• Raymond Van Barneveld beats Phil Taylor 7-6 in sets to win the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship and collects £100,000.
• The Bulgarian political party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, which had only been founded on 2006-12-03 by Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov, instantly comes second in a public poll on party support, trailing only the Bulgarian Socialist Party. (Angus-Reid)
• The Palestinian factional violence flares up again. (Ynet)
• War in Somalia:
  • The Islamic Courts Union collapses in the Battle of Jilib, and flees from its last major stronghold in Kismayo towards the Kenyan border. (MSNBC)
  • The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia assumes control of Kismayo after the Islamic Courts Union retreats. (MSNBC)
  • Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi calls for a disarmament of the country's militias and businesses, and offers an amnesty to former members of the Islamic militias. (Shabelle)
• Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union. (IHT) (BBC)
• Slovenia adopts the euro, replacing the tolar and becoming the second enlargement to the eurozone. (IHT) (BBC)
• CITIC, a state-owned investment enterprise of the Chinese government, buys Nations Energy Company, a Canadian petroleum extraction company, giving it a majority stake in KazMunayGas, the state-owned oil and gas company in Kazakhstan, for USD $1.91 billion. The deal is highly controversial because of the amount of control China now has over Kazakhstan's natural resources. Kazakh Oil Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov has criticized the deal since it was first considered in October 2006. (The Boston Herald)
• The Armenian government detains citizen Vahan Aroyan for allegedly plotting a coup d'état against Armenian President Robert Kocharyan. The Association of Armenian Volunteers, a political opposition group, denounces Aroyan's detainment, saying the move is an attempt to silence dissidence. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board. (Sky News)
• In Switzerland civil unions for same-sex partners are possible.(Tagesanzeiger)
• Irish becomes the 21st official language of the European Union

• Seven policemen charged in a deadly Danziger Bridge shooting in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina turn themselves in at a New Orleans city jail. (MSNBC)
• A report by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation reveals that twenty-six of their employees witnessed abuse at the Guantánamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. (CNN)
• Earlier reports of the discovery of the wreckage of Adam Air Flight 574 are proved false. (CNA) (Reuters)
• Former US President Gerald Ford's state funeral takes place at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. His casket is later moved to his hometown Grand Rapids, Michigan for burial on Wednesday January 3, 2007. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Sri Lankan Airforce bombs the fishing hamlet of Padahuthurai in what they call a rebel LTTE sea base results in the death of 14 civilians on January 2, 2007.

• Palestinian factional violence: Clashes between Hamas, Fatah result in abductions from both sides. Four Fatah loyalists and a female bystander are killed in gunbattles. (Ynetnews)
• A prison guard is arrested in Baghdad under suspicion of secretly filming the execution of Saddam Hussein using a mobile phone and publishing the video on the Internet. (The Times)
• The North Korean Korean Central News Agency reports that Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun has died, without describing the cause of death. (BBC)
• Fourteen-year-old Michael Perham becomes the youngest person to ever sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean, when he completes a six-week voyage from Gibraltar by docking in Antigua. (The Times)
• Former United States President Gerald Ford is buried in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. (BBC)
• A National Express coach overturns, killing two people, near Heathrow Airport, London on a slip road from the M4 to the M25 motorways. The driver is arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. (BBC)

• Buffalo American terrorist James Charles Kopp has appealed his sentence to federal court. Jury selection is underway. (WKBW)
• Josefa Iloilo is restored as President of Fiji by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, leader of the December 2006 coup d'état. (AP)
• A Russian Soyuz 2 rocket body re-enters the atmosphere as "space junk", breaking up and disintegrating over Denver, Colorado, and is seen throughout the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The rocket was used to launch the French CoRoT astronomy satellite on December 27, 2006. None of the "space junk" fragments are confirmed to have struck Earth. (KMGH) (KDVR)
• Quadrantids meteor shower of 2007: An irregular metallic object, the size of a golf ball and the weight of a can of soup, severely damages a house in Freehold Township, New Jersey. No one is injured. (Fox News)
• Nancy Pelosi is elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and becomes the first woman to hold that post. (CNN)
• The New Way Forward in Iraq War leadership:
  • U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte resigns. United States President George W. Bush appoints him Deputy Secretary of State according to officials. (BBC)
  • Bush replaces key military Leadership in Iraq: Navy Admiral William J. Fallon replaces General John Abizaid as CENTCOM commander and General David Petraeus replaces General George Casey as Commander of Multinational Force Iraq. scotsman.com
• NASA announces Nature article, Cassini-Huygens found methane lakes on Titan, a moon of Saturn. (NASA) (Saturn Daily)
• Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of the United States Congress and the first African American elected to the House from Minnesota is sworn in using Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an. (AP via The Guardian), (Asian Tribune), (Al Jazeera), (CTV)

• A bus bomb near the Sri Lankan town of Nittambuwa kills 5 and injures at least 30. The Sri Lankan government declares the Tamil Tigers responsible, but the rebel group denies involvement. (BBC News) (UPI)
• In the Canadian city of Vancouver, the roof of the world's largest air supported domed stadium, BC Place Stadium, is intentionally deflated due to a tear in a fabric panel. (Vancouver Sun)
• Alexander Litvinenko poisoning: Traces of polonium-210 have been found in a second restaurant in London. The Health Protection Agency had been monitoring the establishment in connection with the Alexander Litvinenko assassination. (BBC News)
• Team Canada wins its third straight gold medal at the IIHF world junior ice hockey championship with a 4-2 win over Russia on Friday in Leksand, Sweden. (CBC News)
• A second victim of the National Express Coach crash, a male, is still not identified. Authorities have appealed to the public in the hopes of identifying the victim. (BBC News)
• Four are injured in a coach crash in the French Alps. (BBC)
• Hitachi breaks the 1 terabyte barrier in hard disk drive capacity. (PC World), (Bloomberg)
• Josefa Iloilo appoints Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the leader of the December 2006 coup d'état, as Prime Minister of Fiji. (BBC)
• United States President George W. Bush will nominate Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to replace Alejandro Daniel Wolff as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If Khalilzad is confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first Muslim to serve in the position, and he will continue to be the highest serving Muslim American official in the U.S. government. (USA Today)
• Australia beats England by ten wickets in the final Ashes cricket test match. The 5-0 series whitewash is only the second in history, the previous being in the 1920-1921 series. It is the final test match for Australian team members Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. (The Australian)
• Leading U.S. Democrats oppose Bush's plan of deploying more troops to Iraq, calling it "a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed." (CNN) (Reuters)

• An overnight storm knocked out power to thousands in the Vancouver and Victoria area. The storm also uprooted trees in Stanley Park, and filled BC Place with water after the roof tore open a day earlier. (MSN News) (CTV.ca)
• The Sunday Times (UK) reports that Israel has drawn up plans to possibly destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons in the event that U.S. intervention does not occur, and non-nuclear strikes are ruled out. Iran has responded saying that "anyone who attacks will regret their actions very quickly." Israel denies such plans were made.(Times)(The Jerusalem Post)(Haaretz)
• A second bus bomb in Sri Lanka, this time near the tourist resort of Hikkaduwa has killed at least 15 and injured dozens more. The Sri Lankan government declared the Tamil Tigers responsible, but the rebel group is denying involvement. (BBC News) (Reuters) (The Asian Tribune)
• At least 40 people have died in a bus crash in Comilla, Bangladesh. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
• Nine bound and gagged bodies are found in grave in Uruapan, Michoacan state, Mexico. Drug gangs are suspected. (BBC News)
• The British Army raises its maximum recruitment age from 26 years to 33, but denies that this is a reaction to a failure to recruit sufficient young people. The normal term of engagement remains 22 years, meaning that some soldiers could still be serving to age 55. (BBC News)
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and billionaire has joined the "budget space race" with a test burn of the Blue Origin passenger rocket, the New Shepard. (The Guardian)

• Newly appointed Archbishop StanisÅ‚aw Wojciech Wielgus, of Warsaw resigns after Friday's allegations that he collaborated with the Polish communist government's secret police. He was due to be officially appointed by Pope Benedict XVI at 10:00 GMT, and announced his decision only one hour before. (Reuters) (BBC News)
• At least 17 prisoners are killed in riots in a maximum security jail in Santa Ana, El Salvador, after convicted members of the Mara 18 gang fight with a security guard, leading to trouble throughout the jail. (BBC News)
• War in Somalia:
  • Somali gunmen open fire at Ethiopian troops stationed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu resulting in at least one death. (Reuters) (AP via ABC News)
  • Fighting breaks out between Somali protesters and Ethiopian troops in the town of Beledweyne after an official is arrested for refusing to hand over a member of the ousted Islamic Courts Union. Three people are reportedly injured. (BBC)
• The executions of two senior accomplices of former leader Saddam Hussein are expected to be carried out within this week according to Iraqi officials. (BBC)
• 2006–2007 Bangladeshi political crisis: A nationwide blockade led by the Awami League to force electoral reform before the 2007 parliamentary election continues for a third day, bringing capital Dhaka to a standstill, with schools shut and vehicles absent from the streets. (BBC)

• The United States Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal of Gilmore v. Gonzales, which was a challenge to travel papers and secret laws. (USAToday) (PapersPlease)
• An unknown odor persists in Manhattan, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey throughout much of the day, resulting in the evacuation of several high-rise buildings and the temporary shutdown of PATH train service under the Hudson River. (CNN)
• Russian oil supplies to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine are cut as the Russia-Belarus energy dispute escalates. (BBC)
• It is reported that Chinese police killed 18 members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement organization and arrested 17 others in a raid in the Pamir Plateau on 5 January. ETIM members shot and killed one officer and wounded another. Police found 22 grenades and enough explosive material to make 1,500 more. (Xinhua) (USA Today) (BBC)
• War in Somalia:
  • A U.S. AC-130 gunship attacks Al Qaeda operatives during the ongoing fighting in the Battle of Ras Kamboni (CNN)
  • Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia's interim President, arrives in the capital, Mogadishu, his first visit since Mujahideen forces of the Islamic Courts Union fled advancing Ethiopian troops and interim government soldiers. (BBC)
• Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov unexpectedly resigns without explanation. Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov, Akhmetov's longtime rival, is expected to replace him. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• SPÖ and ÖVP agree on a coalition government after the October 2006 Austrian elections. Both parties will get an equal share of ministers with the SPÖ's Alfred Gusenbauer set to become Chancellor of Austria, and the ÖVP has had more success in implementing their demands in the coalition agreement. The government will be sworn in on 11 January. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Indonesian naval ships discover large metal objects off the west coast of Sulawesi that could possibly be the wreckage of Adam Air Flight 574 missing a week ago. (BBC) (CNN)
• The Principality of Sealand, a micronation off the English coast, is put up for sale. (The Times)
• Mounir El Motassadeq is sentenced by a court in Hamburg, Germany to 15 years in jail for his role in the planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks. (BBC)
• The discovery of the first example of a "triple quasar" is announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. (BBC)
• Chicago Alderman Arenda Troutman is arrested by the FBI and charged with accepting a bribe from a federal informant as part of an undercover investigation. (Chicago Sun Times)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chooses Patti Smith, R.E.M., Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, the Ronettes, and Van Halen as 2007 inductees. (Reuters) (Billboard) (Detroit Free Press) (CBC)

• YouTube is unblocked in Brazil as a São Paulo state court revises its ruling for Daniela Cicarelli video clips. (Reuters)
• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction:
  • A top U.S. general says that he believes North Korea may conduct another nuclear test in the future. (AP via ABC News)
  • Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls for closer international co-operation against a nuclear North Korea. (BBC News)
• Mohammad Tavakoli, an Iranian legislator, announces the arrest of an alleged spy and suspected member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq. Tavakoli said the man leaked information about Iran's nuclear program. (RFE/RL)
• Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev nominates Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov for Prime Minister. The Parliament will convene on 10 January to vote on the nomination. (UPI)
• The ÖVP, the future minority partner in the grand coalition government that will be sworn in in Austria on 2007-01-11, announces its future ministers. (IHT)
• The European Parliament undergoes mid-term changes in advance of its first 2007 session:
  • Far right parliamentarians increase their influence within the European Parliament by founding a new transnational caucus. (EUObserver)
  • Alsatian farmer Joseph Daul, an MEP from France's UMP party, is elected chairman of the largest caucus in the European Parliament, EPP–ED. He succeeds Hans-Gert Pöttering, widely anticipated to be elected President of the European Parliament next week. (EUX.TV)
• Hindu holy men in India threaten to boycott the Ganges River Festival because of pollution. (AP via ABC News)
• CIA Kidnap case: Hearings begin in Italy on whether to charge 25 CIA agents with kidnapping for the "extraordinary rendition" of Osama Nasr in 2003. The named agents have left the country. (Al Jazeera) (BBC News)
• Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone and changes the company name to Apple Inc. at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco. (Bloomberg) (CNN) (Wired News) (InfoWorld)

• U.S. President George W. Bush announces, in a televised address, his strategy change in response to Iraq Study Group criticisms. This will involve a surge of 21,500 more troops to fight in the War in Iraq. (CNN)
• The Tajik Parliament approves a Memorandum of Understanding between Tajikistan and Iran agreeing to begin a nuclear program with assistance from the Iranian government in building a power plant. Tajikistan is the second nation in Central Asia to pursue a nuclear program, the other being Kazakhstan. (IRNA)
• Kazakhstan political shakeup of 2007: Karim Masimov is confirmed by the Parliament of Kazakhstan as Prime Minister. Massimov appoints his former superior and political rival Daniyal Akhmetov to Defense Minister and Economy Minister Aslan Musin to Deputy Prime Minister. (IHT)
• Sudan adopts a new currency; the Sudanese pound replaces the Sudanese dinar. The change is part of reconciliation measures after the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War. (E Canada Now)
• Mirsad BektaÅ¡ević, a 19-year-old Swedish citizen of Bosnian descent, is convicted of terrorism-related charges by a court in Sarajevo and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. (Reuters) (The Local)
• War in Somalia: Somali official says that a senior al-Qaeda suspect responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa eight years ago is possibly killed in a U.S. airstrike in the Battle of Ras Kamboni. (AP via ABC News) (CNN) (CBS)
• Two Squirrel helicopters collide at RAF Ternhill in Shropshire, UK, killing one and injuring two others. (BBC News)
• Iranian news agency reports a UFO has crashed in the Kerman province. (Fars News Agency)
• India launches four satellites at a time with their PSLV-C7 rocket, including the SRE-1 test article, which will return to Earth in a test for a future Indian manned spaceflight program. (Reuters)
• The European Commission announces proposals for the EU to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60% by 2050 in order to mitigate global warming. (BBC News)
• Following the 2006 general election, Daniel Ortega becomes the new President of Nicaragua, replacing Enrique Bolaños. (CBS)
• The Social Democratic Party of Austria, the future majority partner in the grand coalition government that will be sworn in in Austria on January 11, 2007, announces its future ministers. (Gulf Times)
• Start of the 12th ASEAN Summit and 2nd East Asia Summit in Metro Cebu, Philippines. Meetings involve heads of the 10 member states and 6 dialogue partners with major discussions on relevance, diplomacy, security, economy and free trade and other important global issues. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• A general strike starts in Guinea, with trade unions calling for pay rises, the return to jail of Mamadou Sylla and the resignation of President Lansana Conté. (BBC)

• 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test: The Second Artillery Battalion of the People's Liberation Army of China tests a missile destroying one of its own satellites 535 miles above Earth. New York Times
• Liberal MP Jean Lapierre resigns from the Canadian House of Commons. Justin Trudeau is likely to be the Liberals' candidate in the next election in the Outremont riding. (London Free Press)
• 2006–2007 Bangladeshi political crisis: Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed steps down as interim leader just hours after declaring a state of emergency and a curfew in the country. (BBC)
• Austria's new government is sworn in under Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer (SPÖ) and Vice-Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer (ÖVP). (The International Herald Tribune)
• Kazakhstan political shakeup of 2007: Foreign Minister Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is appointed Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan. If aging President Nursultan Nazarbayev dies, according to the Constitution, Tokayev would become President. Some analysts say this is a sign that Tokayev, and not one of Nazarbayev's politically active daughters, is his desired successor. (News.com.au)
• War in Somalia: A top U.S. official says that he believes the airstrike in Somalia on the previous day failed to kill the al-Qaeda suspects they targeted. (BBC)
• In the ongoing Operation Mountain Fury, NATO forces kill as many as 150 Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province. (BBC)
• The U.S. Defense Department reports that United States Department of Defense contractors, while traveling through Canada, have had Canadian coins with radio transmitters inside planted on them by unknown people. The transmitters could be used to track the locations of the contractors. (The Associated Press)
• Pieces of wreckage and a body are recovered from the missing Adam Air flight 574. (The Daily Telegraph)

• China and Russia veto a United States drafted United Nations Security Council Resolution that would have urged the government of Myanmar to stop human rights abuses and the repression of political opposition. (Reuters AlertNet) (LA Times)
• Terri Irwin, widow of naturalist and TV personality Steve Irwin, reports that all footage of his death from a stingray piercing his heart has been destroyed, and the events surrounding his death will not be shown in his final documentary, Ocean's Deadliest. (Access Hollywood)
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry warns it has intelligence indicating East Turkestan Islamic Movement terrorists will launch an attack against China from Kyrgyzstan. Security personnel along the border between the two countries is increased. (RFE/RL)
• United States armed forces raid the office of the Iranian Consulate General in Arbil, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan. (The New York Times)
• Underground tunnel of the future Pinheiros Subway Station, in São Paulo collapses, opening a huge crater and making a large number of vehicles falling into.
• Fakhruddin Ahmed becomes the new Chief Advisor in Bangladesh amid the current political crisis. (USA Today)
• Terrorists fire an anti-tank missile at the Embassy of the United States in Athens. No one is injured or killed. (BBC) (CNN)
• Somali government and Ethiopian forces capture the town of Ras Kamboni, and pursue fleeing Islamist forces. (AP)
• An Argentinian judge issues an arrest warrant for former president Isabel Martínez de Perón, implicated in the disappearance of a human-rights activist in 1976. Perón has been living in Spain since 1981. (BBC)
• Casino Royale and The Queen lead this year's BAFTA film award nominations. (BBC)
• Raleb Majadele is appointed minister of science and technology, becoming the first Israeli Arab Muslim to serve as a cabinet minister in the government of Israel. (BBC)

• War in Somalia: Martial law is declared in Somalia. (BBC)
• The energy dispute between Russia and Belarus is resolved after about 10 hours of negotiations between Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his Belarusian counterpart, Sergey Sidorsky. (BBC)
• A major earthquake measuring approximately 8.2 magnitude occurs in the north-western Pacific Ocean at 04:23:20 UTC. A tsunami is detected and a warning is issued for Russia, Japan, Marcus Island, Wake Island, Midway Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Marshall Islands, Taiwan, Yap, Pohnpei, and Chuuk. (US Geological Survey) (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) (Japan Meteorological Agency)
• 10 former members of the Nazi SS are sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for their role in the Marzabotto massacre, the worst massacre in Italy during World War II. (BBC)
• 20 people are killed in severe storms in Sangihe, Indonesia. (The Jakarta Post)

• The Red Crystal is recognized as an official symbol of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. (BBC)
• The Union for a Popular Movement nominates Nicolas Sarkozy as its candidate to become the next President of France in the 2007 French presidential election. (The International Herald Tribune)
• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tells United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he opposes the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders. (CNN)
• War in Somalia: An African Union delegation is in Somalia's capital Mogadishu to discuss the deployment of international peacekeeping troops. (AP via ABC News) (BBC)

• The President of the United States George W. Bush declares a state of emergency in Oklahoma following the death of 11 people in a midwinter storm. Twenty-five people have died in the midwestern United States as a result of the storm. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Colombian police arrest Eugenio Montoya, also known as Don Hugo, suspected of being a leader of the Norte del Valle syndicate, which is described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the "most powerful and violent drug-trafficking organization in Colombia". (AP via The Melbourne Age)
• 64th Golden Globe Awards: Babel wins the Golden Globe Award as best film drama of 2006. Dreamgirls wins the Golden Globe as best musical or comedy. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
• The Syrian government may sign an agreement in which it will recognize Israel and end its support for Hezbollah and Hamas in return for Israeli withdrawal from most of the Golan Heights. (Ha'aretz)
• Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim as well as the former chief judge of Iraq Awad Hamed al-Bandar are hanged before dawn. According to the video released by the Iraqi government, the head of Barzan Ibrahim was separated from the rest of his body. Although government officials call the beheading an accident, many Iraqi Sunnis still express umbrage toward the decapitation, accusing the Iraqi government of mutilating the body. (The Australian) (Reuters) (BBC) (CNN)
• Iran's nuclear program: An Iranian official says that Iran is continuing its nuclear program despite being sanctioned by the United Nations. (BBC) (Reuters via ABC News)
• Global spread of bird flu:
  • A new cluster of bird flu infections involving at least two members of a family in Indonesia may indicate a change in the virus's ability to sicken people, researchers studying the disease said. (Bloomberg)
  • Japanese authorities incinerates more than 10,000 chickens that have either died or culled at a southern Japanese poultry farm. (AP via ABC News)
  • The virus is confirmed after 100 ducks died in the northern Phitsanulok province of Thailand. (BBC)
• The trial of six men accused of the 21 July 2005 London bombings begins. (BBC)
• Rafael Correa becomes President of Ecuador, replacing Alfredo Palacio. (The Kansas City Star)

release burning crusade

• Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev nominates Felix Kulov for Prime Minister. If Kulov is confirmed by the Supreme Council, this will be the third time Bakiyev has appointed Kulov Prime Minister. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• Thailand summons the Singaporean ambassador to Bangkok to protest about a visit made by former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed in the 2006 Thai coup d'état, to Singapore. Thaksin was able to meet the Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister, S Jayakumar, but Singapore played down the meeting as "purely social and private". (BBC)
• The world's first genetically modified chickens have been bred by scientists in Edinburgh. The birds supposedly lay eggs that can help fight cancer. (The Times)
• 2004-2006 Waziristan conflict:
  • Pakistani cobra helicopter gunships destroy three suspected terrorist compounds in South Waziristan reportedly killing 8 people and wounding 10. (CBS News)
• Two bombs at Mustansiriya University in Baghdad kill at least 70 people and wound 170 more. (CNN)

• United States President George W. Bush announces that the NSA has ended its practice of warrantless wiretapping for domestic surveillance, and will go to the courts for warrants in the future. (CNN)
• Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, resigns while inquiries into the performance of the Israel Defense Forces in the action against Hezbollah continue. (BBC)
• Ali al-Sadig, spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, accuses U.S. troops of raiding Sudan's defunct embassy in Iraq. The U.S. government denies that any raid took place. (CNN)
• U.S. television network NBC officially pulls out of the soap opera market by canceling Passions, which is aired both domestically and internationally. NBC Universal Television president Jeff Zucker remarks that the network's other daytime drama, Days of our Lives, is "unlikely to continue" when its contract expires in 2009. (USA Today)
• The Philippine Army kills Abu Sulaiman, the leader of Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist organization affiliated with Al Qaeda that operates in the Philippines. (BBC)
• Members of the Senate of the United States agree on a draft resolution opposing the proposed increase in the number of troops in Iraq. (USA Today)
• Four employees for the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. think tank, are killed when their convoy is ambushed in Baghdad. (Dow Jones Online)
• The minute hand on the Doomsday clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is moved to five minutes to midnight. (Bloomberg)
• Walter Forbes, the former chair of Cendant, is sentenced to twelve and a half years in jail and ordered to pay $3.28 billion in restitution for his role in the biggest accounting fraud in the 1990s. (Bloomberg)
• The Indian Government has waded into the alleged bullying and racial abuse of contestant Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother UK, which is said to have sparked more viewer complaints to media regulator Ofcom than any other show in the history of British television. (The Times)

• 110th United States Congress: The United States Senate passes ethics and lobbying reform legislation. (Fox News)
• Alleged racist treatment of Indian actress Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother 2007 draws widespread attention. It has attracted a record 33,000 complaints, death threats and has resulted in cancellation of multi-million pound Big Brother sponsorships and participants' modelling contracts. Prime Minister Tony Blair's likely successor, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown commented on the subject during his India visit and has been mentioned in the House of Commons. (BBC News)
• The United States government reports that the People's Republic of China successfully tested a missile that destroyed an orbiting satellite of the Dong Fang Hong program. (CNN)
• The longest reigning minister-president in 200 years in Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, quits his position as minister-president and chairman of the CSU. Stoiber held the first position from 1993 and the second position from 1999. (BBC News)
• Al Arabiya reports that a fire at Kuwait's Shuaiba Port has stopped oil exports and refining in that country. (Dow Jones via NASDAQ)
• The French newspaper Le Monde reports that Spanish cyclist Óscar Pereiro has produced two positive urine samples for salbutamol during the 2006 Tour de France. Pereiro had finished second in the Tour. The contested winner, Floyd Landis, had tested positive for testosterone during the Tour. (Le Monde)
• Two people are killed in the Jumeirah Lake Towers fire in Dubai. (BBC)
• The European windstorm Kyrill sweeps across Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, killing at least nine in Britain and three in the Netherlands. The container ship MSC Napoli has to be abandoned in the English channel because of the wind. British and French rescue services pick up 26 crew members. (BBC News)
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggests that if the United States better armed the Iraqi armed forces, they would be able to dramatically draw back U.S. troops "in three to six months". (BBC)
• Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority $100 million tax revenues withheld since the Hamas won the election last year. (BBC)
• Speaker of the Liberian Parliament Edwin Snowe is sacked following a vote of no confidence. (BBC)
• Western U.S. Freeze of 2007:
  • 65 deaths have been attributed to blizzards, sleet and freezing rain since Friday (January 12) in nine U.S. states, including 23 in Oklahoma and 10 in Texas. (CNN)
  • Interstate 10 in Texas and Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles, California, remain closed due to snow and ice. (CNN)
  • California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asks for his state to be declared a federal disaster area after agricultural damage is estimated over $1 billion USD. (CNN)
  • Snow is recorded at Los Angeles International Airport for the first time since 1962. (KNBC)

• The Storm Worm Trojan horse infects thousands of computers (mostly private) in Europe and the United States. (BBC News)
• The Government of Kyrgyzstan arrests the leader of the Hizb ut-Tahrir branch in Kyrgyzstan. HuT is a designated terrorist organization and is considered to have ties to Al Qaeda, though it maintains it is a political party. (Interfax-Religion)
• War in Somalia: Somalia's presidential palace is hit by two mortar shells. It's unknown if Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf was inside during the attack. (CNN)
• Cash for Peerages: A close aide to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is arrested in a corruption probe. (BBC News)
• Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish writer, is shot dead in Istanbul. Dink was convicted in 2005 of 'insulting Turkishness' in an article on Armenian-Turkish relations. (BBC)
• Hurricane force winds claim at least 40 lives in Western Europe including 10 lives in Britain and 11 in Germany, and other victims in The Netherlands (6), Poland (6), Czech Republic (3) and France (3). (BBC) (CBS News) (CNN)
• Robert Gates, the United States Secretary of Defense, visits Basra, Iraq to consult with US and allied commanders. (News Limited)
• Twelve of the thirteen suspects in Norway's NOKAS robbery case from 2004, are found guilty and given sentences from 4 - 19 years in prison. (Aftenposten)
• The furore over the treatment towards contestant Shilpa Shetty in Celebrity Big Brother 2007, by contestants including Jade Goody, has resulted in Jade being evicted by popular vote from the show, due to heightened concerns over safety, after the issue reached a lowpoint in UK-Indian relations. (BBC News)

• U.S. election 2008: Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) officially announces her presidential bid with an exploratory committee. (BBC) (Clinton Website) (CNN) (Reuters)
• A man named Ogün Samast is arrested in Samsun by Turkish authorities for killing Armenian-Turkish writer Hrant Dink. (BBC)
• War in Somalia: Somali gunmen attacks government and Ethiopian troops in a crowded market, killing 4 people. (Reuters)
• Iraq War: The U.S. military says one of its helicopters has crashed north-east of Baghdad, killing all 13 passengers. (BBC) (CNN)
• A planned meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is postponed. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says Fidel Castro is 'battling for his life.' (BBC)
• A three-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093 mile trek to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance. (BBC)
• The World Social Forum opens in Nairobi, Kenya. (BBC)

• War in Somalia: Sharif Ahmed, a leader of the defeated Islamic Court Union, surrendered himself to Kenyan police. (Reuters)
• Sudanese rebels claim that a government aircraft has bombed areas in Darfur over the weekend in contravention of the ceasefire. (BBC)
• U.S. election 2008: Bill Richardson, currently the Democratic Governor of New Mexico, announces his candidacy for president. (New York Times)
• The WWF warns that some species of tuna including bluefin tuna are at risk of commercial extinction due to illegal fishing. (Reuters)
• Dozens of containers, some containing toxic chemicals, are washed ashore at Devon, England after MSC Napoli ran aground on the coast last Thursday during Kyrill. (ABC News Australia)
• Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal meet together in Syria to try to end violence between the two factions. However, differences remain and talks will resume possibly next week. (BBC) (AP via ABC News)
• Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, holds talks with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia over energy security issues. (BBC)
• A 7.3 M_w earthquake occurs off of Indonesia, centered in the Molucca Sea. Buildings shake in northeastern Indonesia, panicking residents, but there are no reports of casualties. (USGS) (Reuters) (BBC)
• Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc lifts its boycott of the Iraqi political process and rejoins the government. (AP via Daily Comet)
• Ogün Samast, who was arrested for murdering Hrant Dink, admits that he has killed Dink. (BBC) (CNN)
• Voters in Serbia participate in the first general election since it became an independent state in 2006. (BBC)
• Japanese tokusatsu television series Kamen Rider Kabuto ends.

• Iraq War: At least 100 people are killed in two separate attacks on busy streets in Baghdad and Baquba. (BBC) (CNN)
• Indian spacecraft SRE 1 successfully completes a twelve-day orbital test flight, making India one of the few nations to return a craft from orbit. (BBC)
• A large bushfire rages north of Sydney. (Daily Telegraph)

• A rare eel-like creature identified as frilled shark is discovered in Japan by fisherman. (Weird News) (CNN)
• The United Nations Mission in Nepal is established through United Nations Security Council Resolution 1740 to monitor disarmament of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and preparations for the Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2007. (Nepal Monitor)
• Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine's ambassador to Austria, is fired after he makes an unauthorized offer of a visa to Ukraine for exiled Turkmen opposition leader Hudaýberdi Ozarow. Ozarow and opposition leader Nurmuhammet Hanamow allegedly visited Kiev last week and met with Ukrainian Transportation Minister Mykola Rudkovskiy, but this has been denied by several officials. (RFE/RL)
• Israel's Ministry of Justice says it plans to charge Israeli President Moshe Katsav with rape and abuse of power. (BBC) (Reuters)
• 2007 Guinean uprising: A heavy security presence is reported in the capital, Conakry, and other towns following Monday's clashes in which more than 30 people were killed. (BBC)
• Qiu Xiaohua, former head of China's National Bureau of Statistics, is expelled from the Communist Party of China for corruption charges. (Xinhua)
• One and Unified Revolt: Hezbollah-led protesters spark clashes with government loyalists in Lebanon, resulting in 3 deaths and 133 wounded. Opposition forces later call off the general strike they had held. (BBC) (Reuters) (CNN) (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, reshuffles his Ministry with Joe Hockey and Malcolm Turnbull promoted to Cabinet and Amanda Vanstone losing her position. (ABC News Australia)
• Trade union leaders in Guinea are released and meet with President Lansana Conté as the general strike escalates. (BBC)
• War in Somalia: Ethiopia begins withdrawing troops from Mogadishu. (BBC)
• President of the United States George W. Bush delivers the 2007 State of the Union Address, in which he remains steadfast to his Iraq policies, but also reaches out to political opponents by proposing environmental and social reforms. (CNN) (BBC)

• In a speech at Brandeis University, former United States President Jimmy Carter apologizes for the wording of a sentence in his recently published book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. He referred to the wording as "stupid" and subsequent reprintings will change it. Despite the book's controversy, the audience received him with a standing ovation. (JTA) (JTA)
• Thomas Lepoutre announced his gay pride movement today
• Ecuador's Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva is killed along with three pilots and her daughter in a crash involving two helicopters. Larriva was the first woman to serve as the country's defense minister. (BBC) (Reuters)
• India and Russia agree to jointly develop fifth-generation stealth fighter jets. (ISRO)
• Over 100,000 Turkish citizens, including those of Armenian descent fill the streets of Istanbul to mourn and mark the assassination of Hrant Dink, editor of the dissident newspaper Agos. (Turkish Press) (The Chicago Tribune) (Al-Jazeera) (The Baltimore Sun)
• War in Somalia: The U.S. military conducts another air strike against supposed al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia. (Reuters)
• A Sudanese airliner, Air West Flight 612, carrying 103 people, is hijacked by a lone gunman and diverted to N'Djamena, Chad. The Air West flight lands at the airport in N'Djamena and the hijacker is arrested. (Contra Costa Times) (BBC)
• The flight data recorder (alternatively referred to as the 'black box') of Adam Air Flight 574 has been located off the coast of Sulawesi. (BERNAMA.com)

• A curfew is imposed in Beirut after deadly clashes erupted between pro-government supporters and Hezbollah-led factions. (CNN)
• 276 passengers and 28 crew onboard the Cunard Line's RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 are sickened by the norovirus during its 2007 circumnavigation of the world. (CNN) (The Times)
• Oleg Khinsagov is sentenced to 8.5 years imprisonment for smuggling highly enriched uranium from Russia to Georgia. (The New York Times) (Reuters)
• Thirty-three people are killed when a bus plunges down a ravine near Huautla de Jiménez in the north of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. (The Australian) (El Universal)
• An earthquake measuring 6.2 M_w strikes Taiwan's east coast. There is no report of damage or injuries. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

• War in Somalia: Attackers fire four mortar shells at an Ethiopian military camp close to Mogadishu. (Aljazeera)
• Palestinian factional violence: More than 13 people are killed in clashes between rival factions Hamas and Fatah. (BBC)
• Scientists find connection between tobacco smoking addiction and the insula, a region of the brain's cerebral cortex linked to emotion. (Washington Times)
• UK retail giant Tesco opens its first own-brand supermarket branch in China, in the capital, Beijing. (BBC)
• An argument has erupted between Adam Air and the Indonesian government over who bears the cost of recovering the black box of the crashed plane Adam Air Flight 574. (Monstersandcritics.com)

• War in Somalia: Ethiopia is going to withdraw one third of its troops stationed in Somalia by Sunday January 28, 2007, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says. (Reuters) (BBC)
• North Korea denies reports by British newspapers that it is helping Iran prepare to test an atomic bomb. (CNN) (Daily Telegraph)
• Iraq War troop surge of 2007: Tens of thousands of people protest at Washington D.C.'s National Mall demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. (The New York Times) (BBC) (The Age)
• Serena Williams defeats Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2, at the Australian Open, claiming her 8th Grand Slam victory, her first in two years. (Reuters)

• State-owned Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram publishes an article stating that the Government of Iran ordered the assassination of Ihab al-Sherif, Egypt's ambassador to Iraq, in July 2005 in an effort to limit Egypt's influence in the region. (The New York Times)
• Battle of Najaf (2007): U.S. and Iraqi troops kill about 250 militants in fighting around Najaf, Iraq. (BBC)
• Sa'dah conflict: Six soldiers have been killed and 20 injured in attacks by Shia militants in the north of Yemen, officials say. (BBC)
• YouTube's founder says people who upload their own videos to the site will get a share of the ad revenue. (BBC)
• Roger Federer defeats Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 6-4 6-4 at the Australian Open, claiming his 10th Grand Slam victory. (The Age) (Reuters)
• [Celebrity Big Brother 2007] concluded on this day after all the racist bullying allegations resulting in Shilpa Shetty winning the show
• The Undertaker wins the Royal Rumble match earning a title shot at WrestleMania 23

• With the first launch events in Auckland, New Zealand, at 1101 UTC (12:01am NZDT, January 30), the global launch of Microsoft Windows Vista commences. (Fox News) (New Zealand Herald)
• Japan’s oldest person, Yone Minagawa, 114, has become the world’s oldest living person. (Weird Asia News)
• Azim Isabekov becomes Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, replacing Felix Kulov. (Kyiv Post)
• War in Somalia (ICU insurgency): At least two people have been killed, including a Somali police officer, during an hour-long gunbattle in the capital, Mogadishu. (BBC)
• Three civilians are killed in a suicide bombing in the southern Israeli city of Eilat. (BBC)

• John Perlman, the South African radio broadcaster and whistleblower, resigns after exposing political censorship at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. (iAfrica.com)
• Windows Vista, the latest version of the Microsoft Windows operating system is released worldwide to consumers. Several security flaws are detected within the first few hours of its release. (PC World Australia)
• About 2,000 Greek schoolchildren form a human chain around the Acropolis of Athens to demand that the UK return the Elgin marbles. (BBC)

• Lord Levy, The British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Middle East Envoy, and the Labour Party's chief fundraiser (or 'Lord Cashpoint') is arrested for a second time in the Cash for peerages investigation by John Yates of Scotland Yard. This time Levy is arrested on account of perverting the course of justice.
• French President Jacques Chirac, in an interview with the International Herald Tribune, says that if the Government of Iran produces one or two nuclear weapons it will pose little danger to its neighbors. If Iran were to try to use a nuclear weapon against Israel, "It would not have gone off 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed to the ground." He later retracts his statements, saying he did not realize his comments were on the record. (International Herald Tribune)
• Ross Wilson, the Ambassador of the United States to Turkey, says the Bush administration opposes a bill in the United States Congress that will recognize the Armenian Genocide, which the United States Government does not recognize. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is criticized after it is revealed that he described the Kyoto global warming protocol as a "socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations" in a 2002 letter. (CBC)
• Bolat K. Nurgaliyev, Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Japan, is elected Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Nurgaliyev previously served as Ambassador to the United States and to the Republic of Korea. He stressed the need for the SCO to fight against the Three Evils. (CEN)
• US Airways, the United States' largest low cost hub and spoke airline, announced that it was dropping its $9.8 billion bid for Delta Air Lines. The airline dropped the bid after Delta's creditors threw their support behind the airline's plan to emerge from bankruptcy on its own. (US Airways Press Release) (BBC) (Bloomberg)
• India's TATA Steel buys steel giant Corus Group for £6.7 billion, making it the world's fifth largest steel manufacturer. (Bloomberg) (BBC) (CNN) (Wikinews)
• A terror plot has been foiled in the UK, where nine people have been arrested in Birmingham under suspicion of planning the kidnap and filmed execution of a British Muslim soldier. The alleged plot intended to pressure Prime Minister Tony Blair into withdrawing British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. (The Times)
• Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of Khalid El-Masri. (BBC)
• Archaeologists announce the excavation of the apparent village of the builders of Stonehenge, the largest Neolithic settlement discovered in Britain. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• Boston transit officials and the U.S. Coast Guard shut down parts of Interstate 93, two bridges, and a section of the Charles River after the discovery of suspicious devices placed around the city. Turner Broadcasting released a statement that the items were marketing tools placed within ten U.S. cities for the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force. One arrest was made Wednesday. (The New York Times)