Portal:Current events/January 2012

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
    • The Arab Inter-parliamentary Union, an advisory body to the Arab League, calls for the removal of its monitors in Syria, saying that they are inadvertently helping the government cover up ongoing violence. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
    • Syrian opposition groups say that over 5,800 people were killed in violence in 2011. (CNN)
  • 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising:
    • A funeral of a Bahraini youth killed yesterday in a protest turns into another protest with police forced to use tear gas. (Reuters)
• At least two people are killed in attacks on bars in northern Kenya near the border with Somalia, with Islamist al-Shabaab militants possibly responsible. (Reuters)
• Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in parts of the country hit by violence by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (Al Jazeera)
• South Sudan is to send more troops and police to Pibor, the scene of ethnic violence. (BBC)

• Queen Elizabeth II appoints former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and British painter David Hockney to the Order of Merit. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Rio Tinto Alcan locks out hundreds of workers from a smelter in the Canadian town of Alma, Quebec. (CBC)

• A 7.0-magnitude earthquake strikes south of Japan; no damage is caused. (Wall Street Journal) (Reuters) (Newsday)
• A boat capsizes near Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast with at least seven people dead. (Reuters)

• The Iranian Navy test-fires a surface-to-air missile. (MSNBC)
• Pakistan and India give each other a list of their nuclear sites. (CNN)

• A joint New Year editorial by North Korean media calls for "human shields" to protect new Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. (The Telegraph)
• Nigeria announces an end to its fuel subsidy scheme leading the Nigeria Labour Congress to call for strikes and street protests. (Reuters)
• Egypt's military rulers bring forward elections for the Shura Council, the upper house of the Parliament to expedite progress in developing a new constitution. (AFP via France 24)

• The second of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft is in orbit around the moon. (AP)

• In football, the Swaziland national football team withdraws from the qualifying rounds of the Africa Cup of Nations due to financial constraints. (Reuters)
• In motor sports, Argentine motorcycle rider Jorge Andrés Boero dies in the first leg of the Dakar Rally in Argentina. (AP via Fox Sports)

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League calls for a ceasefire in Syria, saying that tanks and heavy weaponry have been withdrawn from Syrian cities, but warning that snipers remain a threat. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011–2012 Yemeni uprising: Yemeni army defectors accuse outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of seeking to sabotage a power-transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. (Shanghai Daily) (Detroit Free Press)
• Up to 50,000 people flee their homes in a border area of South Sudan amid ethnic violence. (Reuters)
• The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram issues a warning to Christians in northern Nigeria to leave the region within three days. (CNN)
• Hundreds of Muslim villagers clash with riot police in the Ningxia region of northern China after a mosque is demolished by local authorities. (BBC) (Pakistan Today)

• Firefighters in Chile battle three large wildfires, which have reportedly resulted in the death of at least one person. (CTV)

• India lodges a high-level protest with the government of China over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in a courtroom. (BBC) (Times of India)
• The President of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, states that he is open to negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program, but calls on the North to avoid "provocations". (AP via Newsday)
• The President of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, states that Tunisia is prepared to extradite former Prime Minister of Libya Baghdadi Mahmudi to Tripoli to face charges of abuse of office, if the Libyan government can guarantee a fair trial. (Reuters)
• Iran:
  • Iran states that it has successfully test-fired two long-range missiles, a Qader and a Noor, during military exercises in the Persian Gulf. (Reuters via Yahoo News) (Reuters)(WSJ)(Ynet)(BBC)
  • Iranian news agencies report that the country has produced its first nuclear fuel rod. (Bloomberg)
  • Iranian officials report that the country will not shut down the Strait of Hormuz, as was previously threatened. (CNN)

• Mount Rainier National Park in the U.S. state of Washington is closed as police conduct a manhunt for a man who shot dead a park ranger on New Year's Day; the gunman, Benjamin Barnes, is eventually found dead. (CBS News) (CBS News Video) (BBC)
• ExxonMobil wins US$908 million from an arbitration panel of the International Chamber of Commerce for the nationalization of its Venezuelan oil project in 2007. (BBC)

• Thousands of opposition supporters in Hungary protest over Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's alleged attempts to undermine democracy in the country. (New York Times)
• The military government of Fiji announces that it is to lift martial law and other emergency regulations. (AFP via Google) (Fiji Times)
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chinese President Hu Jintao warns of attempts to "westernise" the country by "hostile powers". (IOL)

• The Russian Federal Space Agency expects that parts of its failed Fobos-Grunt Mars probe will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere during the next week. (The Telegraph)

• Aftermath of 2011 Libyan civil war: elements of former anti-Gaddafi forces from Tripoli and Misrata clash in the center of Tripoli, with five people reportedly killed. (The Huffington Post)
• War in Afghanistan:
  • A suicide bomber kills four civilians and a police officer in the Afghan city of Kandahar. (AP via USA Today)
  • At least twelve people are killed in three bombing attacks in southern Afghanistan. (BBC)

• Unemployment in Spain reaches a record high. (The Guardian)
• Germany's unemployment rate reportedly reaches its lowest level since 1991. (BBC)

• The Met Office issues a storm warning for the entire United Kingdom, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reportedly the worst-affected areas. Two people are later reported killed in separate weather-related incidents. (Belfast Telegraph) (BBC)

• Negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian Authority meet in the Jordanian capital, Amman, for the first time in 16 months. (Jerusalem Post)
• Iran:
  • The value of the Iranian rial hits a record low, following the announcement by the United States of further economic sanctions against Iran. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
  • Iran warns the United States not to send any more aircraft carriers into the Persian Gulf. (Reuters)
• South Korea lifts a temporary ban that it placed on travel to North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-Il. (Yonhap)

• After 18 years of investigations and inquests, Gary Dobson and David Norris are convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the London suburb of Eltham on 22 April 1993. Dobson and Norris are later sentenced to 15 years and 14 years' imprisonment, respectively. (BBC) (The Independent)
• An Ecuadorean appeals court upholds an $18 billion judgement against the US oil company Chevron Corporation. (Reuter via Yahoo! News)

• Voters in the U.S. state of Iowa go to the polls for electoral caucuses, with Mitt Romney defeating Rick Santorum by 8 votes in the Republican Party contest, and Ron Paul following in third place. (BBC) (Los Angeles Times) (Wall Street Journal)
• Voters in Egypt go to the polls for the third round of voting for the lower house of the national parliament. (Reuters via The Irish Times)
• Libya appoints Yousef al-Manqoush as the new head of its armed forces. (Reuters)

• Two bombs explode in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri with the Boko Haram movement believed to be responsible. (Reuters)

• Storms kill seven, with local states of emergency declared in Southeast Region, Brazil. (New Straits Times) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Monsters and Critics) (Xinhua via People's Daily)(Daily Star)
• At least 16 people die after a bus runs off a bridge in China's Guizhou province. (AP via IBN Live)

• The China Air Transport Association advises that Chinese airlines will not pay the carbon costs under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. (Climate Spectator)(New York Times)(Reuters)(Bloomberg.com)(ABC Online)

• The military-backed civilian government of Burma (Myanmar) marks the anniversary of the country's independence by commuting prison sentences and releasing more than thirty prisoners. (CNN)
• Gary Dobson and David Norris are jailed for life for the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. Dobson is given a minimum of 15 years and two months, and Norris 14 years and three months. (BBC)
• Mexican drug cartel kingpin Benjamín Arellano Félix pleads guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money in the United States. (Washington Post)

• The President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner temporarily hands over power to her Vice-President Amado Boudou ahead of surgery for thyroid cancer. (CNN)
• Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012:
  • Republican primary candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney wins the 2012 Iowa Caucus, with candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum behind by eight votes; Congressman Ron Paul had a strong showing in third place. (CBS News)
  • After her poor showing during the Iowa caucus, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann ends her campaign. (MSNBC)
• Former Prime Minister of Greece George Papandreou announces that he will resign as head of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. (Reuters)

• Armed commandos will be ordered to protect endangered tigers in India's Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks. (BBC), (Straits Times), (SMH)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • 552 political detainees are released by the government. (Reuters)
  • A senior official from the Defence Ministry defects while in Cairo. (Al Bawaba)
  • Qatar's prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani says the Arab League monitors have made "mistakes" in Syria. (CNN)
• Nigeria:
  • Bombs explode in two northern Nigerian cities. (VOA)
  • Gunmen attack a church in Gombe in northeastern Nigeria killing at least six people. (BBC)
• Iraqi insurgency: A series of explosions occur in mainly Shia Muslim neighbourhoods of Baghdad and in the city of Nasiriyah, with at least 73 killed and 149 wounded. (Al Jazeera)
• Kidnapped Australian man Warren Rodwell states that his Filipino captors have asked $2 million in ransom. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• The Pakistan Taliban claims to have killed 15 security force members it kidnapped last month. (AP)

• At least 25 people die with dozens missing as a result of a landslide at a gold mining site in the Philippines Compostela Valley Province. (CNN) (AP via MSNBC)
• At least six firefighters die fighting wildfires in southern Chile with two badly burnt and one missing. (AP via Washington Post)

• An alleged North Korean spy is indicted in South Korea. (Yonhap)
• William Hague, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commences a two day tour of Myanmar. (BBC) (Xinhua)

• The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is charged with taking bribes in a property scandal. (BBC) (Reuters)

• The President of the United States Barack Obama announces a new defense strategy, cutting spending dramatically. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Portia Simpson Miller is sworn in for the second time as the Prime Minister of Jamaica. (AP via Google News)
• Pope Benedict XVI appoints a new head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Vatican’s three top tribunals. Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, who is serving as secretary for the Congregation for Bishops, becomes the new Penitentiary Major. He succeeds Cardinal Fortunato Baldelli, who is retiring at the age of 76. (Catholic World News), (Vatican Information Service)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: According to Syrian state media, 26 people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus. The Syrian opposition blames the Syrian government for orchestrating the attack, and alleges that they have leaked information from security forces that Aleppo is next. (Al Arabiya) (CNN)
• Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia that carried out deadly attacks on U.S. troops agrees to lay down its arms and join the political process in Iraq. (ABC News)
• Eight people are killed and 10 wounded in Kano, in the latest in a series of attacks on church in northern Nigeria. (VOA)(CNN)

• The Ramnit worm steals more than 45000 Facebook logins and passwords. (Vancouver Sun) (Euronews Youtube) (CNet)
• Symantec, maker of the popular Norton antivirus software, acknowledges that hackers have acquired "a segment of its source code," a partial confirmation of claims made by the Lords of Dharmaraja. (Reuters)

• A Tibetan protester sets himself on fire in Sichuan, China. (BBC)
• The Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller announces that the country is to become a republic, with plans to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and the Jamaican monarchy in general. (The Guardian)
• Peter MacKay, Canadian Minister of Defence. marries Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iranian former beauty queen, in a private ceremony in Mexico. (CBC)

• Sweden beats Russia 1-0 in overtime in the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships gold medal game. (USA Today) (ESPN)

• At least 37 people are killed in two days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, after radical Islamic group Boko Haram issues an ultimatum for all Christians to leave the north. (Reuters)
• Iran praises the United States Navy after American sailors rescued Iranian fishermen from armed pirates in the Arabian Sea. (CNN)

• Several of Bosnia's leading cultural institutions are due to close following funding disputes. The affected institutions include the National Library, the National Museum, the Historical Museum and the National Gallery. (NPR)

• A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all eleven onboard. The accident was reportedly caused by a collision with a power line. (BBC) (Fox News)

• Piracy in Somalia: Georgia announces 15 Georgian sailors held hostage by pirates for over a year are released through the government's efforts. (AFP via Google News)

• Insurgency in the North Caucasus: Clashes occur between the Russian forces and Islamist militants in the Vedensky District, Chechnya, with reportedly 8 killed and 16 wounded. (RIA)

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meets with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the first stop of Ahmadinejad's Latin American tour. (CNN)

• President Malam Bacai Sanhá of Guinea-Bissau dies at the age of 64 while undergoing treatment for an unknown ailment in Paris. (BBC)
• In the United Kingdom a disagreement emerges between the Westminster and Scottish governments over a referendum on Scottish independence, after Prime Minister David Cameron tells a Sky News interview that a quick decision is needed on the matter for the sake of the economy. (Sky News) (BBC)

• Alabama defeats LSU 21-0 to win the 2012 BCS National Championship, their second championship in three years, in the first shutout in BCS bowl history. (ESPN)

• The Early Show is Changing to CBS This Morning

• A bombing in Khyber Agency, Pakistan, kills at least 29 people and leaves over 50 others injured. (Vancouver Sun)

• Amir Mirza Hekmati is sentenced to death by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Scottish Government announces that it plans to hold the referendum on Scottish independence in the autumn of 2014, but Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore tells the House of Commons that the power to hold a referendum is "reserved" to Westminster. (BBC)
• Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening gives the go-ahead for HS2, a £33bn high-speed rail line that will eventually link several major cities in the United Kingdom to London and enabling quicker journey times. (BBC)
• Early reports show that Mitt Romney wins the New Hampshire Republican primary with Ron Paul in second and Jon Huntsman in third. (CNN)

• The United States denies any involvement in a bomb blast that killed an Iranian scientist. (BBC)
• A French journalist is killed, along with eight others, by a mortar in the Syrian city of Homs. (CNN)

• Joran van der Sloot pleads guilty to killing a Peruvian woman. (msnbc)

• Israel is bracing for an increase of Syrian refugees into Golan Heights, according to Israel's military chief. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Republican candidates for United States President are campaigning in South Carolina for the upcoming South Carolina primaries. (ABC News)

• Shia insurgency in Yemen: at least 20 die in Sunni-Shia fighting in north Yemen. (AJE)
• 2010–2011 Burma border clashes: The Burmese government signs a ceasefire with Karen rebels. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League delays sending more observers to Syria; one of its observers also quits the mission. (BBC)

• The Supreme Court of Israel upholds a law banning Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship. (BBC)

• 2011-2012 Syrian uprising: Security forces kill at least 13 protesters, including three children, amid ongoing protests in Syria. (Al Jazeera)

• European sovereign debt crisis:
  • The Standard & Poor's credit rating agency lowers its long-term credit ratings on the eurozone countries of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, and Spain by two notches each and Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia by one notch each. (Standard & Poor's)
• Lions Gate Entertainment, the largest independent studio in the United States, purchases Summit Entertainment for US$412.5 million. (Reuters)

• Costa Concordia disaster: The cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground at Isola del Giglio in the Mediterranean Sea, with 32 passengers dead, 2 missing and presumed dead, and 64 injured. (Sky News) (CNN)

• Kiribati President Anote Tong is re-elected to a third (and final) term in the 2012 presidential election. (Radio Australia News)
• Reforms in Burma: Burma announces a mass pardon for political prisoners, including student leader Min Ko Naing. (BBC)

• A suicide bomber kills at least 53 people and injures more than 130 in the Iraqi city of Basra. (CNN)
• Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers. (Antena 3) (Washington Post)

• A power transformer malfunction in Bursa, Turkey, leaves millions without electricity, including the metropolis of Istanbul. (Washington Post)
• Rescue teams find two survivors trapped inside the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast of Tuscany on January 13, killing at least three people. The ship's captain is detained by police for questioning. (New Zealand Herald)

• The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, proposes that Arab League troops be sent to Syria to end ongoing violence in the country. (VoA)

• Voters in the Republic of China go to the polls for the 2012 presidential election. Incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou ultimately wins re-election with 51% of the vote, defeating Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen. (MSNBC) (China Post)

• The Circle MRT line extension began operations, connecting Promenade and Marina Bay via Bayfront. It is operated by SMRT Trains Ltd.

• A bomb detonates near a Shia Muslim procession in the Pakistani town of Khanpur, killing at least 18 people and wounding 30. (The Guardian)
• Insurgents trigger bombs and storm a police station in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, with six people reportedly killed and 14 injured. (BBC)
• Clashes continue between demonstrators and riot police in Romania, after thousands take to the streets for a third day of protests. (BBC)
• 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising: Opposition leaders and activists say reforms proposed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa are "cosmetic" and will do little to stop the uprising. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls on the Syrian regime to "stop killing its own people". (Daily Star Lebanon)
  • President Bashar al-Assad offers a general amnesty for crimes committed since the uprising began. (The Independent)

• The Russian tanker Renda, accompanied by the US Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy, prepares to deliver fuel to Nome, Alaska. A fall storm had blocked an earlier fuel delivery, leaving the city facing fuel shortages. (AP via Google)

• A fuel freighter, the Doola No. 3, explodes near the South Korean port city of Incheon, killing at least three crew members. (CNN) (Los Angeles Times) (MSNBC)
• Three trapped survivors are rescued from the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, over 24 hours after it ran aground off the coast of Italy. Two corpses are also found, bringing the known death toll of the incident to five. (BBC)

• South Sudan accuses neighboring Sudan of "stealing" its oil exports. (Al Jazeera)

• Jon Huntsman will drop out of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries and will endorse rival candidate Mitt Romney, according to media reports. (CNN) (BBC)

• Russia's unmanned Fobos-Grunt space probe re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after a failed mission to the Martian moon Phobos. The 13-ton spacecraft disintegrates over the southern Pacific Ocean at approximately 16:45 UTC. China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, which was launched together with Fobos-Grunt, is also destroyed. (BBC) (Spaceflight 101)

• Finnish enduro rider and five-time world champion Mika Ahola dies from injuries sustained during training in Girona, Spain. (The Daily Mirror)

• CBS Season Premiere of Undercover Boss

• Romanian protests: Demonstrations continue for the fifth consecutive day against president Traian Băsescu and the Emil Boc government in more than 60 cities across the country. (Realitatea TV)

• John Burnside wins the T. S. Eliot Prize. (The Guardian)
• The King Center publishes online 200,000 personal papers belonging to Martin Luther King Jr. to mark his birthday. (BBC News)
• Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, emphasizes that the presence of Catholics on the internet is essential. Archbishop Celli made his comments at Mercy University in Fribourg during a meeting organized by the Swiss Bishops' Conference and the Swiss Press League. The event was held in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the pastoral instruction on social communications, “Communio et Progressio.” (Catholic News Agency)

• European sovereign debt crisis:
  • The Standard & Poors credit rating agency lowers its long-term credit rating on the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone's bailout fund to help indebted European countries with their finances, from AAA to AA+ following the downgrade of France and Austria, who are two of the fund's backers. (FT)
• The online shoe retailer Zappos reports that up to 24 million customer accounts may have been accessed by hackers, and has warned its customers to change their passwords. (The Guardian)
• Seán Quinn, Ireland's richest person as recently as 2008, is declared bankrupt at the High Court. (RTÉ News)

• Proinsias De Rossa announces his decision to resign as MEP for the Dublin constituency. (RTÉ News)

• The English Wikipedia will be shut down on Wednesday in protest against anti-piracy legislation proposed by the United States Congress. (Wikimedia Foundation)(The Guardian)

• 2012 Afar region tourist attack
  • Unknown assailants kill 2 Hungarians, 2 Germans and an Austrian in northeastern Ethiopia. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • Syria rejects calls for Arab troops to intervene in the country's conflict. (News24)
  • 25 people are killed by Syrian security forces in the latest violence. (Voice of America)
• Officials in Burma order the military to stop offensives in ethnic minority areas. (Bangkok Post)
• 2011–2012 Yemeni uprising: Vice President Abdurabu Hadi says that presidential and parliamentary elections planned for next month will go ahead. (CNN)

• Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang resigns as chief executive officer. (San Jose Mercury News)

• At least 26 people are killed after a truck's brakes fail along a busy street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (BBC)

• India and China agree to establish a working mechanism to deal with border issues. (The Hindu)

• Crackdown on dissidents in the People's Republic of China: Authorities in China charge dissident Zhu Yufu for "subverting state power". (The New York Times)
• Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, predicts the regime will fall if reforms are not made soon. (UPI)
• Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng orders an investigation into a guerrilla-style standoff with farmers who laid land mines and firing improvised shotguns amid a land eviction. (Straits Times)

• Abdollah Jassbi resigns as President of Islamic Azad University after near thirty years in position. (Tabnak)

• Italian cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino admits having made navigational errors that led to the capsizing of the Costa Concordia in Italian waters on January 13, killing at least 11 people. (BBC)

• Severed human hands and feet are found near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California, close to where a man's severed head was recently discovered. Los Angeles police continue their search for more body parts connected with the case. (Huffington Post)
• Federal prosecutors in the United States charge seven people with insider trading in shares of computer firm Dell Inc., alleging that the ring made a criminal profit of nearly $62 million. (Reuters)

• Protests against Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act:
  • Several major websites, including Reddit and the English Wikipedia, undergo blackouts in protest against controversial internet legislation proposed by the United States Congress. The two pieces of legislation in question are designed to combat online piracy, but are feared to inadvertently threaten online innovation and freedom of speech. (New York Times)
  • A number of American lawmakers, including SOPA co-sponsor Marco Rubio, withdraw their support for the SOPA proposal. (BBC) (O'Reilly Radar) (Washington Post)
• The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousuf Raza Gilani, appears before Pakistan's Supreme Court, facing contempt proceedings that could see him barred from holding public office if found guilty. (BBC)

• A new Neptune-sized exoplanet is discovered by an amateur astronomer in Peterborough, England. (BBC)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League observer mission ends, with its report to be reviewed at the weekend. (CBC)

• Kodak files for bankruptcy protection. (Reuters)

• Five people are killed and thousands of others are affected following the first tropical storm to hit Mozambique since 1984. (AFP via Google News)

• The FBI shuts down Megaupload. In response, hacker group Anonymous shuts down the United States Department of Justice website and many websites of the government and entertainment industry. (Washington Post) (CNET)
• News International pays out compensation to 37 people, including the actor Jude Law and politician John Prescott. over phone hacking by the News of the World. (BBC)

• Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye and several others are arrested. (Al Jazeera)
• The army of Bangladesh says it has foiled a military coup. (BBC)
• Rick Perry drops out of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries and endorses rival candidate Newt Gingrich. (CBS News)

• A decision by the International Telecommunication Union on whether to abolish the leap second is postponed until 2015 pending the results of further studies. (TIME)

• Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke dies from complications of injuries she received in a skiing accident nine days earlier. (BBC)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: At least 10 people are killed in violence after Friday prayers. (CNN)
• AMISOM troops raid Islamist hideouts in the Somali capital Mogadishu. (AFP via Google News)
• Several people are killed in a series of bomb explosions in the city of Kano, Nigeria. (Vanguard)
• The United Nations says 120,000 people in South Sudan required aid amid tribal fighting. (Reuters)
• Fighting between Tuareg rebels and government troops in Mali kills 47 people. (IOL)

• An Indonesian man is charged with blasphemy after saying that God does not exist on his Facebook page. (The Jakarta Globe) (BBC)
• Writer Salman Rushdie withdraws from the Jaipur Literature Festival in India due to new concerns about his possible assassination. (BBC)

• Chile's Supreme Court convicts two retired generals of illegal weapons sales to Croatia in 1991 in violation of a United Nations arms embargo. (Newsday)
• China warns Iran against developing nuclear weapons. (UPI)

• Marking five years since the assassination of Hrant Dink, Turks protest.(Wall Street Journal)
• 2011–2012 Yemeni uprising: The Yemeni government modifies a new bill that would have granted legal immunity to aides of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (Ahram Online)
• Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar dies after going on hunger strike. (Straits Times)
• Madagascar's former President Marc Ravalomanana says he will return to the country after three years in exile. (Al Jazeera)
• Romanian protests: Thousands of people demonstrate demanding the resignation of president Traian Băsescu and the Boc II Cabinet. (BBC)
• Around 2,000 women in Malawi stage a protest against attacks on women wearing trousers, who were stripped in the streets by unemployed youths and street vendors. (The Telegraph)
• SOPA and PIPA are postponed indefinitely as a result of the recent protests. (CNN)

• TVOKids Premiere of Finding Stuff Out

• The death toll of a series of co-ordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, rises to more than 140. The attacks, which targeted police stations across the city, are attributed to Islamist group Boko Haram. (The Guardian)

• Costa Concordia disaster: The body of a woman is discovered by search teams aboard the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia, bringing the confirmed death toll of the ship's capsizing to 12. Rescue efforts continue apace, as it is feared the ship may soon slip into deeper waters off the Italian coast. (MSNBC)

• Under new guidelines to come into force from April 30, clinics which charge for pregnancy services, including abortions, will be able to advertise on radio and television in the United Kingdom, after the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice ruled there was no justification for barring such clinics from advertising their services. (BBC)

• A Republican Party primary election takes place in the U.S. state of South Carolina, with Newt Gingrich being declared the winner and Mitt Romney coming second. (BBC)
• Håkan Juholt resigns as the head of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, after less than a year in the post. (Aftonbladet)

• Leading international virologists agree to temporarily halt work on a more virulent strain of the H5N1 influenza virus, due to fears that an airborne strain of the lethal virus could be used by bioterrorists. (New Scientist)

• The Africa Cup of Nations, Africa's primary international football competition, begins in Equatorial Guinea, with Gabon co-hosting. (BBC)
• Former Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno, who is suffering from lung cancer, is reported to be in grave condition. (CBS News)

• Syrian Civil War: Arab League ministers meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss the extension of its monitoring mission in Syria. (BBC)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present):
  • A senior foreign commander is killed in a drone strike south of the Somali capital Mogadishu. (New York Times)
• Egyptian police shoot two African migrants dead as they attempt to cross the border into Israel. (UPI)

• Sri Lanka orders 161 foreign clerics from the Tablighi Jamaat movement to leave the country for breaking the terms of their tourist visas. (Times of India)

• China reports the death of a second person this month to H5N1 bird flu. (AFP)
• At least 16 people drown after a passenger boat sinks off Iran's southern coast. (Al Jazeera)

• Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina recapture Bosnian Serb fugitive Radovan Stanković after he escaped from prison five years ago. (RIA Novosti)

• The party of former Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana suspends its role in the unity government after the plane carrying him home from exile was turned away. (Voice of America)
• A referendum on EU accession takes place in Croatia, with 66% voting to join the EU, and 33% against. (BBC)
• Representative Gabby Giffords of Arizona announces her resignation from office to focus on her recovery after surviving an attempted assassination in 2011. (Washington Post)
• The first round of the Presidential election takes place in Finland. (CNN)
• Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announces that he is to leave for treatment in the United States. (Reuters)

• The New York Giants and New England Patriots advance to Super Bowl XLVI. (New York Daily News)
• Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno dies from complications associated with lung cancer. (ESPN)
• The closing ceremony of the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics is held in Innsbruck, Austria, with Germany receiving the most medals at the Medal table, followed by China and Austria.

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • At least 22 civilians are shot dead across Syria by security forces under the Syrian government. (Washington Post)
• A group of Gaddafi loyalists take control of part of the town of Bani Walid and fly the green flag after a battle with NTC forces left 5 dead and 20 injured. (Reuters)

• Jaipur Literature Festival:
  • Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar flee Jaipur on the advice of officials at the Jaipur Literature Festival after reading excerpts from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India. Rushdie, himself banned from the event, is told that police are searching for the four fugitive writers. (The Times of India)
  • A proposed video link session with Rushdie tomorrow is outlawed by the government. (The Times of India)
• Tens of thousands of pro-life activists brave the weather in Washington, DC to participate in the 39th annual March for Life. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia addresses a conference at Georgetown University on the day before the March. (Catholic World News), (Catholic News Agency), (Catholic News Agency)

• The death toll of the Costa Concordia disaster rises to 15 as divers find two more bodies in the capsized ship. (Al-Jazeera)

• The European Union imposes more sanctions on Iran's banking and oil industries in response to Iran's nuclear program. (CNN)
  • The Iranian Foreign Ministry calls the sanctions "unfair". (BBC)
• Ghana recognizes Kosovo (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo) (Albanian)

• The French Senate passes a bill that makes it illegal for citizens to deny the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire. (BBC)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: 52 civilians are killed by Syrian security forces, 39 of which were killed in the city of Hama alone. (Naharnet)
• 2011–2012 Egyptian revolution: Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, lifts Egypt's state of emergency a day before the anniversary of the revolution. (Al Arabiya)
• In Libya, the town of Bani Walid, a former stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi, revolts against the National Transitional Council government. (Reuters)

• Nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards are announced (The Telegraph) (Academy Awards website).
• Andrew Miller's novel Pure wins the 2011 Costa Book of the Year Award. (The Guardian)

• Apple Inc. announces that the technology generated over $127 billion in revenue during 2011. Apple sold over 37 million iPhones and over 15 million iPads during the fourth quarter of 2011. (CNN)

• Floods in Mozambique cut off the country's main north-south motorway. (IOL)

• Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who indicted the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, is put on trial for supposedly overstepping his powers after he tried to investigate the disappearance of 114,000 people between 1936 and 1975 during the reign of Francisco Franco. (BBC)

• United States President Barack Obama presents his 2012 State of the Union Address to the United States Congress. (CNN)

• New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada retires from baseball after 17 seasons with the Yankees. Many consider him a possibility for the Hall of Fame. (MLB.com)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: 18 protesters are shot dead by Syrian security forces. (Naharnet)
• A Tibetan monk is shot dead in Sichuan, China, in the second violent clash this week as unrest spreads. (Times of Oman) (BBC)
• Protesters in Egypt commemorate the first anniversary of the revolution. (Al Jazeera)
• Riots break out in a prison in central Colombo, Sri Lanka, injuring 31 inmates and guards. (UPI)
• 10 people are injured in a grenade attack in southern Rwanda. (Reuters)
• A United States rescue operation in Somalia frees two foreign hostages and kills nine pirates. (Times of India)
• A truck bomb detonates at an Ethiopian military base in Somalia. (IOL)

• A landslide in central Papua New Guinea leaves four people dead and 60 missing. (AP)

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that Iran is willing to talk about Iran's nuclear program with other leaders. (Al Jazeera)

• The United Nations says a new foreign judge at the Khmer Rouge trial can continue cases without the support of Cambodia. (AFP)
• Israeli police capture Aziz Dweik, Speaker of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Parliament, and place him under detention for 6 months. (The Guardian)(Jerusalem Post)

• Tuareg Rebellion (2011–present): Tuareg rebels capture the fourth Malian town in a week. (Al Jazeera)
• Papua New Guinea constitutional crisis: Soldiers supporting former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare stage a mutiny in Port Moresby. PNG Brigadier General Francis Agwi is said to be under house arrest. (ABC News)
• The United Nations says detainees from Libya's civil war are being tortured. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League calls on the United Nations Security Council to back its plan to end the violence in Syria. (BBC)

• Illumina a U.S. based gene sequencing company, adopts a poison pill strategy to defend its independence against a hostile bid by Roche Holding. (Reuters)

• Three people are killed and 16 missing after three office buildings collapse in Cinelândia square in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (IOL)(Washington Post)(USA Today)(BBC)(Wall Street Journal)

• Security escort Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott from a restaurant in Canberra after indigenous protesters surrounded the building on Australia Day in response to comments made by Abbott. (CNN) (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Chinese security forces shoot dead a young Tibetan man in Sichuan province, at least the third such killing this week. (BBC)
• Arab Spring:
  • 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
    • Activists say the Syrian Army has launched new attacks against Homs and Hama, as the United Nations Security Council prepares to discuss the conflict. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
    • Syrian security forces kill over 100 civilians across Syria, primarily in the cities of Homs and Daraa. (Al Arabiya)
  • 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising:
    • Amnesty International calls for an investigation into the fatal tear gassing of residential areas by Bahraini security forces. (BBC)
• Insurgency in the North Caucasus: 13 people are killed in three separate clashes between the Russian forces and Islamist militants in the Russian republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkariya. (AFP via Google News)

• 170 international writers, including the Nobel laureates J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa and Derek Walcott, take out a full page advert in Mexican newspaper El Universal to defend the freedom of journalists from fear and censorship. (BBC)

• The Economic Commission for Africa says Africa's economy faces "serious" threats because of the Eurozone crisis and the Arab Spring. (BusinessWeek)
• At the World Economic Forum in Davos, British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose economy would be severely affected, denounces the Tobin tax under consideration in the European Union. (City AM)
• Spain's unemployment figure passes five million for the first time in nearly 17 years. (BBC)

• Two sacks of cocaine are accidentally delivered to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (CNN) (The Telegraph)
• Willem Holleeder, a notorious convicted Dutch felon, is released from jail after serving six years of a nine-year sentence for extortion and blackmail. (DutchNews)
• Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to go on trial for genocide. (The Guardian)

• Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), resigns amid protests against the treaty. (BBC)
• Russia's Central Election Commission refuses to register opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky of the Yabloko party, citing invalid signatures. (Russia Today)
• A media advisor to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard resigns after leaked information that led to a confrontation between Australian Aborigines and Gillard yesterday. (Wall Street Journal)

• Twitter alters technology to enable country-specific censorship of messages. (Al Jazeera) (USA Today)

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo's main opposition leader condemns parliamentary elections as rigged and calls for a general strike on Monday in protest at his house arrest. (BBC)
• In the Netherlands, the Council of Ministers vote in favor of a ban on the Burqa, an outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions. (DutchNews)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League suspends its observer mission, citing increased violence. (Al Jazeera)
• Fires rage through Dakar after Senegal's top court rules that President Abdoulaye Wade can run for a third term in office next month and prevents his best-known opponent, Grammy Award-winning musician Youssou N'Dour, from running against him. (BBC)
• 11 Islamist militants are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. (AFP)

• Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu calls on the Church of England not to permit same-sex marriage. (The Guardian) (The Telegraph)

• At least 20 people are killed in a fire at a drug rehabilitation centre in Lima. (BBC)

• The African Union opens its new headquarters in Addis Ababa. (BBC)
• A German government plan is leaked proposing a eurozone "budget commissioner" to take control of Greece's economic affairs. (BBC)

• A police officer and four journalists associated with British tabloid The Sun are arrested in relation to the News International phone hacking scandal, by detectives investigating payments made to police by journalists. The BBC understands the four journalists are ex-deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, ex-managing editor Graham Dudman, crime editor Mike Sullivan and head of news Chris Pharo. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Eight sea lions are found shot dead in the U.S. state of Washington. (KING-TV)(BBC)
• Israeli police enter the Red Cross compound and arrest two more Palestinian MPs associated with Hamas. (CNN)

• A poll finds most voters in Ireland want to see any new European Treaty put to a referendum, though the government remains undecided. (RTÉ News)
• The lawyer of former Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader Tommy Sheridan says authorities are trying to gag him. (The Telegraph) (BBC)
• Approximately 300 people are arrested in the US city of Oakland, California during Occupy Oakland protests. (AP via Yahoo! News)

• Police confront protesters with tear gas and stun grenades in the U.S. city of Oakland, California; more than 100 arrests are made. (BBC)(CNN)
• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • Syrian Army forces launch an offensive in areas of the capital Damascus, as 60 people are killed across the country in the latest violence. (Al Jazeera)
  • The Free Syrian Army orders a tactical withdrawal from the affected suburbs. (Reuters)
• The Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North claims to have captured 29 Chinese workers and 9 members of the Sudan People's Armed Forces following a clash with government forces. (AFP via Google News)
• Gunmen attack a police station in the Nigerian city of Kano, with Boko Haram believed responsible. (Reuters)

• Happy Mondays, at the forefront of the Madchester scene, reform. (BBC)
• Screen Actors Guild Awards
  • The 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards is held in the US city of Los Angeles with Jean Dujardin winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his role in The Artist. (USA Today)
  • Viola Davis wins the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in The Help. (AP via Yahoo News)

• Cyclone Iggy kills 14 people and injures 60 over a four day period in Indonesia. (CNN)
• At least 10 people die in an accident on the Interstate 75 south of the US city of Gainesville, Florida. (Newsday)

• Greece rejects outright German proposals for direct European Union control of the country's financial affairs, expressing opposition to further outside interference. (BBC)
• In Addis Ababa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the first African Union summit since the demise of Muammar Gaddafi, calling for improvement of LGBT rights. (BBC)
• The exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Abdullah II of Jordan meet in Khaled Meshaal's first trip to Jordan since his expulsion in 1999. (CNN)
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors begin a three-day visit to Iran. (BBC) (Times of India)
• Bangladesh and India sign a deal to build a US$1.5 billion power plant. (BBC)

• Former Papua New Guinea Army Colonel Yaura Sasa, who led a recent coup d'état attempt to restore former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare to power, is charged with mutiny. (Reuters)
• At least three people are killed and 100 injured in clashes between Bangladeshi police and members of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party protesting against the government. (Reuters via Yahoo)
• Three members of the Shafia family are convicted of murder in relation to the Shafia family deaths in the Canadian city of Kingston, Ontario. (Toronto Star)

• Large crowds greet Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she begins a campaign for 1 April by-elections. (Bangkok Post)
• Voters in Egypt start voting in an election for the Shura Council (upper house), with Islamist parties seeking to consolidate their position. (AFP via Google News)
• Former President of Italy Oscar Luigi Scalfaro dies at the age of 93. (Reuters via The Star)
• The President of France Nicolas Sarkozy outlines an economic reform package increasing taxes and proposing a new tax on financial transactions. (AFP via France24)

• In tennis, Novak Djokovic of Serbia wins the Men's Singles championship of the 2012 Australian Open defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 7–5. (The Guardian)
• The 2012 Men's European Water Polo Championship concludes with Serbia defeating Montenegro in the final. (SPP)

• Police shoot and kill two people in Podor during protests over a decision by the Constitutional Council that President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade can run for re-election. (BBC)
• Local coordination committees in Syria call for a day of remembrance for lives lost in the ongoing uprising. (CNN)
• Tibetan advocacy groups claim that as many as seven ethnic Tibetans have been killed and 60 wounded in the past week in protests in China's Sichuan province bordering Tibet. (Reuters)
• Soldiers who attempted a mutiny last week in Papua New Guinea hand their weapons over to the Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah in return for a general amnesty. (AAP via SBS)
• Sudanese officials claim that the army has freed 14 of 29 Chinese workers held by rebels in the South Kordofan region since last Saturday. (BBC)
• A US drone airstrike kills 15 members of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in the Yemeni town of Lawdar in the Abyan Governorate. (Xinhua)

• The death toll from a fake medicine crisis at a cardiology hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, reaches 112. (Express Tribune)

• An Indonesian court in Jayapura indicts five Papuan activists for declaring independence in October. (AFP via The West Australian)

• U.S. President Barack Obama answers questions about the State of the Union posed by citizens in the first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House but fails to answer the most popular questions which were related to the controversial topic of marijuana legalization. (Reuters)(Computerworld) (Mashable) (The White House)

• Occupy DC activists are banned from camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza in the US capital Washington DC. (CNN)

• The People's Republic of China claims that 29 Chinese citizens abducted while working on a construction project in the Sudan are still missing. (AP via ABC News America)
• Taliban insurgents attack a Pakistani military post in Jogi with the Pakistani Army suffering seven casualties and another 10 soldiers killed. (AFP via Google News)
• An Afghan woman was killed by her husband and mother-in-law 3 months after giving birth to her third daughter after not producing a son. (New York Times)
• Six aid workers are kidnapped in Yemen's Al Mahwit Governorate. (CNN)

• Former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin loses his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II as a result of the near collapse of the bank in 2008. (BBC)

• A search continues off Turkey's Black Sea coast for eight missing crew members of the Cambodia-flagged freighter the Vera. (AP via The Washington Post)
• Italian divers end their search for victims in the Costa Concordia disaster in the underwater section of the wreck. (BBC)
• The Alaska Volcano Observatory raises its alert warning for the Cleveland Volcano after it starts forming a new lava dome indicating that the mountain could explode. (AP)

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League calls on the United Nations Security Council to back its proposal for the President of Syria Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy and prepare for elections. (Reuters)
• The International Atomic Energy Agency gives its approval to nuclear reactor safety checks made by Japan. (Al Jazeera)

• China tightens control of monasteries and on main roads in Tibet following deadly protests in the region. (Indian Express)
• Voters in the US state of Florida go to the polls for a Republican primary with Mitt Romney projected to win. (Washington Post), (Reuters)
• The Cabinet of Japan approves a bill to put a 40-year cap on the life of nuclear reactors following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (AP)
• The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu comfortably wins a leadership election for the Likud Party defeating Moshe Feiglin. (Jerusalem Post)
• Democratic Party candidate Suzanne Bonamici wins a special election to represent the 1st congressional district of Oregon in the United States House of Representatives. (The Oregonian via OregonLive)