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- Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of espionage, while the latter detains one Russian and expels four others. (BBC) (RIA Novosti) (Kyiv Post)
- A hearing whether to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is held in the United States allowing the possibility of openly gay people to become active-duty members of the United States armed forces. (BBC)
- The World Food Programme announces the number of hungry people in Sudan has quadrupled since August 2009 to 4.3 million. (AFP) (Emirates News Agency) (Taiwan News)
- China says that relations will be undermined if U.S. President Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama. (BBC) (China Daily) (CBC)
- Continental Airlines and five men go on trial for their alleged role in the crash of Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde flight, that killed 113 people in 2000. (Reuters)
- The Lancet medical journal issues a full retraction of a paper that caused a 12-year international controversy over alleged links between the MMR vaccine and autism. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Finance Minister of Germany Wolfgang Schaeuble says that the German government will buy stolen information on Swiss bank accounts, offered in a CD that contained 1,500 names in exchange for 2.5 million euros, to pursue tax evasion. (Bloomberg)
- Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards are announced. Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way with nine nominations each, and are both among ten nominees for Best Picture, the first time more than five films have been up for consideration since 1943. (CNN)
- Paul Volcker testifies before the Banking Committee of the United States Senate about the so-called "Volcker rule," an administration proposal to separate banks from hedge funds and have them close down their risk-taking prop desks. (L.A. Times)
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- L'Homme Qui Marche I by Alberto Giacometti, a bronze sculpture sells in London for £65,001,250, a new world record auction price. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- A major fireball is reported in the skies over Ireland, lighting up "the whole country". (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- Avatar becomes the highest grossing film in the U.S. and Canada while surpassing the 2 billion dollars mark in worldwide sales. (Reuters) (BoxOfficeMojo)
- Judges at the International Criminal Court rule that Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir could face charges of genocide over the War in Darfur. (The Guardian) (CNN)
- Pirates off the coast of Somalia seize a North Korean-flagged cargo ship south of Yemen. (AFP) (CNN)
- NASA and Cornell University have given up attempting to move the Spirit rover, currently stuck in sand near Home Plate, Gusev crater on the planet Mars, and are converting it into a stationary outpost. Its twin rover, Opportunity, remains mobile on Mars. (Space.com)
- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim goes on trial in Kuala Lumpur, accused of sodomy. (Bernama) (BBC) (AFP)
- A man detonates a homemade bomb outside a shopping mall in Darwin, Australia, wounding 15 people. (Sydney Morning Herald) (The Australian)
- A bombing near a girls' school in Lower Dir, Pakistan kills seven, including three U.S. Marines, marking the first time U.S. soldiers are killed in that country. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
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- Jordan Queen's educational reform program lauded in Jordan. Rania Al Abdullah and Princess Hessa bint Salman were briefed on the Jordan River Foundation (JRF) by the organization's Director General Valentina Qussisiya. (zawya)
- The Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, one of the world's largest water projects, has been delayed by about five years due to problems associated with water pollution, officials in east China's Shandong province. (China Daily)
- Wang Jiarui, head of the Communist Party of China's liaison office, arrives in North Korea on a "goodwill visit" at the invitation of the Workers' Party of Korea. (AFP) (Tehran Times) (The Straits Times)
- Charles McArther Emmanuel, son of President of Liberia Charles Taylor, is ordered to pay more than $22 million (£14 million) to five people tortured during the Second Liberian Civil War. (BBC)
- The Group of Seven nations agree to write off Haiti's debts following a conference in Iqaluit, Nunavut. (BBC)
- The Bank of Spain announces that Spain’s economy fell 3.6% in 2009, the most in decades. (Mercopress) (Reuters) (Business Spectator)
- Thousands protest in Togo against a decision by the Confederation of African Football to ban the country from the next two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations. (BBC) (Times of India)
- An Australian mining company signs a $70 billion deal to supply Chinese power stations with coal, in the country's biggest ever export contract. (BBC) (The Hindu) (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Mark Durkan, former Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, resigns as leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). (The Belfast Telegraph) (The Irish Times)
- French aid worker, Laurent Maurice, kidnapped in Chad last November, is released after 89 days of captivity, described as "tired but appears to be in good health". (BBC) (CNN) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (Reuters South Africa) (CTV News) (news.com.au)
- Afghan police admit they shot dead seven civilians, including two children, as they collected firewood in Spin Boldak, Kandahar, last Thursday. (Reuters) (Press TV) (France24)
- 23 Yemeni government soldiers are killed by the Houthis in two separate incidents: 15 are ambushed in Wadi al-Jabara, while the remaining 8 die in Sa'dah. (Press TV)
- The Taliban blow up a girls' school in Huwaid, Pakistan, killing no one. (AFP)
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- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly called on the DPRK to re-engage in the Six-Party Talks that also involve the Republic of Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States. (UN)
- Police in Mtwapa arrest five men accused of being homosexuals, two of whom had wedding rings and were attempting to marry in a first for Kenya. (BBC) (Daily Nation)
- Thousands of people flee Mogadishu after 24 people are killed and 40 people are wounded in two days. (BBC) (CBC)
- Russian security forces kill at least 20 people in Ingushetia. (BBC) (The Star) (The Scotsman)
- Togo appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over their ban from the next two Africa Cup of Nations in the aftermath of the Togo national football team attack. (BBC) (CNN) (The Guardian)
- Mexican President Felipe Calderón's visit to a community centre in Ciudad Juárez where 13 teenagers and two adults were shot dead at a school party on 31 January is disrupted by murders, riot police and dozens of protesters. (BBC) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
- A shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States, leaves at least three persons dead. (CNN)
- 2010 Winter Olympics:
- The United States successfully shoots down a launching ballistic missile using the Boeing YAL-1, a military Boeing 747-400F aircraft mounted with a chemical oxygen iodine laser weapon. (Reuters)
- Thailand deports the five-man crew detained in the country since December after transporting weapons from North Korea. (AFP) (Thai News Agency)
- Campaigning for Iraq's parliamentary election begins. (Xinhua) (AFP) (Press TV)
- Indonesia's former anti-corruption chief Antasari Azhar is sentenced to 18 years for the murder of a businessman. (Jakarta Post) (CNN)
- A ceasefire is declared between Houthi fighters and the Yemeni government in northern Yemen. (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
- Burma's leader General Than Shwe says the general elections will be held "soon". (Al Jazeera) (Press Trust of India)
- Chinese human rights activist Feng Zhenghu, stranded at Japan's Narita International Airport after being refused entry to China for three months, returns home. (Bangkok Post) (BBC)
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- NATO admits it killed 12 civilians when two misfired rockets hit a house in Marjah, Helmand. President Hamid Karzai calls for an explanation. (BBC) (news.com.au) (Reuters)
- Viva Leroy Nash, the oldest death row inmate in the United States, dies of natural causes at the age of 94. (BBC) (The New Zealand Herald) (Taipei News)
- Thousands of people collect in Beirut on the fifth anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a bombing alongside 21 other people, with his son and current Prime Minister Saad Hariri addressing the crowd. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Irish Times) (CBC) (The Independent)
- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki undoes the suspensions for fraud of the agriculture and education ministers handed out by his Prime Minister. (BBC)
- BMW Oracle win the 33rd America's Cup becoming the first American team to win since 1992. (BBC) (TVNZ) saling.org/wordcup/news
- Rafiq Husseini, a top aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is suspended following involvment in an alleged attempt to trade influence for sex. (MSNBC) (The Jerusalem Post)(The Guardian)
- Cyclone Rene heads for Tonga and Niue after brushing American Samoa. (The New Zealand Herald) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Nine Irish Roman Catholic bishops and Cardinal Seán Brady arrive in Rome to discuss the Murphy Report and Ryan Report into the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland with Pope Benedict XVI, the first such meetings there in eight years. (RTÉ) (Reuters) (Gulf Times) (The Irish Times)
- Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemns the bomb blast in Pune, India, one day earlier, saying Pakistan is against terrorism and that his country wants better relations with India. (The Hindu)
- Iran detains five more members of the Baha'i minority, in addition to Baha'i leaders jailed since 2008, for alleged involvement in protests against the regime. (The Jerusalem Post)
- The death toll from yesterday's double bus electrocution in Port Harcourt rises to as much as 40, with more than 30 injured. (THISDAY) (The Punch) (Press TV) (The New York Times)
- Viktor Yanukovych is officially named winner of the Ukraine presidential election. (RIA) (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) (AP) (AFP)
- 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:
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- An appreciation of the Chinese yuan will help US economic growth but it will not solve problems in its own economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist said Monday. (China Daily)
- The opposition Anguilla United Movement, led by former Chief Minister Hubert Hughes, wins a majority of seats in the 2010 general election, defeating the governing Anguilla United Front. (Anguilla News)
- Aid flights arrive on the island of Aitutaki, Cook Islands, where 90% of structures were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Pat last week. (RNZI)
- Somalia's state minister for defence Yusuf Mohammed Siad survives an attempt on his life from a suicide bomber in Mogadishu. (BBC)
- A Naxalite attack on an army camp in West Bengal kills 24 Indian soldiers, with many more reported missing. (Hindustan Times)
- Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga accuses the President Mwai Kibaki of "overstepping" his powers after the latter re-appointed two ministers sacked by Odinga over a corruption scandal. (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) (BBC) (AP)
- The United Nations Special Envoy to Myanmar, Tomas Quintana, arrives in the country on the first day of a five day visit to assess the progress on human rights. (Al Jazeera) (Global Times) (BBC)
- Halle train collision: 20 people die in a train collision in Halle, Belgium. (BBC) (Flanders News) (WSJ)
- Pope Benedict XVI begins a two-day meeting with all 24 Irish Roman Catholic bishops to discuss child abuse in a "quite unprecedented" move. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Five men are imprisoned for up to 28 years, after being convicted over the 2005 Sydney terrorism plot. (BBC) (ninemsn)
- Cyclone Rene hammers Tonga with gusts of 160 kilometres an hour, isolating Tongans for several days. Widespread damage is reported in the capital, Nukuʻalofa, and contact is lost with the northern island of Vavaʻu. (TVNZ) (The New Zealand Herald)
- A joint NATO and Afghan military operation is succeeding in pushing Taliban fighters from their strongholds in Helmand province. (BBC)
- 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:
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- 500,000 residents of Mexico City have been vaccinated against the A/H1N1 flu. (Xinhuanet)
- Four people are charged in connection with the Santika Club fire in Thailand on December 31, 2008. (Bangkok Post)
- The body of fallen luger Nodar Kumaritashvili returns to his hometown of Bakuriani, Georgia for burial. (BBC) (ESPN)
- Guam Governor Felix Perez Camacho issues an executive order changing the name of Guam to Guahan in government documents and signage and calls for unification with the Northern Mariana Islands. (Pacific Daily News) (Pacific Daily News) (Saipan Tribune)
- At least 22 people are killed in a bus crash in Northern India. (ABC) (BBC)
- It emerges that fake Irish passports used by suspects in the assassination of a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai had valid numbers with mismatched identities, with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs embarking on an urgent mission to track the three genuine passport holders with these numbers. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- Police in Kenya free five suspects held in connection with organising a gay wedding in a Mtwapa hotel. (BBC)
- Services from the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands remain disrupted as investigations continue into the Halle train collision in Belgium.(BBC)
- The Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine suspends the decision of the Electoral Commission to declare Viktor Yanukovych the winner of the Ukrainian presidential election until the court has decided on the complaints brought by the other candidate, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. (La Libre Belgique)
- The UK branch of publishing company Reader's Digest files for administration. (BBC) (Sky News)
- Walgreen Co. announces that it is buying Duane Reade Holdings Inc., operator of a chain of 257 drugstores in the New York City area, for about $1.08 billion including assumption of debt. (Marketwatch)
- Five southern Africans, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have their genomes analysed by scientists and published in Nature, with Tutu excited to discover he is "related to the San people, the first people to inhabit Southern Africa". (BBC)
- Rwanda, the East African country that is embracing a transition to a Green economy, will be the global host of World Environment Day on 5 June 2010. (UNEP)
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- United States President Barack Obama meets with the Dalai Lama amid opposition from China. (Times of India) (Al Jazeera) (Times Live South Africa)
- Irish Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea resigned after a controversy surrounding his remarks on a rival politician's relationship with brothels but denies claims by opposition party Fine Gael that he has committed perjury. Taoiseach Brian Cowen assigns himself temporary responsibility for the Department of Defence. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (BBC)
- The UK's Press Complaints Commission rejects a complaint by the husband of Stephen Gately about Jan Moir's Daily Mail article following his death but its head calls Moir's writing "extremely distasteful". (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Assassination of senior Hamas commander in Dubai:
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejects the appeal for the inclusion of the Togo national football team in the draw for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations which resulted from their ban due to the Togo national football team attack prior to the 2010 tournament in Angola. It also says that a new draw will be required if they rule in favor of Togo in upcoming proceedings. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- Asia's biggest railway station, the Guangzhou South Railway Station, came into use on the first day of Chinese spring festival transport rush of 2010. China's operational high-speed railways have exceeded 3,300 km. (Xinhua) (CCTV) (People's Daily)
- In Niger, a military junta named the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy carries out a coup d'état, suspending the constitution and detaining President Mamadou Tandja. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Business Day)
- Live Earth, organizer of The Dow Live Earth Run for Water, Cape Town race director announced The Parlotones concert at the Speir Wine Estate in Cape Town. (Live Earth)
- The top climate change official at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, announces his resignation. (The Times) (CBC)
- Humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières accuses Bangladesh of a "crackdown" on Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma. (Médecins Sans Frontières) (Al Jazeera) (AFP)
- A small private plane is intentionally crashed into an office building in Austin, Texas. (FOX News)
- Former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik is jailed for four years on tax fraud. (BBC) (Boston Globe) (The Daily Telegraph)
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- Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez almost come to blows at the Rio Group summit in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with Uribe taunting Chávez "Be a man! … you're a coward face-to-face! Stay and argue face-to-face!" and Chávez responding with a simple "Go to Hell!" The Summit also announces the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. (La Vanguardia) (Telegraph) (BBC)
- An American pediatrician from Delaware state is indicted by video evidence on 471 felony counts in the alleged rape and sexual abuse of 103 children. (CNN)(ABC)
- Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute:
- China throws a surprise 86th birthday party for President Robert Mugabe in its Zimbabwe embassy in Harare, the first time Mugabe visited a foreign embassy in the country since Zimbabwe won independence in 1980. (Reuters)
- Foreign ministers from the European Union meet in Brussels and "strongly condemn" the use of forged passports from various European countries in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. (RTÉ) (BBC)
- Afghanistan's government condemns a NATO air strike on a convoy of vehicles in Uruzgan province, in the south of the country, which killed at least 27 civilians. (BBC)
- Conference of the German Bishops chairman Archbishop Robert Zollitsch formally apologises to those who went through sexual abuse as children after fresh controversy surrounding the issue at the beginning of this year. (Deutsche Welle) (RTÉ) (Taiwan News)
- Swiss businessman Max Goeldi, who hid in the Swiss embassy in Libya for 19 months during a diplomatic argument, is taken away in handcuffs and thrown into jail while his colleague Rachid Hamdani is deported. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters)(The Daily Telegraph)
- The European Union and Germany deny a report of a 20-25 billion euro (£22 billion) aid plan for Greece, and Athens pledge again to take new steps if needed to keep tough deficit-cutting plans on target. (Reuters)
- A strike by thousands of pilots at Lufthansa, one of the world's largest airlines, is suspended with negotiations expected to resume. (BBC)
- Odeon cinemas in Ireland, Italy and the UK confirm their intention to boycott Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in a dispute with Disney. (BBC) (Digital Spy) (news.com.au) (Sky News)
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- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the main Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, sign a ceasefire deal. (CNN) (Xinhua) (BBC)
- Former Irish Green Party leader Trevor Sargent resigns as Minister of State (with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture) after admitting "an error of judgment" involving his contacts with the Garda Síochána. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- Assassination of Hamas official in Dubai:
- A United Nations report says mobile phones are used by around 4.6 billion in total or two-thirds of the world population, including more than half of people in the developing world. (Digital Trends) (Globe and Mail)
- China increases controls on the internet, requiring anyone who wishes to set up a website to produce identification and meet regulators. (BBC) (China Daily)
- Mauritania recalls its ambassador from Mali after the latter released four members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. (BBC) (Reuters South Africa)
- Iranian authorities arrest the leader of the Jundullah, Abdolmalek Rigi, a Sunni militant organisation based in southeastern Iran. (Press TV) (CNN)
- At least five people are killed and dozens buried in a landslide near Bandung in West Java, Indonesia. (BBC) (Jakarta Post) (New Straits Times)
- A 250lb car bomb explodes outside a courthouse in Newry, Northern Ireland, the first such bomb to explode in the area since 2000. (BBC)
- Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen carries out a major cabinet reshuffling, bringing in female ministers in charge of Defence and Foreign Affairs, the first in Denmark's history. (Copenhagen Post)
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SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau's unfortunately dies after attack from the world's biggest killer whale in captivity.
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- President Hugo Chávez vows to withdraw Venezuela from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights following its publication of a highly critical report on human rights in the country. (Guardian)
- Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland after a referendum last year supported a ban on minarets and other rows between the two nations. (The Times) (Daily Times of Pakistan) (Taiwan News)
- Defeated Sri Lanka presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka is charged with additional counts in addition to treason in the aftermath of his failed election bid. (The Hindu)
- Turkey's prime minister and president hold talks with the head of the country's armed forces over an investigation into an alleged military coup. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
- South Africa announces it has intercepted a ship carrying North Korean arms destined for central Africa, travelling by way of China, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1874. (Wall Street Journal) (Bangkok Post)
- Australia summons the Israeli ambassador to explain why three new suspects over the Dubai killing of a Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, used Australian passports. (BBC)
- Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin makes history as he leads a 10-member delegation to Gaza via Egypt, becoming the first EU Foreign Minister to visit since the 2009 Israeli assault after having previously been refused entry by Israel. He calls on Israel to end the blockade. (The Irish Times) (Arab News) (RTÉ)
- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tours Haiti to monitor the destruction caused by the recent earthquake and meets President René Préval. (Press TV)
- Viktor Yanukovych is sworn in as the as 4th President of Ukraine. (Kyiv Post) (The Moscow Times) (BBC Europe) (CNN)
- A fire at the Garib & Garib Sweater Factory clothes factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh kills at least 18 people and injures more than 50 others. (BBC)
- The chief of Algeria's national police, Ali Tounsi, is fatally shot in his office in a retaliatory murder–suicide. (Press TV) (BBC)
- The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) jails Lieut-Col Eprem Setako, the Ministry of Defence's former head of legal affairs, for 25 years after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. (BBC)
- The Congressional Black Caucus appeals to American President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders for tougher efforts to reduce racial disparities in the U.S. health system, saying there are four critical areas not addressed by Obama's plan. (Politico)
- Filming on the set of Coronation Street is suspended as actors and fans gather at Salford Cathedral to celebrate the life of veteran actress Maggie Jones (Blanche Hunt). (BBC)
- Odeon dispute with Disney: The boycott of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is reversed. (BBC)
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- 2010 Winter Olympics:
- Hundreds of people wearing pink wigs and pink clothing walk out of Catholic Mass in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in protest of a gay Dutch man being refused communion in a nearby town. (BBC) (UPI)
- 2010 Chile earthquake and Pacific Ocean tsunamis:
- Tajikistan votes in parliamentary elections. (Al Jazeera)
- A storm sweeps across Western Europe, killing at least 50 people and leaving a million homes without power. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (euronews) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- 900 ships are stranded in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region amid falling water level caused by severe drought. The waterway traffic jam started on Wuzhou City section of Xijiang River. (China Daily)
- Two huge icebergs let loose off Antarctica's coast. The two icebergs are drifting together about 62 to 93 miles (100 to 150 kilometers) off eastern Antarctica, according to an Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist. (China Daily)
- 11 civilians die in a roadside bomb in Helmand Province. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (RTÉ) (Reuters India)
- Three ETA militants, including one of its top leaders, Ibon Gogeascoechea, on the run since 1997, are detained in a French-Spanish raid in Cahan, Orne. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)
- About eighty tons of dead fish are discovered and removed in a lagoon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, likely due to localized ocean anoxia and algal blooms.(The Associated Press) (Latin American Herald Tribune)
- Egyptian authorities announce the discovery of a granite head from a statue of Tutankhamun's grandfather Amenhotep III, which was unearthed at a temple in Luxor. (BBC) (France24) (Herald Sun) (Reuters) (The Scotsman) (The Washington Post) (Xinhua)
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