January2010 was the first month of that common year. The month, which began on a Friday, ended on a Sunday after 31 days. It was the first month of the 2010s decade.
An Antarctic expedition finds remains of the first aeroplane brought to the continent, a single-propeller Vickers plane of explorer Douglas Mawson. (Reuters)
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake leaves 20,000 homeless and causes US$1.5 million in damage in eastern Tajikistan. (CNN)(UPI)(RIA Novosti)
The death toll as a result of recent mudslides which have hit Brazil rises to more than 85, including at least 29 in a hotel collapse, and two nuclear power stations are intended to be shut down as a precaution. (ABC News)(BBC)
52 unmarried couples in Malaysia face charges of sexual misconduct and possible imprisonment after being caught alone in hotel rooms by the country's Islamic morality police. (BBC)(Las Vegas Sun)[permanent dead link]
Warren Buffett who through Berkshire Hathaway controls a significant block of the shares of Kraft came out in opposition to Kraft's proposal to float 370 million shares in order to fund its bid for the UK based confectioner Cadbury. (Washington Post)
Iran bans its citizens from contact with 60 international organisations and media outlets over claims they conspired against the country. (Press TV)(Global Times)(The Times)
Extreme weather across Europe leads to dozens of deaths, including at least 122 in Poland and at least 7 as a result of an avalanche in Switzerland. (BBC)
Algerian US ambassador Abdellah Baali and Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili are upset at the decision of the United States to subject Algerians and Nigerians to tougher-than-usual security tests at airports, saying it is "discrimination" and "risks ties". Both have officially complained. (BBC)
The U.S. government lowers the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list, or have their visa revoked. (CNN)
50-year-old Chinese journalist Li Junqi is imprisoned for 16 years after accepting bribes for his part in a mass three-month cover-up of a coal mine disaster in Hebei in which 35 people, including a rescue worker, were killed prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. (China Daily)(Press Trust of India)
Extreme weather in Europe kills nine people in Germany, traps a Eurostar train in the Channel Tunnel, disrupts flights at international airports in Amsterdam, Dublin, Knock and Paris, shuts hundreds of schools in Ireland and disrupts Norway's bus service in Oslo. (BBC)
Environment
The governments of Australia and New Zealand announce an investigation into an incident where a boat belonging to the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was damaged in a confrontation with a Japanese ship in the Southern Ocean. (Reuters)
International relations
A weekend killing in Australia has prompted the Indian government to issue an advisory for its college students studying in that country. (CNN)(Indian Express)
An ABB employee commits suicide after shooting eight people, three fatally, at the ABB Power building in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. (CNN)
A Burmese court sentences two officials to death and one to imprisonment for leaking details of secret government visits to North Korea and Russia. (BBC)
Riots break out amongst immigrants and local inhabitants in the town of Rosarno in southern Italy in a protest against an attack on African workers by white youths. (TVNZ)(AFP)
More than 160 people are trapped in vehicles overnight in Germany, dozens of flights are cancelled, Berlin and Leipzig are buried under 30cm of snow, parts of Schleswig-Holstein remain unreachable. The electricity of 80,000 people is cut off by snow in Poland. Eurostar services are affected in Belgium, Britain and France. (BBC)
Britain is set to ban a Muslim group, Al-Muhajiroun, also known as Islam4UK, that recently caused outrage by proposing a demonstration in the town that receives the bodies of British war dead killed abroad, the Home Office says. (CNN)
U.S. talk show host Conan O'Brien announces his intention to quit The Tonight Show if NBC goes forward with their plan to move the show from its long standing 11:35pm timeslot to 12:05am in favor of The Jay Leno Show. (AP)
Five Thai policemen are charged with murder over the disappearance of a Saudi businessman 20 years ago that was linked to the theft of Saudi royal jewellery. (Bangkok Post)(AFP)(BBC)
Police in Kent, UK, admit the unlawful searching of two 11-year-old children who were left "crying and shaking" after being targeted at a demonstration near Hoo. (BBC)(The Guardian)
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua gives his first interview since going into hospital in Saudi Arabia to the BBC, saying he hopes to return home soon as protests in the capital Abuja demand an end to the political situation. (BBC)(Vanguard)
Science and technology
The "bizarre behaviour" of a nocturnal raspy cricketpollinating a flower is caught on camera on the island of Réunion, contradicting the image of crickets destroying flowers. (BBC)(New Scientist)
A man is held in custody in Ireland after threatening that there was a bomb on board a transatlantic flight which had to land in an emergency at Shannon Airport. (RTÉ)
Iran suspends pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia after it called on the Saudi religious police to stop their "appalling behaviour" towards Iranian Shiite pilgrims. (Times of India)(Ennahar)
Two dozen AfghanTaliban insurgents launch coordinated attacks against the presidential palace and other buildings in central Kabul on the day a new government is to be sworn in. (Washington Post)
In a hotel room in Dubai on the night in question, Al-Mabhouh—a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas—was assassinated by a total of 33 perpetrators, most of whom had checked into the hotel using fraudulent names/IDs and left the country before the discovery of Al-Mabhouh's body. (GQ)
The United StatesSupreme Court refuses to hear an appeal from the QSI Holdings decision on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, limiting bankruptcy trustee avoidance actions against certain owners of (equity). The denial of certiorari lets that opinion stand. (Law360)
The internet forum boards.ie is attacked by hackers, forcing it to go offline and change the passwords of thousands of its users. (RTÉ)(BBC)(The Irish Times)
The United States will reportedly "reconsider" Algeria's placement on its terror watch list, which requires Algerian citizens to undergo extra security screening. (Xinhua)
French medics report that American medics' risky "guillotine-amputations" were made too fast, patients now risking necrosis, septicemia, and requesting later a 2nd amputation to better protect the patients. (LeMonde)
The death toll from yesterday's apartment collapse in Liège reaches nine as the search for bodies is temporarily suspended due to the danger caused by other falling buildings. (Reuters India)(RTÉ)(TVNZ)
Authorities in China arrest two people after an incident on board a flight from Xinjiang bound for Wuhan in which a passenger set fire to some toilet paper which forced the plane to turn around. (Reuters)
