Show if NBC goes forward with their plan to move the show from its long standing 11:35pm timeslot to 12:05am in favor of The Jay Leno Show. (AP)
• A gunman kills two people at a bar in Habikino, Japan, before turning the gun on himself. (Kyodo) (AFP) (BBC) (The Times of India)
• Five Thai policemen are charged with murder over the disappearance of a Saudi businessman 20 years ago that was linked to the theft of Saudi royal jewellery. (Bangkok Post) (AFP) (BBC)
• Australia experiences its hottest night since 1902, as a heatwave grips the country. (BBC) (Xinhua) (IBN Live)
• The "bizarre behaviour" of a nocturnal raspy cricket pollinating a flower is caught on camera on the island of Réunion, contradicting the image of crickets destroying flowers. (BBC) (New Scientist)
• Four men feature in the first Crown Court criminal trial to be held without a jury in England and Wales for more than 350 years. (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (Ealing Times)
• Police in Kent, UK, admit the unlawful searching of two 11-year-old children who were left "crying and shaking" after being targeted at a demonstration near Hoo. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• A United Nations investigation clears Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom in the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, and rules that Rosenberg plotted his own murder. (BBC) (Al-Jazeera) (CNN)
• A bomb blast damages the Mozdok – Makhachkala – Kazi Magomed pipeline in Russia's Republic of Dagestan, leaving eleven towns in the republic without gas supply. (ITAR-TASS)
• Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa announces that Tamils will be given greater say in matters of governance, proposing power sharing agreements. (The Hindu) (AFP)
• The first map in Chinese to show the Americas, created by Matteo Ricci at the request of the Wanli Emperor, goes on public display. (ABC News) (IOL)
• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ‘encouraged’ by recent developments in Guinean politics, and states the UN will continue working with the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other partners. (UN News Centre)
• Chile becomes the first South American country to be admitted to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (Santiago Times) (Al Jazeera)
• China's top search engine Baidu is allegedly attacked by Iranian hackers, sparking a retaliatory attack by Chinese hackers on Iranian sites. (The Guardian) (People's Daily) (AFP)
• Masoud Alimohammadi, an Iranian nuclear physics professor, is killed in a bomb attack in the capital Tehran; Iran state media accuses Israel and the United States of involvement. (Press TV) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua gives his first interview since going into hospital in Saudi Arabia to the BBC, saying he hopes to return home soon as protests in the capital Abuja demand an end to the political situation. (BBC) (Vanguard)
• The 1980s Welsh popstar Michael Barrett (Shakin' Stevens) is convicted of assault and criminal damage at a court in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Belfast Telegraph)
• Mexican authorities report the capture of Teodoro García Simental, one of the country's most notorious drug lords, in a raid in La Paz, Baja California Sur. (New York Daily News)
• The Confederation of African Football officially "disqualifies" and plans to punish the Togo national football team for failing to take part in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, despite the fatal machine gun attack on their team bus. (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph)

• Computer modelling shows that the Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier, once described as a major "tipping point" for the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the embayment of the Amundsen Sea, has reached their own tipping points for eventual collapse, likely to lead to a sea level rise of up to 52 cm. (New Scientist)
• A fatal attack on a tourist by a "dinosaur-sized" shark off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, prompts the closure of several beaches. (Discovery News) (IOL) (AFP)
• An Arkefly Boeing 767 flying from Amsterdam to the Netherlands Antilles is grounded at Shannon Airport after a man claims there is a bomb on board. All 242 passengers and crew are evacuated. (RTÉ) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (The Australian)
• Guinea's junta chief Moussa Dadis Camara arrives in Burkina Faso after being hospitalised in Morocco. (Times LIVE) (BBC)
• Venezuela announces an electricity rationing programme in which the entire country will be affected by four-hour blackouts every week. (El Universal) (China Daily)
• Mercedes-Benz's 2009 sales rise 77% in the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua)
• The United States trade deficit rose 9.7% to 36.4 billion US dollars in November. (Xinhua) (People's Daily) (RTT News)
• The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is held in Detroit, Michigan, US. Green vehicles are seen as a response to the late 2000s recession. Automotive News World Congress is held at the Renaissance Center. (Xinhua) (Merinews)
• The Government of the People's Republic of China responds to Google's refusal to continue censorship of search results. (Xinhua) (BBC)
• Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urges the government to reconsider the anti-homosexuality bill being debated due to "foreign policy issues". (The Guardian) (New Vision)
• Shares in Japan Airlines fall by 81%. (BBC) (The Straits Times)
• Turkey threatens to recall its ambassador from Israel over a dispute involving Turkey's ambassador to the country. (Reuters) (Ha'aretz) (Today's Zaman)
• Pope Benedict XVI meets and forgives the woman who attacked him at Christmas Eve Mass in 2009. (The Times) (Catholic News Agency) (Adnkronos)
• The Kiev Court of Appeal accuses Josef Stalin and other leaders of the former Soviet Union and Soviet Ukraine of organizing mass famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933. (Kyiv Post) (RIA Novosti) (RT)

• India celebrates the Thai Pongal, Makar Sankranti and Magh Bihu harvest festivals in places around the country (Palayamkottai, Haridwar). (The Hindu)
• 40 people are killed after two buses crash head-on in one of Papua New Guinea's worst ever road accidents. (The National) (AFP)
• Seven people die in a stampede at a religious festival on the Ganges in West Bengal, India. (The Hindu) (BBC) (Press TV)
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez partially reverses a decision to ration electricity in the country a day after it was announced, saying it was having "undesirable effects" on the population. Thus, Caracas residents won't have power cuts anymore. (El Universal) (AFP)
• The head of Guinea's junta Moussa Dadis Camara and interim leader General Sékouba Konaté hold emergency talks with Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré. (AFP) (BBC)
• Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia announces a moratorium on the death penalty, calling for it to be abolished. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (China Daily)
• A crew of eight Irish sailors is rescued after the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race competitor Cork Clipper hits a rock in Java, Indonesia. (RTÉ) (BBC) (Ireland Online)
• A man is held in custody in Ireland after threatening that there was a bomb on board a transatlantic flight which had to land in an emergency at Shannon Airport. (RTÉ)
• Taoiseach Brian Cowen meets Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London for talks on the devolution process in Northern Ireland. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (BBC)
• A suicide bombing at a market in Afghanistan's Orūzgān Province kills 20 people. (BBC)

• Johnson & Johnson recalls more than 53 million bottles of over-the-counter products, including Tylenol, Motrin and Rolaids, from the Americas, the United Arab Emirates and Fiji. (Reuters)
• President Faure Gnassingbé and national team captain Emmanuel Adebayor are among dignitaries to attend a funeral ceremony held in Lomé for the two football officials killed during the Togo national football team attack in Angola. (BBC)
• At least five people die and dozens are injured in Nairobi, Kenya, when police clash with protesters demanding the release of Jamaican Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
• President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali reshuffles his government, making 11 ministerial changes including the appointment of new finance, defence, tourism and foreign affairs ministers, and sends his condolences to Haiti. (IOL) (Reuters Africa) (Middle East Online) (Xinhua)
• Muslim fundamentalists kill two people, an army colonel and the military commander of Béjaïa in northern Algeria. (IOL)
• 23 security guards are detained after clashing over the care of a taxi rank in Sundumbili, KwaZulu-Natal. (IOL)
• Spain's government sees a video showing three aid workers who have been held hostage by Al-Qaeda in Mali since November 2009. (IOL)
• In the Kamsar area, north of Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, a Chinese road-building firm digs up a van containing 17 decomposed corpses which went missing during a 2005 earthquake. (BBC)
• Mr Gay China, said to be the first gay Chinese pageant, is shut down by police an hour before opening. (BBC) (The Times) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Russia ratifies key European Court of Human Rights reform. Russia was the last of the 47 Council of Europe member-states to ratify Protocol 14. (Al Jazeera) (RT) (NY Times) (BBC) (ITAR-TASS) (FT) (RFERL)

• Previously unknown Florence Green, at 108, is believed to be Britain's oldest surviving UK-resident First World War veteran, and the last known female First World War veteran, having served with the Women's RAF (WRAF) in 1918 (The Daily Telegraph)
• Aftermath of 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • A 4.5 magnitude aftershock strikes Haiti within days of the recent devastating earthquake. (Sky News)
  • The United Nations says the earthquake is the worst disaster it has ever had to deal with in its history. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares says the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) use of his photo in its "shameless" digital manipulation of Osama Bin Laden for a wanted poster, has left him insecure and worried about travelling to the United States in future. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Daily Telegraph)
• The German government asks its citizens to stop using Microsoft's web browser Internet Explorer to protect their own security. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Daily Telegraph)
• The first detailed measurements of the melting point of diamond indicate that it behaves similarly to water in that the solid floats on the liquid. (Discovery News) (Popular Science)
• The Afghan parliament for a second time rejects most of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet nominees. (CNN) (The Hindu)
• India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan steps down as part of an overhaul of security in the country. (The Times) (Times of India)
• China announces an increase of 28% in the number of internet users in the country, now at 384 million. (Times of India) (China Daily) (The Independent)
• Authorities in Cuba are investigating the death of 26 patients at a psychiatric hospital after a spell of unusually cold weather. (BBC) (Havana Times)
• Another church is attacked in Malaysia and a mosque also targeted for the first time in a row over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. (Times of India) (AFP)
• Kenya will deport a radical Jamaican Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal after protests against his detention led to rioting. (Reuters) (Daily Nation)
• Australian police bust a $A18 million cannabis crop. The cannabis crop has been found growing on leased land in a national park in northern New South Wales. (Otago Daily Times)
• Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa vows to stay on after the arrests of several of his aides in a growing funding scandal in the Democratic Party of Japan. (Xinhua) (Canadian Press)

• A teacher and a student from Chung Ling High School were killed and four others were missing in the dragon boat tragedy in Penang. The Star
• Computer modelling shows that the Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier, once described as a major "tipping point" for the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the embayment of the Amundsen Sea, has reached their own tipping points for eventual collapse, likely to lead to a sea level rise of up to 52 cm over the next century. New Scientist
• Aftermath of 2010 Haiti earthquake: Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade offers "voluntary repatriation" to each of his Haitian "sons and daughters of Africa". (BBC)
• Indian communist patriarch Jyoti Basu, the longest-serving Chief Minister of West Bengal who declined the post of Prime Minister in 1996, dies at the age of 95. (Reuters) (Indian Express) (The Hindu) (Hindustan Times) (The Canadian Press) (BBC)
• Iran suspends pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia after it called on the Saudi religious police to stop their "appalling behaviour" towards Iranian Shiite pilgrims. (Times of India) (Ennahar)
• Former Iraqi minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, is sentenced to death for the Halabja poison gas attack. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Pope Benedict XVI makes a controversial visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome. (BBC)
• Ukrainian voters go to the polls to elect a new president. (Kyiv Post) (BBC)
• Sebastián Piñera is elected President of Chile in the second round of the presidential election. (BBC) (UPI)
• Former Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, tells The Sunday Times that the conduct of his wife, politician Iris Robinson, with her young lover has led him to shake hands with deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) for the first time. (BBC) (Ireland Online) (RTÉ)
• Prince William of Wales arrives in New Zealand for a three-day tour, including the opening of its new Supreme Court building, his first official overseas trip representing Queen Elizabeth II. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Daily Telegraph)
• A U.S. drone attack kills 15 alleged militants in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan. (BBC)

• The 2010 Islamic Solidarity Games, scheduled to take place this April in Tehran, are canceled due to a dispute regarding the name of the Persian Gulf. (BBC)
• North Korea says sanctions against the country should be lifted before it returns to the six-party talks over its nuclear program. (Thai News Agency) (Joongang Daily) (BBC)
• Indian and Pakistani forces exchange fire over the border. (UPI) (Reuters)
• Mehmet Ali Ağca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in May 1981, is released from a Turkish prison after almost 30 years behind bars. (Hong Kong Standard) (CNN) (Today's Zaman)
• Somalia sends a letter of protest to Kenya after the arrest of MPs and other officials, including Muslim leader Al-Amin Kimathi, over recent riots. (BBC) (Angola Press) (Africa News)
• Two dozen Afghan Taliban insurgents launch coordinated attacks against the presidential palace and other buildings in central Kabul on the day a new government is to be sworn in. (Washington Post)
• A 3.4 M_w earthquake hits Guizhou Province, China, and kills seven people. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Burma's Supreme Court hears a last appeal against the house arrest of detained National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (ABS-CBN News)
• Ten Tibetans arrested after crossing into Nepal are handed over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kathmandu, reversing an earlier decision to deport them back to China. (Taiwan News) (Republica)
• Fidel Castro reports activities of 500 Cuban-trained doctors in Haiti. (Granma)
• China commences surveillance of text messages, with customers from the country's two largest operators being blocked for lewd messages. Meanwhile, text messaging returns to Xinjiang, after riots last July. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Al Jazeera)

• 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • The United Nations Security Council increases the size of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti by 3,500. (UN News Centre)
  • Scores of United States Navy troops land near the Haitian presidential palace, bringing food, water, and equipment. (BBC)
• Cadbury acquisition:
  • British confectionery maker Cadbury is to be purchased by American company Kraft Foods for £11.5 billion (850 pence per share). (BBC)
  • Cadbury chairman Roger Carr says layoffs will be an "inevitability" following the acquisition. (BBC)
• Iran rejects a deal offered by the International Atomic Energy Agency to exchange low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. (BBC)
• Massachusetts voters elect Republican Scott Brown to fill the vacant United States Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy. (BBC) (CNN)
• The United States Supreme Court reverses a decision by the Philadelphia Court of Appeals that had blocked the execution of former Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu-Jamal. (BBC)
• The United States Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal from the QSI Holdings decision on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, limiting bankruptcy trustee avoidance actions against certain owners of (equity). The denial of certiorari lets that opinion stand. (Law360)
• A United Nations survey reveals Afghans have paid about US$2.5 (or £1.5) billion in bribes in the last year. (BBC)
• At least 149 people are killed in two days of violence between Christians and Muslims in the Nigerian city of Jos. (BBC)
• Large quantities of oil still remain under beaches over 20 years after an Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound, Alaska. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Japanese air carrier Japan Airlines files for bankruptcy protection. (BBC) (Asahi Shimbun)
• Foreign journalists in China say their emails have been hacked, as Google pulls out of launching its Android mobile phones. (Times LIVE South Africa) (Washington Post)
• Bulgarian European Commission nominee Rumiana Jeleva steps down as candidate and minister. (BBC)
• Chinese senior judge Huang Songyou is sentenced to life in prison over corruption charges. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (People's Daily)
• The Guinean junta appoints opposition leader Jean-Marie Doré as the new prime minister. (BBC)
• A powerful storm in California, United States, causes the evacuation of at least 200 homes in threat of mudslides, and knocks out power for 65,000 customers. One fatality is reported in Kern County. (CBS News)
• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev approves the establishment of the North Caucasian Federal District (from Southern Federal District) and appoints Alexander Khloponin as the Vice-Premier and Presidential Representative to the new federal district. (ITAR-TASS)
• The Number Resource Organisation warns the Internet is running out of IP addresses, with less than 10% of current-generation IPv4 addresses still available. (Daily Telegraph)

• Russian journalist Konstantin Popov dies after being beaten by police in Tomsk, Siberia. (Reuters)
• Malaysian police arrest eight people in connection with a firebomb attack on a church, in a row over the use of the word "Allah". (Bernama) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
• Dutch politician Geert Wilders goes on trial for allegedly inciting racial hatred against Muslims. (The Times) (Dutchnew.nl) (CNN)
• The Nigerian Army regains control of the city of Jos after religious violence killed more than 200 people. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (NEXT)
• Christopher Speight, an American man suspected of shooting and killing eight people in Appomattox, Virginia, surrenders to police. (BBC)
• U.S. investment bank JPMorgan Chase is in talks to buy natural gas firm RBS Sempra for about US$4 billion. (CNBC)
• A 6.1 magnitude aftershock rocks Haiti a week after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. (BBC) (CBC)
• The Burmese Supreme Court announces it will return a verdict on the extended house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi by next month. (CNN) (AFP)
• Vietnamese human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh is convicted on charges of subversion and sentenced to five years in prison. (BBC) (Vietnam News) (Bangkok Post)
• Microsoft issues a patch for a serious security hole in Internet Explorer 6 after France and Germany advised their citizens to change browsers. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• The 2D version of the film Avatar is pulled from theaters in China.(Times of India) (Haaretz) (BBC) (Malaysia Star)

• Operation Aurora:
  • Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei downplays the government's row with Google, saying it does not affect relations with the United States. (BBC) (AFP) (China Daily)
  • U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls on China to investigate the cyber attacks on Google. (BBC)
• U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates makes his first visit to Pakistan. (BBC)
• U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs reports a sharp increase in profits for 2009, beating analysts' expectations. (BBC) (The New York Times)
• The United States sends an additional 2,000 troops to Haiti to help with earthquake relief efforts. (BBC)
• Chinese economy grows 8.7% in 2009. (BBC) (China Daily)
• Virginia, United States shootings suspect Christopher Speight is charged with first degree murder. (BBC)
• United States Supreme Court overturns campaign spending limits by corporations and unions. (BBC)
• The Parliament of Angola approves a new constitution that abolishes direct presidential elections. (BBC) (Angola Press)
• Nigerian authorities relax a 24 hour curfew put in place in Jos due to recent religious violence. (Reuters Africa) (Afrique en ligne)
• General Motors confirms it will close an Opel factory in Antwerp, Belgium, cutting 2,300 jobs. (BBC)
• Yemen stops issuing visas at international airports to "halt terrorist infiltration" following the Christmas Day bomb plot. (Yemen News Agency) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• The internet forum boards.ie is attacked by hackers, forcing it to go offline and change the passwords of thousands of its users. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Irish Times)

• Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama says he will resign if proven guilty of receiving illegal political fund donations. (Mainichi Shimbun) (UPI)
• Ten rhinoceros horns seized in recent weeks at Shannon Airport in Ireland are said to be "rare" and "of international significance". (RTÉ)
• Operation Aurora:
  • China rejects criticism by the United States of its internet controls, saying it could harm relations between the two countries. (China Daily) (BBC)
  • A White House spokesman says U.S. President Barack Obama is "troubled" by the cyber attacks and wants "some answers". (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
• U.K. Home Secretary Alan Johnson announces the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has raised the terrorist threat level from "substantial" to "severe". (BBC)
• A U.S. Justice Department task force recommends 47 Guantanamo Bay detainees should be held indefinitely without charge. (BBC)
• Former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel James Fondren is sentenced to three years in prison for providing classified documents to Chinese spy Tai Shen Kuo. (BBC)
• A Nuremberg court issues an arrest warrant for former Argentine leader Jorge Rafael Videla, on suspicion of killing a German man. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle)
• The Electoral Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church meets in Belgrade and chooses Bishop Irinej of Niš as the new patriarch. (B92) (BBC)
• European banking stocks drop sharply following U.S. President Barack Obama's plans to restrict activities of the biggest American banks. (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Nigeria gives the government 14 days to decide whether ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua is fit to rule the country. (BBC)
• Turkish police arrest 120 suspects in a major anti-terrorism operation against Al-Qaeda. (Today's Zaman) (BBC)
• A security alert is issued at all of India's airports after intelligence reports of a plot to hijack an Indian plane. (Indian Express) (Al Jazeera) (AFP)
• The home of an opposition activist is bombed in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo days ahead of the presidential election. (Press Trust of India) (BBC)
• Alexey Dymovskiy, the Russian policeman who became famous for denouncing police corruption on YouTube, is arrested on charges of fraud and corruption. (BBC)
• The internationally renowned Waterford Crystal tourist centre in Kilbarry, Ireland, ceases to function. (RTÉ)

• Aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • The Haitian government declares earthquake rescue operations over. (BBC)
  • The government announces a first precise death toll of 111,481. To date, it is the second-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century (after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake). (CNN)
• Joe Biden's visit to Iraq:
  • U.S. Vice President Joe Biden holds talks with Iraqi political leaders ahead of the March parliamentary election. (BBC)
  • Biden says the U.S. government will appeal in the Blackwater Baghdad shootings case. (BBC)
• Thousands of protesters demonstrate in Venezuela for and against the polices of President Hugo Chávez amid a currency revaluation and energy shortages in the country. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• Eight people are killed and 13 missing after flash floods and landslides hit Sulawesi, Indonesia. (News Australia) (Jerusalem Post)
• Between 100 and 150 bodies are found stuffed in wells in the village of Kuru following religious clashes in Jos, Nigeria. (BBC) (AFP)
• A passenger train in Iran derails, killing at least eight people and wounding at least fifteen others. (Press TV) (ISNA) (Reuters) (RTÉ) (The Canadian Press)
• Japanese prosecutors question Representative Ichirō Ozawa over an alleged party funding scandal. (BBC) (Manilla Bulletin)
• The American Civil Liberties Union condemns a U.S. Justice Department report that suggested 47 Guantánamo Bay detainees should be held indefinitely without trial. (BBC)
• Jim McCormick, the director of the U.K. company manufacturing the controversial ADE 651 bomb detectors, is arrested on suspicion of fraud. (BBC)
• A new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey says Venezuela may hold double the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. (BBC)
• Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra leaves Cambodia on the eve of anti-government protests in Thailand. (The Phnom Penn Post)
• A strong weather system leaves damage in the U.S. states of California and Arizona after producing flooding rains, strong winds, and a rare outbreak of tornadoes in the region. (Los Angeles Times) (San Fransisco Chronicle) (ABC News)
• Canadians take to the streets to protest the prorogation of the 40th Canadian Parliament. (CBC) (Globe and Mail)

• Aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • Haiti is rocked by another earthquake. (CBC News) (RTÉ) (TVNZ)
  • The Haitian government announces the death toll from the recent earthquake has reached 150,000 in the capital Port-au-Prince alone. (BBC)
  • A minute's silence is held before games in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. (CNN)
  • France holds two fund-raising concerts in Le Zénith de Paris and the Bataclan. (France24)
• In the National Football League, the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints win playoff games to advance to Super Bowl XLIV. (AP)
• One person is killed and three more are injured when an explosion occurs at a thermo-electric plant near Gryfino, Poland. (Ynetnews) (The Irish Times)
• The Chinese government denies state involvement in the cyber attacks on Google, while the state-run China Daily newspaper accuses the United States of hypocrisy. (BBC) (China Daily)
• A flight operated by Kolavia on behalf of Taban Air crashes on landing at Mashhad International Airport, Iran, injuring at least 46 people. (Press TV) (BBC) (The New York Times)
• The Venezuelan government takes six cable television channels off the air, including RCTV, after they refused to transmit government messages. (BBC) (The New York Times)
• Osama Bin Laden claims responsibility for the failed Christmas day bombing attempt in Detroit, USA, last year. (BBC) (The New York Times) (VOA)
• Afghanistan postpones its upcoming parliamentary elections to 18 September due to lack of funds and security concerns. (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
• North Korea says any attempt by South Korea to launch pre-emptive strikes against its nuclear facilities will be considered a declaration of war. (Yonhap) (BBC) (The New York Times)
• At the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, France, hip hop band Black Eyed Peas are mistakenly presented with an award for best international group which was intended for Tokio Hotel, while Rihanna falls off the stage during a live performance of "Russian Roulette". (BBC)
• Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds wins the top prize at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock winning best actors. (BBC) (The New York Times)
• A spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama expresses the administration's support for a second term for the incumbent Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and says lawmakers would send a bad message by "playing politics in any way" with Bernanke's confirmation. (ABC News)
• Sri Lankan opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka receives the support of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the 2010 presidential election. (BBC)
• The citizens of Nago, Okinawa, elect mayor Susumu Inamine, an opponent of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is crucial for Japan – United States relations. (The New York Times) (BBC News)
• Authorities in Wales arrest two people in connection with the abandonment at the cathedral in Carlow, Ireland of an 8-month-old baby taken from Nottinghamshire, England. (RTÉ) (Sunday Independent) (BBC)
• Ghana eliminate the hosts of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations Angola following accusations of "intimidatory" tactics carried out by the country's security forces. (France24)
• James Cameron's Avatar becomes (not accounting for inflation) the second highest grossing movie in the United States and Canada and the best selling movie overseas. (Variety) (BoxOfficeMojo)(Reuters) (HollywoodReporter)

• Live Nation and Ticketmaster complete their merger, following an agreement with the United States Department of Justice to divest some interests. (Reuters)
• Police in the Venezuelan capital Caracas disperse an opposition student protest over the closure of several television stations. Meanwhile, Vice President Ramón Carrizales resigns. (AFP) (El Universal)
• Houthi fighters in northern Yemen offer to leave Saudi Arabia after three months of fighting on the border. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Press TV)
• Representatives of the Dalai Lama head to Beijing for the first discussions with Chinese authorities in 15 months. (The Hindu) (AFP) (The Guardian)
• Voters in Saint Kitts and Nevis go to the polls in the 2010 general election. (Washington Post)
• New traces of melamine in milk products are discovered in China, more than a year after thousands of children became ill from a previous incident. (China Daily) (BBC)
• The European Union agrees to send a team to train up to 2,000 Somali troops to help fight insurgents in the country, as intense gun battles take place in the capital Mogadishu. (Reuters South Africa) (UPI)
• Environment ministers from the G4 bloc (IBSA Dialogue Forum & China) meet in New Delhi, India, to agree a common position ahead of future climate change talks, such as the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference ("COP-16") at Cancún, Mexico, to be held from 29 November 2010 to 10 December 2010 [1]. (AFP) (The Daily Star)
• Dutch football club HFC Haarlem, national champion in 1946, is declared bankrupt, becoming the first Dutch professional club to be disestablished since FC Wageningen and VCV Zeeland in 1992. (Telegraaf)
• Iraq:
  • Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", is executed. (BBC News)
  • Three car bomb explosions in central Baghdad kill 36 people. (BBC)
• Burma's Home Minister General Maung Oo says Aung San Suu Kyi will be released by November this year. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• The United States will reportedly "reconsider" Algeria's placement on its terror watch list, which requires Algerian citizens to undergo extra security screening. (Xinhua)
• Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, with 85 passengers on board, crashes into the Mediterranean Sea after taking off from Beirut Airport, Lebanon. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• A Qantas terminal at an airport in Perth, Western Australia, is evacuated after police locate a "suspicious item". (The Age)
• An inquest into the deaths of five Afghan asylum seekers opens in Australia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• A record-breaking half a million Australians take extra time off work "sick" as Australia Day approaches. (The Age)
• A senior Chinese Internet official says his country is now the largest victim of cyber attacks in the world. (China Daily)
• Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown meet at Downing Street to discuss the devolution deadlock in Northern Ireland. (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (The Irish Times)
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the opening of an exhibition of Auschwitz concentration camp blueprints in Yad Vashem. (The Washington Post)
• Gordon Park, convicted murderer in the Lady in the Lake trial, is found hanged in his prison cell in Garth prison, Lancashire, England, in an apparent suicide. (BBC)

• Authorities in Peru begin evacuating over 2,000 tourists stranded by heavy rains on Machu Picchu. (BBC)
• A French parliamentary report backs a partial ban on the wearing of burkhas by Muslim women. (France 24) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
• The United States approves an arms sale to Taiwan, amid opposition from China. (Al Jazeera) (Radio Taiwan International)
• Petelo Vikena, King of the Kingdom of Alo in Wallis and Futuna, abdicates after reports of vandalism and arson against royal property. (RNZI)
• James Cameron's Avatar becomes the highest-grossing film of all time (not accounting inflation), surpassing his 1997 Titanic. (Wall Street Journal) (The Hollywood Reporter) (New York Post)
• Voters in Sri Lanka go to the polls in a presidential election. (Daily News) (The Hindu) (Xinhua)

• At least 20 people are injured after a five-storey apartment building collapses following a gas explosion in Liège, Belgium. (The Daily Telegraph) (The Canadian Press) (RTÉ)
• Machu Picchu mudslides:
  • New Zealanders, Britons, Chinese and Irish tourists are among the thousands trapped after mudslides in the Incan capital Machu Picchu. (The New Zealand Herald) (Sky News) (China Daily) (RTÉ)
  • Some wealthier tourists pay $500 to escape the devastation which has killed at least 10 people. (The Times)
• Aftermath of 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says seven-year-old Charlie Simpson, who rode five miles and raised more than £200,000 for the 2010 Haiti earthquake fund, is "truly inspirational" as his spouse Sarah Brown meets him in his absence at Downing Street. (BBC)
  • Pop star Susan Boyle is "shocked but unharmed" after disturbing an intruder at her house in Scotland as she returns from recording her part for Simon Cowell's charity single for Haiti. (The Times) (CNN) (Washington Post)
• Incumbent President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa is declared the winner of Sunday's presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka. (BBC)
• North Korea fires artillery shots into the sea near the disputed Northern Limit Line maritime border, with South Korea returning fire. (Yonhap) (BBC) (Times of India)
• Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Taoiseach Brian Cowen leave Northern Ireland after three days spent discussing its future. (RTÉ) (BBC)
• The highest surface wind gust ever recorded of 220 kt at Barrow Island, Australia in 1996 is ratified by the WMO. (Arizona State University) (WMO).
• Ireland is hit by two earthquakes over a 24-hour period, described as "unusual" by experts. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Irish Times)
• The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom overturns two Orders in Council that froze the assets of unconvicted suspects in terrorism cases. (BBC News)
• The Secretary of the Treasury of the U.S., Timothy Geithner, appears before a committee of the United States House of Representatives to discuss his actions in 2008, when he was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in the rescue of troubled insurance industry giant AIG. (New York Times)
• Steve Jobs unveils the Apple iPad, a tablet PC at a press conference in San Francisco. (Engadget)

• The U.S. Senate votes to give Ben Bernanke a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve. (AP)
• J. D. Salinger, author of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, dies at the age of 91. (BBC) (CBC) (RTÉ)(TIME) (The Times)
• Aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • The International Monetary Fund loans US$114 million to Haiti following the recent earthquake devastation, with the full amount due to be transferred by the end of the week. (The Straits Times) (The Hindu)
  • Teenager Darlene Etienne is pulled alive from the rubble of Port-au-Prince "happy but dehydrated" 16 days after being buried, having spent the time drinking Coca-Cola and water from a bath. (BBC) (Indian Express) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • French medics report that American medics' risky "guillotine-amputations" were made too fast, patients now risking necrosis, septicemia, and requesting later a 2nd amputation to better protect the patients. (LeMonde)
• North Korea:
  • North Korean vessels fire again across the Northern Limit Line maritime boundary with South Korea. (Yonhap) (RIA Novosti) (WSJ Europe)
  • An American man is detained after crossing into North Korea from China. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• The death toll from yesterday's apartment collapse in Liège reaches nine as the search for bodies is temporarily suspended due to the danger caused by other falling buildings. (Reuters India) (RTÉ) (TVNZ)
• Three players are dismissed during the semi-final football match between rivals Algeria and Egypt in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, months following their previous meeting which led to international violence and diplomatic skirmishes. (magharebia.com) (BBC) (USA Today)
• Colombia makes a formal diplomatic protest to Venezuela over the latter's alleged violation of Colombian airspace by a military helicopter. (BBC) (RIA Novosti) (Colombia Reports)
• Sudan's ruling National Congress Party endorses South Sudan President Salva Kiir in upcoming elections. (BBC) (Sudan Tribune)
• Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is cleared of charges of complicity to false denunciation in the Clearstream affair. (France 24)
• Iran executes two opposition supporters for their role in the election protests in the country. (Al Jazeera) (The Times) (WSJ)

• The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond goes on public display in Washington, D.C., United States. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• The United States approves a US$6 billion arms sales package to Taiwan. (The New York Times) (AFP) (Taiwan News)
• Haiti acknowledges the immediate international assistance it received from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela following the recent earthquake and confirms the death toll has reached 150,000. (Granma)
• A state of emergency is declared in parts of Bolivia and rescue efforts continue in Peru amid heavy rain and floods in the region. (BBC) (Andina)
• The offices of defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka are raided by police. (Press Trust of India) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• A Nigerian court dismisses a call for an interim leader to be appointed while President Umaru Yar'Adua is in hospital in Saudi Arabia. (NEXT) (Reuters) (BBC)
• North Korea fires artillery towards South Korean territory at the Northern Limit Line for a third consecutive day. (Xinhua) (Yonhap)
• A 25-year-old employee of the Bank of Ireland is detained by authorities in connection with the largest bank robbery in the country's history. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ)
• First flight of the Russian stealth fighter Sukhoi T-50. (The Times) (BBC)
• Several people are killed in heavy fighting in the Somalian capital Mogadishu. (CNN) (Dawn) (Al Jazeera)
• Tony Blair appears at the Iraq Inquiry and is questioned in public for the first time about his decision to take the United Kingdom to war against Iraq. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Vietnamese author Pham Thanh Nghien, who criticised the ruling Communist Party, is sentenced to four years in prison for spreading propaganda against the state. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• Canadan Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoints five new Senators. (Globe and Mail)

• Extreme weather, including snow and wind, leads to "chaos" and as many as three deaths in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. (Deutsche Welle) (BBC) (The Hindu) (Press TV)
• The Togo national football team is banned for two tournaments and fined $50,000 for withdrawing from the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations after the fatal attack on their team bus in Angola. The Government of Angola and Confederation of African Football are both to be sued by the families of the dead. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• Aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake:
  • The United States suspends medical evacuations in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake due to a dispute as to who should pay for treatment. (New York Times)
  • Several Americans have been charged with child smuggling for attempting to take Haitian children to the Dominican Republic. (BBC)
  • Puerto Rico investigates a group of its doctors who took photographs of patients and performed operations in the earthquake zone while smiling, drinking and holding guns. (Primera Hora)(BBC) (CNN) (Miami Herald) (The Washington Post)
• Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who criticised the country's leader and who is, according to Amnesty International, a "prisoner of conscience", loses his appeal against a six-month prison sentence for assault. (BBC) (France 24) (Taiwan News)
• Authorities in China arrest two people after an incident on board a flight from Xinjiang bound for Wuhan in which a passenger set fire to some toilet paper which forced the plane to turn around. (Reuters)
• The leader of the Shia Houthi rebel group in northern Yemen, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, says they will accept a ceasefire if government actions against them cease. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (AFP)
• Judges across Italy stage a walk out over Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's proposed judicial reforms. (Reuters) (euronews) (BBC)
• 12 people drown and least 20 others are missing after a boat accident in West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh in India. (The Hindu) (RTÉ) (Sky News) (Taiwan News)
• The President of the Central Bank of Argentina resigns after a row with the country's President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. (Buenos Aires Herald) (The Financial Times)
• China suspends military exchanges and reviews cooperation on issues with the United States after the latter agreed to a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan. (The Hindu) (Xinhua) (BBC)
• Google begins to phase out its support for Internet Explorer 6 after it was identified as a weak link in cyber attacks on the search engine. (BBC) (CNET)
• Honda recalls 650,000 of the Honda Fit (also known as Honda Jazz) vehicles worldwide over potential electrical faults. (The Guardian)
• Publishing company MacMillan said that on-line retailer Amazon.com, Inc. has removed all MacMillan print and e-books from its site due to a dispute over the pricing of books sold through Amazon's Kindle reader. (Wall Street Journal)

• Gunmen open fire on a student party in Ciudad Juárez, killing at least 13. (BBC) (Times of India)
• President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika becomes the Chairman of the African Union. (AFP)
• Roger Federer beats Andy Murray to win the men's singles title at the 2010 Australian Open. (BBC Sport)
• Egypt become African Cup of Nations champions for a record third consecutive title after beating Ghana 1-0 in Estádio 11 de Novembro, Luanda, Angola, in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations final. (BBC Sport)
• A M_w 5.2 earthquake in Sichuan province, China, kills one person and injures 11 others, destroying at least 100 homes. (BBC News) (Bangkok Post) (Times of India)
• The death toll from flooding in southern Peru rises to 20. (BBC News)
• The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group in the Niger delta region of Nigeria, announces the end of its unilateral ceasefire. (The Punch) (BBC News)
• Thirteen soldiers in Burundi have been arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza. (BBC News) (Afrique en ligne)
• The remains of 250 British and Australian soldiers who died in the Battle of Fromelles during World War I are reburied in the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery to be constructed in 50 years. (BBC News)
• A suicide bomber kills at least sixteen people in a market in Khar in north-western Pakistan. (Daily Times of Pakistan) (BBC News)