• Sri Lanka lifts a ban on a United Nations war crimes panel visiting the country. (The Hindu) (Reuters)
• Two rebel groups in Somalia–al-Shabaab and the Islamic Party–announce plans to merge to try to topple the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government. (Al Jazeera)

• Stars appeared at the red carpet closing ceremony of the 7th Dubai International Film Festival. (Xinhua)

• Hundreds of small investors engage in protest activities in Dhaka following the steepest daily fall in the stock exchange. (BBC) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
• 60 Minutes, an influential news program, runs a segment with Meredith Whitney a bank analyst credited with a timely bearish call in 2008, in which she predicts hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defaults by U.S. municipalities. (CNBC)

• At least 28 people are killed and dozens more are injured following an explosion on a PEMEX oil pipeline in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, Mexico. (BBC)
• 15 people, including 9 nursing students, are killed while 12 others are injured in an blaze that gobbles up two buildings in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan province in northern Philippines. (Xinhua) (Philippine Inquirer) (BBC)
• 8 people are seriously injured when a tour bus carrying a church group lost control, slides off a road and rolls onto its side on an icy highway in the U.S. state of Colorado. (CNN)
• 3 people are killed as blizzards and freezing temperatures hit Italy. (Herald Sun)
• Flights in and out of Heathrow Airport are at a virtual standstill as severe weather conditions continue across the United Kingdom. (BBC)

• The Guatemalan military declares a state of siege in the department of Alta Verapaz to reclaim control of cities controlled by the Los Zetas Mexican drug gang. (AP via The Washington Post)
• Approximately 107 people are charged with possessing offensive child pornography in Austria. (BBC)
• Lawyers for Wikileaks’s founder Julian Assange express anger that incriminating police files regarding Assange’s alleged sexual assault of two Swedish women were published in The Guardian newspaper, which has used him as its source for hundreds of leaked US embassy cables. (The Australian)

• Venezuela once again expresses its disapproval of Larry Palmer, the man who may become the next US ambassador to the country, and says it will arrest and deport him upon arrival due to a months long disagreement following Palmer's comments on the Venezuelan military. (BBC)
• Côte d'Ivoire:
  • The United Nations rejects a demand by incumbent Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo to remove its peacekeepers from the country. (France 24) (Al Jazeera)
  • Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states there is evidence of "massive" violations of human rights with more than 50 people killed in recent days as protests over the Ivorian election continue. (Reuters Alert Net)
  • Hundreds of people are alleged to have been abducted since the election according to the UN. (BBC)
• A United Nations Security Council meeting regarding the situation in the Korean Peninsula ends without agreement. (Reuters)
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addresses a special joint session of Parliament in Islamabad, praising Pakistan for its efforts in combating terrorism. (The New York Times)

• Belarusian presidential election, 2010:
  • Belarus votes.
  • Thousands of opposition protesters encounter riot police at government headquarters in Minsk, while opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyaev is seriously injured. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Three presidential candidates Nikolai Statkevich, Grigoriy Kostusev, Andrei Sannikov and his wife Halib are taken into police custody with thousands of other protesters. (Monsters and Critics), (AFP via Google News)

• Sachin Tendulkar of the Indian cricket team becomes the first player in the history of Test cricket to score 50 centuries in test matches, during a match against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion in Gauteng Province. (IOL)
• Disappointed fans of unsuccessful 2010 FIFA Club World Cup finalists TP Mazembe express their frustration with Chinese businesses, though no one is injured. (BBC News)
• Sir Alex Ferguson becomes the longest serving manager of Manchester United F.C. (BBC Sport)
• Tony McCoy wins 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, with Phil Taylor 2nd and Jessica Ennis 3rd at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. (BBC)
• The Philadelphia Eagles overcome a 4th quarter 21-point deficit to defeat the New York Giants 38-31 after a DeSean Jackson walk-off punt return for a touchdown in the Miracle at the New Meadowlands. (ESPN)