• Greece suspends air mail deliveries after a series of parcel bombs are sent to foreign embassies and leaders. (CNN) (BBC) (People's Daily)
• At least 17 co-ordinated explosions across a widespread area of Baghdad kill 113 people and wound more than 271. (Xinhua) (Shanghai Daily) (Los Angeles Times)
• The South Korean Navy fires warning shots at a North Korean fishing boat at the Northern Limit Line maritime border. (Reuters) (Korea Times)

• A Singapore court convicts British author Alan Shadrake of insulting the judicial system in his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock. (BBC)

• At least 25,000 students take to the streets of Dublin to protest against rising emigration, unemployment and an increase in university fees, in the largest such demonstration for a generation. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (BBC) (Irish Examiner) (University Observer)
• The Government of Canada announces that it will block a $38.6bn hostile takeover bid by BHP Billiton for Potash Corporation. (BBC)
• The United States Federal Reserve announces its plan for further quantitative easing in a bid to ward off deflation. (CNN)
• The central bank of Iceland, i.e. the Sedlabanki, cuts its key interest rate to 5.50 percent, a somewhat deeper cut than had been expected. This is part of an ongoing policy of expanding the money supply in response to the crisis of 2008. (Reuters)

• Two people die and 50 are injured after a 5.4 magnitude earthquake hits Central Serbia. (B92) (Forbes)

• A French court orders the extradition of Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to stand trial at the International Criminal Court. (RFI) (The East African)
• The United Nations schedules a new round of talks on the Western Sahara. (BBC)
• NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is to visit Russia to discuss the European missile defence project with President Medvedev. (Xinhua)

• David Tamihere is granted parole after serving 20 years imprisonment for the 1989 murders of two Swedish backpackers in New Zealand. (NZ Herald)
• Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is to be hanged for murder today in Iran, according to the International Committee against Stoning. (The Irish Times)
• San Francisco passes a law banning McDonald's from giving free children's toys with unhealthy food. (Reuters)
• The United States Border Patrol finds a sophisticated tunnel between Tijuana in Mexico and Otay Mesa, California, used by drug smugglers. (Reuters)

• Constitutional referendum results in Niger show that 90% of voters approve a return to civilian rule from the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy military junta. (BBC)
• Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dissolves her cabinet. (Reuters)
• A package addressed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi bursts into flames at Bologna Airport during a police inspection. (Xinhua)
• Former Russian Premier and founder of Gazprom Viktor Chernomyrdin dies at 72. (RT) (The Guardian) (Wall Street Journal) (BBC) (AFP) (The New York Times)
• Ireland's High Court rules as unconstitutional the government's delay in holding one of the four by-elections due in the country; the government then announces the by-election in the Donegal South–West constituency will take place by the end of the month. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (RTÉ)