• Arab Spring:
  • 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League calls for a ceasefire in Syria, saying that tanks and heavy weaponry have been withdrawn from Syrian cities, but warning that snipers remain a threat. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011–2012 Yemeni uprising: Yemeni army defectors accuse outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of seeking to sabotage a power-transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. (Shanghai Daily) (Detroit Free Press)
• Up to 50,000 people flee their homes in a border area of South Sudan amid ethnic violence. (Reuters)
• The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram issues a warning to Christians in northern Nigeria to leave the region within three days. (CNN)
• Hundreds of Muslim villagers clash with riot police in the Ningxia region of northern China after a mosque is demolished by local authorities. (BBC) (Pakistan Today)

• Firefighters in Chile battle three large wildfires, which have reportedly resulted in the death of at least one person. (CTV)

• India lodges a high-level protest with the government of China over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in a courtroom. (BBC) (Times of India)
• The President of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, states that he is open to negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program, but calls on the North to avoid "provocations". (AP via Newsday)
• The President of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, states that Tunisia is prepared to extradite former Prime Minister of Libya Baghdadi Mahmudi to Tripoli to face charges of abuse of office, if the Libyan government can guarantee a fair trial. (Reuters)
• Iran:
  • Iran states that it has successfully test-fired two long-range missiles, a Qader and a Noor, during military exercises in the Persian Gulf. (Reuters via Yahoo News) (Reuters)(WSJ)(Ynet)(BBC)
  • Iranian news agencies report that the country has produced its first nuclear fuel rod. (Bloomberg)
  • Iranian officials report that the country will not shut down the Strait of Hormuz, as was previously threatened. (CNN)

• Mount Rainier National Park in the U.S. state of Washington is closed as police conduct a manhunt for a man who shot dead a park ranger on New Year's Day; the gunman, Benjamin Barnes, is eventually found dead. (CBS News) (CBS News Video) (BBC)
• ExxonMobil wins US$908 million from an arbitration panel of the International Chamber of Commerce for the nationalization of its Venezuelan oil project in 2007. (BBC)

• Thousands of opposition supporters in Hungary protest over Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's alleged attempts to undermine democracy in the country. (New York Times)
• The military government of Fiji announces that it is to lift martial law and other emergency regulations. (AFP via Google) (Fiji Times)
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chinese President Hu Jintao warns of attempts to "westernise" the country by "hostile powers". (IOL)

• The Russian Federal Space Agency expects that parts of its failed Fobos-Grunt Mars probe will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere during the next week. (The Telegraph)