• At least one person is killed and more than 40 left wounded after hundreds of Christian protesters clash with riot police in Cairo, Egypt. (Pravda)

• Del Monte Foods is purchased in a US$5 billion leveraged buyout led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. (Financial Times)

• Seven are killed and three injured in the rough landing of a Mi-8 helicopter in the Omsk region of Siberia, Russia. (ITAR-TASS) (KazInform)

• Korean peninsula:
  • North Korea warns that it will launch further attacks on South Korea if it continues "reckless military provocation". (CNN)
  • South Korea increases its military strength on the islands near the border since the shelling of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday. (Reuters)
  • The South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-Young resigns over the handling of the incident. (Yonhap)
• The heads of government of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meet in Dushanbe for their annual summit. (Xinhua)
• A court in Nigeria charges an Iranian man over an illegal weapons shipment discovered in Lagos. (BBC) (AFP)
• Israel demolishes several buildings in the West Bank, including one Palestinians say was a mosque; Israeli officials said the structures were temporary and built without Israeli issued permits in a military fire zone. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)

• Brazilian police begin an operation in a shanty town in Rio de Janeiro to end a surge of violence; at least 30 people have been killed in recent days. (BBC) (RTHK)
• The European Commission passes a ban on the use of bisphenol A in baby bottles. (BBC)

• 156 people are detained in Egypt following clashes between police and Copts after authorities blocked construction of a church. (Reuters)
• Tongans go to the polls in the first general election in the nation's history in which the majority of parliament will be popularly elected. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• The United States Government sets aside an area in Alaska twice the size of the United Kingdom as a "critical habitat" for polar bears. (BBC)
• The United Kingdom experiences its earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years, with large parts of Scotland and north east England particularly affected. (BBC)
• A new species of ancient crocodile, Khoratosuchus jintasakuli, is identified from a fossil in Thailand. (NPR) (Geol. Soc., Lond., Spec. Pub.)
• A World Health Organization study estimates that 600,000 deaths a year are attributable to second hand smoking. (Reuters)

• The 2010–11 Ashes series begins at The Gabba in Brisbane, with Australian bowler Peter Siddle taking a hat-trick on his birthday. (BBC Sport)