• Bahraini uprising (2011–present):
  • A 16-year-old child is shot dead at close range in Al-Daih, a village west of Manama, Bahrain. (Al Jazeera)
  • A police officer is also killed after rioters threw firebombs at his patrol in Sehla, a village west of Manama, Bahrain. (Gulf Daily News)
  • Amnesty International calls on the Bahraini regime to release prisoners of conscience it is holding in captivity. (BBC)
• Insurgency in the North Caucasus:
  • Four police officers are killed and five injured after a suicide bombing in the Russian republic of Dagestan. (RT)

• The eurozone slides into deeper recession, making 2012 the first year with no growth in any quarter since tracking began in 1995. Economic experts, who had not expected this, say that 2013's "early indicators are all pointing upwards". (Reuters via The Irish Times)
• The Economy of Japan declined by 0.4% from October to December 2012 indicating that Japan is still in a recession. (CNN Money)
• US Airways and the bankrupt American Airlines announce a merger to form the world's largest air carrier trading as American Airlines. (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
• Warren Buffett and Jorge Paulo Lemann announce that they are allying to buy H. J. Heinz Company for $28 billion. (Reuters) (BBC)

• Two people are killed and a third injured following an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands. (BBC)

• 2013 meat adulteration scandal:
  • German authorities find horse meat in lasagne sold in Germany, as in Italy further tests will be conducted soon. (BBC)
  • French sources find traces of phenylbutazone, a suspected harmful drug, in several horse carcasses slaughtered in Somerset, England, and fear they could be part of lasagne or other food sold in France. (CNN)
  • Spanghero has its selling licence retired in France. (BBC)
  • Police in the UK arrest three men in connection with the alleged mislabelling of food. (BBC)

• South African amputee sprint runner Oscar Pistorius, who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics, is charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead at Pistorius's home in Pretoria. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) (CBC News) (RTÉ News)
• The husband of Savita Halappanavar, the pregnant Indian woman at the centre of Ireland's latest abortion scandal, is reported to be "not in a condition" to respond after a report into her death is leaked to the public before he has a chance to even read it. (The Irish Times)
• Denis O'Brien receives €150,000 in his case against the Irish Daily Mail, marking the first time the defence of honest opinion was used in a defamation case in Ireland after its introduction as part of the Defamation Act 2009. (RTÉ News) (The Irish Times)

• Republican Senators filibuster the nomination of Chuck Hagel as US Secretary of Defence. (AP via the Guardian)

• The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will switch off for two years, giving time for engineers and scientists to install upgrades to the machine. (BBC)
• Steam for Linux is released, beginning the expansion of Valve's game service onto the free and open-source platform.^[1] This leads to 2000 games being ported to the platform in a span of a little over 3 years.^[2]