• 2011 Syrian uprising:
  • The Washington-based organisation Human Rights Watch accuses Syria of hiding hundreds of political detainees during a visit by Arab League monitors. (Angola Press)
  • Syrian state television reports the release of 755 people detained during ongoing civil unrest. (BBC)
• A bomb is thrown into an Arabic school in southern Nigeria's Delta State, injuring seven people. (Reuters)

• Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests fight in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem over a cleaning dispute; Palestinian police break up the fighting. (BBC)
• A Russian court rejects an attempt to ban Bhagavad Gita As It Is, a Russian translation of the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita. (BBC)
• Stones reportedly fall from the Colisseum, one of Rome's most famous landmarks. (MSNBC)
• The Silence of the Lambs, a 1991 thriller film starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is to be preserved by the United States Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry. (BBC)

• 31 people are injured following the crash-landing of a passenger jet at Osh Airport in southern Kyrgyzstan. (Straits Times)
• Four people are killed and 1,000 others flee their homes amid lahars from the Mount Gamalama volcano in Indonesia. (AP via Google)

• Strait of Hormuz dispute:
  • Iran threatens to close down the key oil route of the Strait of Hormuz if more sanctions are imposed on it by Western nations. (CNN)
  • The United States Navy responds that it will not tolerate a disruption to the Strait. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• The head of the African Union, Jean Ping, arrives in Guinea-Bissau after the country's army chief claims to have foiled a military coup. (IOL)

• In China, 54 government officials and the Ministry of Railways are punished over a fatal high-speed rail crash in July. (Bloomberg)
• An Egyptian court bans forced virginity tests on female detainees in military prisons. (Al Jazeera)
• The corruption trial of the former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, resumes in Cairo. (BBC)
• A Venezuelan campaign group says murder rates in the country are at their highest level ever. (BBC)

• North Korea begins two days of funeral services for former leader Kim Jong-Il, who died on December 17 of a heart attack, aged 69. (BBC) (Tripoli Post)
• 2011 Yemeni uprising: Labour strikes take place in Yemen as protesters demand reforms and the dismissal of managers over alleged corruption under the regime of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (ABC News)
• Leading Republican Party presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, criticize rival candidate Ron Paul for his view that the United States should not act against Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. (BBC)

• China's Compass satellite navigation system, a rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), becomes operational, offering navigation services on the Chinese mainland. The system is expected to become available worldwide by 2020. (BBC)

• In yachting, Investec LOYAL wins line honours in the 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, subject to a protest by Wild Oats XI. (Sydney Morning Herald)