Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro currency, becoming the 14th and 15th countries to do so. Cypriot pound and Maltese lira notes and coins will remain valid in shops until the end of the month, and exchangeable at the respective central banks for some years. (BBC News)
Both sides in Kenya's disputed election accuse the other of violence as diplomatic efforts intensify to defuse the country's political crisis. (BBC News)
There were reports of several more deaths overnight, with two police officers killed in Kericho by youths armed with bows and arrows. (BBC News)
Greece is hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5. The epicenter is 70 km (43 miles) below Leonidio. There were no reports of casualties or serious damage. (RTÉ)
China will ban stores from handing out plastic bags as of June 2008. (BBC)
After conducting further research, NASA astronomers have determined that asteroid 2007 WD5 now has a 0.01% chance of strikingMars on January 30, 2008, effectively ruling out an impact. (NASA)
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charges Lucky Igbinedion, the former governor of Edo State, with 142 counts of money laundering. He is the eighth governor charged with corruption-related charges. (BBC News)
War in Waziristan: At least seven Pakistanisoldiers die in a clash with pro-Taliban militants in a tribal area near the Afghan border. Twenty-three tribal militants also die in the fighting in Mohmand agency. (BBC News)
Civil unrest in Kenya (2007–2008): Kenya's police fire into the air to disperse opposition supporters in cities across the country on the second day of protests against disputed polls. (BBC News)
Asian Markets: The IndianSensex is down 1,408.35 points, or 7.4%, to 17,605.35, tumbling a record 11% down at one point in the day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ends the day down 5.5% at 23,818.86. Japan's Nikkei falls 3.9% to 13,436.94. (MarketWatch)
January 2008 stock market downturn: After further losses in international markets, the United StatesFederal Reserve System cuts its primary interest rate by 75 basis points to 3.5%, the largest move in the interest rate since 1982. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovers after initial losses of almost 500 points to close at 11,971.19, down only 1.06%. (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
A medical student at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm is expelled when it turns out that he was paroled from a maximum-security prison after being convicted of murder in 2000. (The New York Times)
Police in Zimbabwe arrest Nicholas van Hoogstraten for allegedly violating the Exchange Control Regulations Act by asking his tenants to pay in foreign currency. He is also accused of violating the Censorship Act for possessing pornography. Police seize Z$20 billion ($0.6m). (BBC News)
2007–2008 Kenyan crisis: At least nine people are killed in western Kenya, reports say, in violence apparently linked to last month's disputed elections. (BBC News)
Near-Earth asteroid2007 TU24 passes Earth at a distance of 334,000 miles (537,500 km), and observations reduce the estimate of its size from 2,000 feet (610 m) diameter to 800 feet (250 m). (News Limited)
Government probe finds that Israel "failed ... to provide an effective military response to the challenge posed to it by the war in Lebanon." (BBC News)
Internet services are disrupted in the Middle East after an undersea cable in the Mediterranean Sea is damaged. (BBC News)
All government ministers in French Polynesia resign en masse in solidarity with one of their colleagues, who was fined for corruption. (Radio New Zealand)
