U.S. fast-food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A warns that a security breach may have leaked credit card details of 9,000 customers in five states. (Daily Mail)
A Libyan warplane bombs a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored offshore the city of Derna, killing two sailors, one Greek and one Romanian. The Greek government condemned what it called an "unprovoked and cowardly" attack and demanded an investigation and punishment for those responsible. (Reuters)
News emerges that two days prior hundreds of Boko Haram militants had overrun several towns in northeast Nigeria and captured the military base in Baga. (Wall Street Journal)
Two militants, one wearing a suicide vest, kill two Saudi Arabian border guards and a general near the border with Iraq. (Businessweek)
For the second day in a row a multi-story residential building in Nairobi, Kenya, collapses, this time an 8-story building, killing one person with eight people still missing. (AP via ABC)
The Combined Joint Task Force combating ISIL conducts ten airstrikes in Syria, eight of them targeting the contested city of Kobani, with the airstrikes destroying fourteen ISIL fighting positions and a building. (Reuters)
Various California state district attorneys fine Safeway a total of $10 million for the illegal dumping of electronics and pharmaceuticals into landfills. (KPIX)
Gunmen attack the Paris office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve people and injuring ten. Some witnesses report that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to al-Qaeda in Yemen. A 2011 issue had depicted a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammed. (BBC)
One of the suspects in the killings, Hamyd Mourad, voluntarily surrenders to police in Charleville-Mézières while the other two suspects are still at large. (The New York Times)(CNN)
On the night of January 7 and morning of January 8, assailants throw grenades and fire guns at three mosques throughout France. (ForeignPolicy.com)
Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria. Bodies lay strewn on Baga's streets with as many as 2,000 people having been killed. Boko Haram now controls 70% of Borno State, which is the worst-affected by the insurgency. (BBC)
The two suspect brothers take a hostage at a sign printing company, Création Tendance Découverte, in the French town of Dammartin-en-Goële. (AAP via SBS)
The standoff ends with the two brothers dead and the hostage released. (CNBC)(BBC)(CNN)
The concurrent standoff ends with Coulibaly dead as well as four hostages. Four additional hostages and two police officers require hospitalization. Boumeddiene remains at large. (MSNBC)
Refugees flee Nigeria's Borno State following the Boko Haram massacre in the town of Baga. 7,300 flee to neighbouring Chad while over 1,000 are trapped on the island of Kangala in Lake Chad. Nigeria's army vows to recapture the town, while Niger and Chad withdraw their forces from a transnational force tasked with combating militants. (UNHCR)(NPR via BBC)
A 193-vehicle pileup along a snowy Interstate 94 highway in Kalamazoo County, Michigan leaves one motorist dead and 20 injured. A fire among the vehicles which includes a chemical tanker and a truck loaded with fireworks further compounds the disaster. The debris and fire closes the expressway for over 14 hours. Exploding fireworks hit rescue workers injuring an additional three. (ABC News)(CNN)
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, blogger Raif Badawi receives 50 lashes for "insulting Islam". This first punishment is part of a sentence of ten years' imprisonment and 1,000 lashes. He will receive 50 lashes a week for 19 more weeks. (Gulf News)(Guardian)
A shooting spree in Moscow, Idaho, U.S., leaves three dead and one injured. After a high-speed chase on Highway 195 ten miles away in the neighboring state of Washington, Pullman police arrest the suspect, John Lee. (AP)
A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involves beer that was deliberately contaminated with crocodile bile leaving at least 56 dead and 146 hospitalized. (FOX8LIVE)
The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District temporarily closes the Golden Gate Bridge until Monday to install a $30 million moveable barrier between opposite traffic flows. (SF Gate)
More female suicide bombers, this time two, and again each believed to be around 10 years old, kill themselves and three others at a market in the northeastern city of Potiskum, Nigeria. (Reuters via News24)
Divers recover the cockpit voice recorder from the crashed jet. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee states that by using the now collected recorders a preliminary report on the accident will be produced within a month and a final report after a year. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)
Egypt's highest court overturns and initiates a retrial on the only remaining conviction against former PresidentHosni Mubarak (a May 2014 sentencing of three years in prison for embezzlement). (Reuters)
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 9–0 in favor of homeowners that the Truth in Lending Act clearly states that a simple notice by the homeowner to the bank within three years seeking to rescind their mortgage suffices over an actual court-filed lawsuit. (Reuters)
On the second day of his papal visit to Sri Lanka, Pope Francis canonizes Saint Joseph Vaz at a beachfront park at the Indian Ocean, and later visits the northern portion of the island for a prayer service at the Sri Lankan Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, which was a prominent area landmark damaged in the Sri Lankan Civil War. (Catholic News Service)[permanent dead link]
The U.S. Secret Service removes four of its highest-ranking leaders while a fifth one retires. The continuing restructuring and fallout stem from a string of public security lapses beginning with the misconduct at the 6th Summit of the Americas. The most recent stage of the restructuring began in October 2014 with the resignation of then-Director Julia Pierson. (The Washington Post via MSN)
The Swiss franc to euro exchange rate jumps by 30% immediately following a Swiss National Bank announcement. The bank will abandon its three-year-old cap on the swiss franc's value against the euro as well as lower the interest rate on sight deposits (instant access accounts) to -0.75% (the negative number meaning that the depositor has to pay the bank 0.75% per year to hold the depositor's money). (BBC)(Bloomberg)
Clashes in Gyumri, Armenia between police and protesters demanding the handover of a Russian soldier accused of killing six members of a local family leaves at least twelve people wounded. (BBC)
A hostage crisis at a post office in Colombes, Paris, ends with the attacker releasing the hostages and surrendering himself to the police. (Daily Mail)(CNN)
Chinese officials impose an emergency ban on tourists approaching pandas subsequent to the death of two pandas from a canine distemper virus. (USA Today)
Pittsburgh police arrest Ryan Williams for the October 18, 2014 McKeesport, Pennsylvania arson attack and charge him with arson, burglary, and six counts of criminal homicide. The victims include four children ages 2 through 7. (AP)(WTAE)
Gunmen abduct the chief of staff to Yemen's president in the center of the capital, Sana'a. It is uncertain if Shiite Houthi rebels or al-Qaeda militants kidnapped Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. (AP)
Following the January 16 Chad authorities decision to send troops to Nigeria and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram militants, the Russian ambassador to the country pledges to supply Cameroon with more modern weapons to combat the Islamist insurgents. (AFP via The Economic Times)
The rescue and recovery efforts at the wreckage of the January 15 capsized tugboat on China's Yangtze River near the city of Jingjiang finds that twenty-one people are dead while three are rescued. (Straits Times)
An entourage plane accompanying the Pope and carrying government officials experiences high winds and blows off the runway minutes after the pontiff's aircraft takes off safely in the Philippines. (The Independent)
Pemberton Township, New Jersey police arrest a woman and charge her with the murder of her newborn baby girl which she set on fire. Officers extinguish the fire, but the child later dies. (AP via MSN)
Chinese police shoot dead two ethnic Uighurs in Pingxiang, Guangxi while they attempt to cross into Vietnam after members of their group resisted arrest with knives. The public security ministry accuses a separatist group of orchestrating hundreds of cases of human smuggling. (The New York Times)
Lennar Urban cancels their demolition plans to implode Candlestick Park due to concerns over public health issues from the concrete dust and pollution. (KTVU)
Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants in the town of Kobanî, Syria on the Syria-Turkey border capture the strategic Mishtenur hill killing eleven fighters. (BBC)
London's Southwark Crown Court hears evidence in the first trial on female genital mutilation in the United Kingdom, where this practice is illegal. (BBC)(Sky News)
A six-month-old boy dies in hospital of his wounds, becoming the seventh member of an Armenian family dead after a killing spree by a Russian soldier. (Fox News)
Houthi rebels take over the residence of the President amidst calls by the rebel leader for negotiations to adjust the country's power structure. (The Washington Post)
A fire in a bowling alley causes a roof collapse in Taoyuan City, Taiwan killing six firefighters. (AP)
An overpass of I-75 in Cincinnati, Ohio collapses while undergoing demolition, killing one worker and injuring a trucker whose vehicle was struck by debris. (Cincinnati.com)
A Palestinian man from the West Bank, Hamza Muhammad Hassan Matrouk, illegally crosses into Israel for the express purpose to stab people attacking over a dozen Israelis on a bus in central Tel Aviv. Security forces capture the assailant as he continued to indiscriminately stab people in the street. (The New York Times)
The government-installed pollution gauges that were set up along roadside stations to monitor Hong Kong reach the maximum level of their ranges. (Bloomberg)
Italian police seize 5,361 ancient artifacts worth $64 million from a Swiss-Italian trafficking ring. The discoveries come after various raids on warehouses against Italian art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, who owns an art gallery in Switzerland. (AFP via ABC.Net.AU)
An explosion near a civilian trolleybus in the city of Donetsk kills at least thirteen people. Separatists and pro-government forces blame each other for the incident. (BBC)
Edgewater Police Chief William Skidmore says that workers doing plumbing work accidentally started the January 21 fire in The Avalon at Edgewater apartments in Edgewater, New Jersey that caused the destruction of 240 units and displaced 1,000 residents. (AP)
Thailand's military-appointed legislature votes to impeach former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for her role in overseeing a government rice subsidy program that lost billions of dollars. (AP)
The Islamic State kills eight Lebanese soldiers in the northeastern Lebanese village of Ras Baalbek. (AP)
Japan states that it is seeking to verify a video that claims the killing of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants. (BBC)
Business and economy
Subsequent to the January 15 announcement that Target Canada would close all 133 stores, they announce the layoff of 17,000 employees. (CBC)
Health
The measles outbreak at Disneyland (Anaheim), which originated on December 28, 2014 (patient zero being an unvaccinated California woman who apparently transmitted the virus through airports and the theme park), but was unreported until January 7, spreads from California to six other states, including Nebraska, and Mexico. It now involves at least eighty-five cases. (AJC)(CBS)
A massive blackout strikes Pakistan, leaving as much as 80 percent of the country without electricity at its height as officials rush to restore power. (AP)
Five gunmen at the LibyanCorinthia Hotel in Tripoli attack with at least ten dead. The hotel was previously the location in 2013 where a former prime minister was abducted. (AP)
A coronial inquest into the siege at the Lindt Cafe in the center of Sydney begins. The inquest hears that one hostage was killed by gunman Man Haron Monis while another was killed by fragments of a bullet or bullets fired by New South Wales Police Force officers. (The Australian)(BBC)
ShiiteHouthi rebels seize a Yemeni military base south of the capital, Sana'a, where U.S. military advisers once trained Yemeni counterterrorism forces to fight Al-Qaeda in the south of the country. Forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh had manned the captured base. (Wall Street Journal)
A Nieto Express propane gas tanker truck explodes near the loading dock of a maternity and children's hospital (Hospital Materno Infantil Cuajimalpa) in Mexico City, collapsing much of the hospital with at least three deaths and 70 people injured, 22 of whom are children. (AP)(AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)(New York Daily News)
Without recovering any physical evidence, including the data recorders, Malaysia officially declares the loss of Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean an accident meaning that victims families can seek compensation. (USA Today)
The new Greek government, represented by finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, meets with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, and declares that Greece now rejects any further cooperation with its main international lenders known as the troika (the Eurogroup, the IMF, and the ECB); instead, it wants to negotiate directly with other European countries. (Deutsche Welle)
Health
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that this season's influenza hospitalizations of 65-year-old and older Americans hit a record high since the 2005-2006 season. (AP)
Two balloonists, Troy Bradley of the United States and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia, are crossing the Pacific Ocean in the Two Eaglesgas balloon and have surpassed the distance and duration records for straight gas balloons. They are set to land in Mexico on Saturday. (BBC)
France orders an official investigation into the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 which had a French copilot flying the aircraft at the time of its crash. (AFP via France 24)
