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• Al Askari Mosque bombing:
  • Sixty-eight people have been killed so far today in Baghdad, Iraq. Car bombs and mortar barrages rocked Baghdad streets, as news pundits speculate about the possibility of Iraq becoming embroiled in a full fledged civil war. (MSNBC)
  • Baghdad's primary morgue says that the death toll resulting from violence after the Al Askari Mosque bombing has surpassed 1,300, contrary to earlier information from most news media and the United States military. (Washington Post)
• The London High Court grants the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, an order that delays a four-week suspension from his post ordered by an administrative tribunal last week. (Reuters)
• For the first time in Europe, a domesticated cat is found infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. The dead cat was found on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. (AP), (Handelsblatt), (Reuters AlertNet)

• President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Chen Shui-bian announces the cease of the function of the National Unification Council and the application of the Guidelines for National Unification. The move is condemned by the pan-Blue Coalition and People's Republic of China. Chen says that the reversal is a response to aggression by the PRC. (Washington Post) (China Daily) (Taipei Times)(BBC)
• International Court of Justice (ICJ) begins hearing a landmark genocide case, Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Serbia and Montenegro. Bosnia filed a claim alleging violations of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide against the former Yugoslavia during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Bosnian genocide case at the ICJ is a first ever genocide court case against a state in the 60 year history of ICJ. (Reuters), (ICJ press release)
• Securitas depot robbery: British police announce that the total amount of cash stolen in last Wednesday's Securitas depot robbery was GBP £53 million (USD $92.6 million, €77.8 million). Five more people have been arrested in the last 24 hours and 10 properties searched in the ongoing investigation. (BBC)
• The United Nations World Food Programme says that it needs 11 million USD to be able to continue its Afghanistan operations to June this year. "Poor and hungry schoolchildren who receive take-home rations of food as an incentive to attend school will receive at most half their usual ration and in some cases none at all," says the U.N. More than 50% of the nation's children are malnourished. (Reuters)
• Another series of bomb attacks in southern Iranian cities of Dezful and Abadan wounds at least six people. Eight people died when bombs exploded in the provincial capital Ahwaz a month ago. The Iranian government again accuses Britain of being behind the attacks, although a small Arab separatist group claimed reponsibility on its website.(BBC)
• Post-invasion Iraq: The deadline set by the kidnappers of Jill Caroll, after which they said they would execute her if their demands were not met, passes with no word yet on whether she has been killed. An Iraqi official says he believes she is still alive and that they know her original kidnapper's name and address, although Carroll may have been sold to another group since. (AP) (ABC) (CSMonitor)
• Dubai Ports World controversy: The Dubai Ports World controversy continues with Miami-based Eller & Company trying to obtain an injunction in the UK High Court to prevent the sale of P&O to Dubai Ports World. (BBC)
• The Da Vinci Code: Writers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh sue Random House in the High Court of Justice in London claiming that the best selling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown contains ideas stolen from their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. (Guardian)

• Olivier Awards: Liam Mower, James Lomas and George Maguire win an award for Best Actor in a musical for their role in Billy Elliot the Musical. They are the first to do so in a shared capacity. At 13, this makes Mower the youngest actor to ever receive this award. (BBC News)
• 2006 Winter Olympics: The Olympic flag is passed to the mayor of Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics. (CBC)
• Al Askari Mosque bombing: The International Crisis Group releases a report cautioning the international community to plan for the contingency of a civil war in Iraq. At least 250 people have died in violence resulting from the Al Askari Mosque bombing. (CSMonitor)
• Jamaica will have its first female Prime Minister, as Portia Simpson-Miller is elected president of the People's National Party. She will automatically replace P. J. Patterson in a few weeks. (BBC)
• The world's population hits 6.5 billion at 0016 UTC, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's World Population Clock. (Toronto Star) (US Census)

• Chad President Idriss Déby announces that the 2006 Chad Presidential Election will take place on May 3. Several opposition leaders have already stated plans to boycott the election, and Mohammed Nour continues to threaten further violence if a national forum is not held soon.(Reuters AlertNet)
• A New Jersey company is accused of harvesting body parts from New York funeral homes for transplants. An estimated 12,000 people received the body parts. (Washington Post)
• Ugandan general election, 2006: Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda since 1986, is re-elected. (BBC)
• Paintings by Picasso, Dalí, Matisse and Monet are stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (BBC)
• Riots occur in Dublin in the lead up to the Love Ulster parade. Six officers, seven protesters and a journalist are hospitalized, mostly with head wounds. (IOL) (RTE) (Daily Ireland)
• Al-Qaeda admits responsibility for a failed bomb attempt at Abqaiq plants, the world's largest oil processing facilities. (National Nine News)
• The search for coal miners trapped in the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico is suspended due to toxic levels of natural gas. The 65 trapped miners are presumed dead. (LA Times)

• Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup. (INQ7.net), GMANEWS.TV (Reuters)
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy: A Finnish editor of the paper Kaltio, Jussi Vilkuna, was fired after refusing to remove a Mohammed-cartoon on the online version of the paper. This cartoon featured a westerner in the grips of prophet Mohammed (who was masked), and Finnish politicians burning Danish flags. (NewsRoom Finland)
• It is revealed that MI5 (British Intelligence) withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the Omagh Bombing in 1998. RTÉ News
• Venezuela orders US airlines to reduce the number of flights into the country by up to 70% in a dispute over safety regulations. (BBC)
• NASA announces the unusual gamma ray burst GRB 060218 that is not yet explained and may be a predecessor to a supernova. It was located 440 million light-years away and lasted for 33 minutes, closer and longer than any previous gamma ray burst. (Space.com)
• Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is suspended from his position for one month by a three member panel of the Adjudication Panel for England for being "unnecessarily insensitive" in comparing a Jewish Evening Standard reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Nicky Gavron, his deputy, will take over his responsibilities whilst Livingstone is suspended. (BBC)
• An explosion and gunshots are reported at Abqaiq, home of largest Saudi Arabian oil facilities. (BBC) (CNN)
• After months of an increasing political power struggle, the Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra dissolves the House of Representatives and calls for new election to be held on April 2. (The Nation)
• A fire in a textile mill in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kills 51 people and injures over 100. (BBC)
• Australian Member of Parliament and Treasurer Peter Costello challenges Muslim leaders to pledge their allegiance to Australia. (National Nine News)

• Uganda holds a general election, the first multiparty election in 25 years. (Times Online) (BBC)
• Al Askari Mosque bombing: In Iraq over 100 people are killed in violence following yesterday's bombing of the Al Askari Mosque:
  • 47 factory workers are forced off buses and shot at Nahrawan, near Baghdad.
  • About 50 bullet-riddled bodies are found in Baghdad overnight.
  • Al-Arabiya TV reporter Atwar Bahjat and her two crew are killed in Samarra.
  • At least 11 people are abducted from jail in Basra by gunmen dressed as police, and shot.
  • One person is killed in a Sunni mosque in Baquba, where a bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol also kills 12 people. (BBC)
• A roof at a marketplace in Moscow collapses under heavy snow at approximately 4:50am local time (0150 UTC), killing at least forty-nine people. The 1970s-built building had the same architect as the Transvaal Water Park, whose roof collapsed in 2004 killing 28 people. (BBC) (CNN)
• A magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred at 12:19am local time (Feb.22, 2219 UTC) in southern Mozambique, 140 miles southwest of the coastal city of Beira, centered near Espungabera, a small farming town in a remote and sparsely populated area near the border with Zimbabwe. (USGS), (AP)
• An ancient Egyptian sun temple has been discovered beneath a flea market in the Ein Shams suburb of Cairo, which is built on top of the ancient city of Heliopolis. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (MSNBC)

• South Dakota State Senate approves a bill that would purport to outlaw almost all forms of abortion. (New York Times)
• A man in Manhattan, New York City is hospitalized for treatment of anthrax infection after being exposed to animal hides from the Côte d'Ivoire which he used for making drums. (Newsday)
• Securitas depot robbery: The United Kingdom's largest robbery when a Securitas depot in Kent was robbed and the thieves made off with Bank of England banknotes worth £53 million.

(BBC)

• The European Commission proposes the establishment of a European Institute of Technology. (BBC News)
• Pope Benedict XVI announces that a consistory will be held next month to create 15 new cardinals, the first of his Papacy. (RTE)
• Al Askari Mosque bombing: The Al Askari Mosque, a shrine to Imam Ali al-Hadi and Imam Hasan al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq, is bombed and partly destroyed. The Golden Dome has collapsed. In the aftermath dozens of people die in riots, along with three journalists which includes Atwar Bahjat.(BBC) (CNN)
• Indian authorities completely seal off the village of Navapur after bird flu is discovered there. (BBC)

• 33 people are killed and dozens are wounded amidst fighting between the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism and Islamic Court in Daynille, Mogadishu, Somalia. (AFP)
• Enron: The High Court in London rules that three bankers may be extradited to the United States to face trial on Enron-related charges. The three, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby, former executives at Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC unit Greenwich NatWest, had argued unsuccessfully that since the majority of the alleged offenses took place in Britain, any trial should be held in that country. (Houston Chronicle)
• Former Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladić, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in connection with the massacre of 8,000 men and boys on July 11, 1995 in Srebrenica, has been reported by Belgrade's Studio B TV to have been arrested. The Serbian government has denied the capture, decrying the report as "manipulation which damages the government". (BBC)
• Eight men are aquitted of the 1999 murder which has many hundreds of witnesses of model Jessica Lal in India. The acquittal causes outrage among the Indian community with petitions to President Abdul Kalam for a review of the case (Hindustan Times).

• Retired scientist Don Kennedy suggests the entire population of Tuvalu should move to the Fijian island of Kioa, to preserve Tuvaluan culture as their homeland becomes uninhabitable due to rising sea levels. (Pacific Magazine)
• Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denies that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he wanted Israel to be "wiped off the map," saying Ahmadinejad was misunderstood. (Reuters)
• Attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta destroy an oil pipeline and a military houseboat in southern Nigeria, cutting crude production by about twenty percent. The recent violence has caused a rise in international oil prices due to supply concerns. (ABC)
• British revisionist historian David Irving is jailed for three years by an Austrian court after pleading guilty to denying the existence of the Holocaust during a visit to Austria in 1989. Arrested last November, a suspended sentence had been expected and Irving is expected to appeal the sentence. (BBC) (The Independent)
• Russian and Iranian negotiators begin talks today on a plan that may have the former enrich uranium for the latter, as part of the international community's efforts to dissuade Iran from doing its own enrichment. (AP)
• Western romance Brokeback Mountain wins awards for best film and best director for Ang Lee at the BAFTA awards. (BBC)
• Osama bin Laden vows never to be captured alive, according to an audiotape that was posted Monday on a militant Web site. (Associated Press)

• The movie Grbavica by Jasmila Žbanić wins the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, the world's most visited film festival.
• Pasta de Conchos mine disaster: An explosion traps 66 coal miners three hundred meters underground in a mine near Nueva Rosita, Coahuila. (CNN)
• Ismail Haniya of Hamas becomes Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, succeeding Ahmed Qurei. (Al Jazeera)
• Palestinian-Israeli conflict: Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decides to withold payment to the Palestinian Authority of tax receipts amounting to about $50 million per month.(New York Times)(Reuters).

• Former Malawian Minister of Education and head of the country's anti-corruption campaign Yusuf Mwawa is sentenced to five years in prison for fraud and corruption. (BBC News)
• Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez threatens to cut off oil supplies after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claims that the Venezuelan government poses "one of the biggest problems" in the region. (CNN)
• Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta rebels kidnap nine foreign oil workers in Nigeria. (CNN)
• H5N1 Avian flu crisis:
  • France orders mass inoculation of domestic fowl following the discovery of an infected dead duck near Lyon. (Reuter)
  • Egypt records the presence of the virus for the first time. (People's Daily online)
  • India confirms the virus was responsible for the death of fifty thousand chickens in the state of Maharashtra in recent days. (Xinhua)
  • Iraq reports a second human fatality. (Bloomberg)
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
  • Italian reform minister Roberto Calderoli resigns after criticism for wearing a T-shirt depicting the cartoons. The incident triggered yesterday's rioting outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which at least 10 people died. (BBC)
  • Sixteen people are killed in northern Nigeria as demonstrators protest the cartoons by storming and burning Christian churches and businesses. (CNN)

• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
  • In Libya, at least eleven protesters are killed in riots protesting the Muhammad cartoons in Tripoli outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi. (MSNBC)
  • Russian authorities order the closing of a Volgograd newspaper that published a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad. (New York Times)
• Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony narrowly escapes an attempted assassination by Ugandan troops attacking in Sudan. Several of his bodyguards are killed as he flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Reuters)
• Interim Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert postpones until Sunday official discourse which would ban Palestinian movements between Gaza and the West Bank, bar Palestinians from working in Israel and stop transfer of $50 million tax receipts to the Palestinian Authority. All these measures, criticized by Labour leader Amir Peretz, follows the victory of Hamas over Fatah during the January 2006 legislative elections. (Reuters) (AP).
• International demands grow that the United States close Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The European Parliament votes overwhelmingly for a resolution urging that the prison be closed and inmates given a fair trial. (The Age) UK Prime Minister Tony Blair calls Guantanamo an "anomaly" (Guardian). UN General Secretary Kofi Annan calls for the camp to be closed "as soon as possible" (Toronto Star) (BBC). Former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson urges the US to act on the findings of the UN report (RTÉ), while Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain also calls for its closure. (Scotsman) This follows a United Nations report which calls for it to be closed.

• Oxfam reports hundreds of thousands are affected by severe water shortages in Kenya and Somalia. (AllAfrica.com)
• Tens of thousands of refugees are homeless in the Western Sahara after rains wiped out their shelters. (AllAfrica.com)
• Bolkestein directive: 391 MEP vote for the new directive against 213 (among them the Party of the European Left, the European Green Party and the French Socialist Party). The controversed "country of origin principle", which had led to the Polish plumber controversy, was abandoned, although the current legislation still favorize it (BBC).
• Following their Palestinian legislative election victory, Hamas chooses Ismail Haniya, considered a moderate, as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. (BBC)
• 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide: A mudslide in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte, Philippines has buried more than 300 homes and an elementary school. An estimated 300 people are killed, with more than 1500 missing. (CNN)
• Telephone recordings show governors in plot against journalist Lydia Cacho who exposed a ring of pedophiles. The recordings include conversations between businessman José Camel Nacif and governors Mario Marín (Puebla) and Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía (Chiapas) in which they arrange for her imprisonment and bribe prison guards to have her raped on arrival. (El Universal) (Reporters Without Borders)
• A United Nations report condemns the continued existence of Camp Delta, and multiple breaches of Human Rights by the US. (BBC). The UN says that prisoners held there should be immediately charged or released. Like many other countries that the UN Human Rights watchdog has heavily criticised, the US has attacked the report as invalid (BBC). The UN report is available online as a large 54 page PDF
• Abu Ghraib prison abuse:
  • US civil liberties groups have called for an inquiry into treatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib after new images of apparent abuse were shown. (BBC)
  • U.S. slams new Abu Ghraib leak (CNN)
• After allegations of fraud, officials in Haiti have reached an agreement to declare René Préval the winner of that country's election. (BBC)
• Tokelau self-determination referendum, 2006: Tokelau decides to remain a New Zealand territory after a referendum on self-governance. A 60 percent majority voted in favor of self-governance, but a two-thirds majority was required for the referendum to succeed. (NZ Government press release)

• Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse: Australian television network SBS airs video and photographs of what it says are previously unpublished images of the abuse of Iraqis in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. (Metronews)
• Italian ambassador Francesco Trupiano apologizes to Libya on behalf of Italian minister of Constitutional Reform Roberto Calderoli, who suggested Italy use "force against Muslims." (Angola Press)
• The final three defendants in the Bali Nine hearings in Indonesia, Australians, Matthew Norman, 19, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, and Si Yi Chen, 20, are sentenced to life imprisonment. (NineMSN)
• The United States and Israel deny a "destabilisation plan" of Hamas, winner of the January 2006 legislative elections, which was revealed on February 14 by the New York Times. However, they do acknowledge that they would cut off funds and transfers of tax-receipts to the Palestinian Authority. The aim of the "destabilisation plan" was to push the PA to organize new elections (NYT).
• Haitian elections, 2006: In a case of apparent electoral fraud, hundreds of ballot boxes are discovered in a garbage dump in Haiti, throwing the results of the elections there in doubt. CBC

• The British House of Commons votes by 384 to 184, on a conscience vote, to implement a full smoking ban in all enclosed public places in England from Summer 2007. (BBC)
• The U.S. Senate votes on a budgetary point of order on the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Recovery legislation. The bill's supporters fail to get the 60 votes they need to proceed with a vote on the bill's merits, so the legislation has effectively been returned to committee. (Business Week)
• Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting incident, has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he has had a "minor heart attack due to an irregulairty in his heartbeat.". (ABC)
• Kenyan Police instruct 20 leading figures not to leave the country as investigations into two corruption scandals, the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals continue. Among the people told to hand in their passports is George Saitoti whose resignation as education minister was announced by President Mwai Kibaki yesterday. Meanwhile, 80 Members of Parliament have demanded the resignation of Deputy President Moody Awori, who is accused of involvement in the Anglo Leasing affair. (BBC)
• A moderate earthquake shakes east India, recording a 5.7-magnitude. (Reuters)
• Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein tells the court during the latest session of his trial that he and his seven co-accused are on hunger strike to protest at their treatment. (CTV)
• A top Iranian official confirms that Iran has resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium at one of its main nuclear facilities last week. (CBC)
• Iran's veterinary organization said the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had been detected in wild swans in the Islamic Republic. (Reuters)
• The New York Times reveals the existence of a "destabilization plan" for Hamas, winner of the Palestinian legislative elections. The intention is, according to Israeli officials and Western diplomats, to make sure that Hamas officials fail in fulfilling their campaign promises so that the president, Mahmoud Abbas, is forced to call a new election. The plan would cut all Quartet funds from the Palestinian National Authority (PA), while Israel would refuse to release taxes and custom duties it collects on behalf of the PA and also block movements between the West Bank and the Gaza strip. A third of the Palestinian population would suffer from the Quartet's decision to cut funds to the PA. (NYT)
• Australians Andrew Chan, 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, are sentenced to death by firing squad by an Indonesian court for their role in the Bali Nine heroin smuggling attempt. Fellow accused Martin Stephens, 29, and Michael Czugaj, 20, both receive life prison sentences. (ABC)
• In Israel, the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court sentences Omri Sharon to a nine-month prison term, a nine-month suspended sentence, and a NIS 300,000 (USD 65,000) fine after he is convicted of violating political fundraising law and providing false testimony. (Ynetnews)

• In a televised address to the nation, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announces the resignations of two government ministers in connection with two separate corruption scandals, the "Goldenberg" and "Anglo Leasing" affairs. Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and education minister George Saitoti both deny any wrongdoing. (BBC)
• In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonates an explosive belt in a line of people waiting to receive government payments, killing at least eight other people and wounding about 30, including children and police. (CTV)
• Saddam Hussein is forced to attend the latest session of his trial, wearing a traditional Islamic robe rather than his usual crisp suit, as he shouted "Down with Bush." (CTV)
• Tongan Prime Minister Prince Lavaka Ata 'Ulukalala resigns suddenly on 11 February 2006, and also gives up his other cabinet portfolios. He was replaced in the interim by the elected Minister of Labour, Dr. Feleti Sevele. (Pacific Magazine)
• Australian Renae Lawrence, 28, the only female member of the Bali Nine group arrested in 2005, and fellow accused Scott Rush, 19, are convicted in Indonesia of attempting to import heroin to Australia and sentenced to life imprisonment. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi causes a political storm by comparing himself to Jesus Christ. (BBC)
• A royal tomb from the 2nd or 3rd century BC is found in Pella, Greece. It is the largest Greek tomb found to date. This announcement comes a few days after the Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings was found. (Reuters)
• British tabloid The News of the World releases a video shot in 2004 by a British soldier showing the repeated kicking and beating of four Iraqi teenagers with batons by other British soldiers. The video contains a commentary by the cameraman urging the soldiers on. The Ministry of Defence began an investigation. One man was arrested on 13 February and two more on 14 February. (News of the World) (BBC)(Video)
• United States military strategists reportedly are developing plans for a possible major military bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear sites as a "last resort" in the event that diplomatic efforts fail to convince Iran to voluntarily end what Western governments consider to be efforts at acquiring a nuclear weapon. (The Telegraph)
• The North American blizzard of 2006 dumps 27 inches of snow on New York City, closes many major airports, and leaves 200,000 without power in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. (CNN)

• United States Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots and injures Harry Whittington while hunting in Corpus Christi, Texas. (ABC News)
• H5N1 avian flu virus: Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy report their first cases of H5N1-infected wild birds, all swans thought to have migrated from Russia in recent months. (BBC)
• Steve Fossett completes the world record for the longest non-stop, unrefuelled, flight when the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer lands at Bournemouth airport in southern England after a flight lasting 76 hours and 45 minutes which covered a distance of 26,389.3 miles (42,469.46 km). The aircraft had to declare an emergency landing after suffering total electrical failure, and had only 200 lbs (90 kg) of fuel remaining. (BBC)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon undergoes emergency surgery due to digestive problems. His condition is critical. (Reuters)
• Tokelau begins voting in a referendum to determine whether it remains a New Zealand territory, or becomes a state in free association with New Zealand. (NZ Herald)
• In the United States, it has been revealed that the White House knew of extensive flooding of New Orleans in the hours after Hurricane Katrina struck last August. Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told a Senate Committee that he informed the White House of the seriousness of the situation at a time when even the media weren't fully aware of the extent of the flooding. (ABC)
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
  • The Danish editor who first published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that sparked global protests has been placed on leave. (ABC)
  • Thousands of people are planning to gather in London on Saturday to rally against the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (Channel4)

• National Hockey League great Wayne Gretzky has denied placing any bets with an illegal sport gambling operation. (Reuters)
• Finance chiefs of the G8 countries meet this weekend in Moscow with energy security at the top of their agenda. (BBC)
• Israel has criticised Russia's decision to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow for talks, following the militant group's victory in Palestinian elections. (BBC)
• KV63, tomb from the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, dating back more than 3,300 years, has been uncovered in the famed Valley of the Kings, an ancient desert burial ground near the southern city of Luxor. (CTV)
• United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan wishes editors to stop reprinting the controversial Muhammad cartoons. (CBC)
• A medium-sized earthquake, registering 4.9, shook central Chile, rattling buildings, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages. (ABC)
• H5N1 bird flu virus:
  • The deadly strain of H5N1 avian flu has been found in wild birds in Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast. (CBC)
  • Two Indonesian women from an area just east of the capital are in hospital after local tests showed they had the H5N1 bird flu virus. (ABC)
• At least eight people are killed and 22 wounded by a car bomb in the southern Doura district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. (BBC)
• An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court by a judge in Italy. (BBC)
• The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin, Italy, with the opening ceremony at the Stadio Olimpico. It is the 20th winter games and the second hosted by an Italian city. (CBC)

• I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, US Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff tells federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq. (AP)
• Early results indicate that René Préval has an overwhelming lead in the Haitian general election (BBC)
• The General Synod of the Church of England unanimously votes to apologise to descendants of the slaves on Barbados where, two hundred years ago, the church's Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that owned the Codrington Estates, used slaves for labour. (The Times) (BBC)
• U.S. forces are searching for the USS Cole attacker who escaped from prison last Friday. According to Interpol, an al-Qaida operative who had been sentenced to death for plotting the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 escaped with a group of convicts from their prison last week in Sanaá, Yemen. (BBC) This is not the first group to have escaped. 10 other chief suspects escaped from custody in Aden during April of 2003 (BBC)
• Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announces the discovery of an intact pharaonic tomb in the Valley of the Kings – the first to be discovered since King Tutankhamun's in 1922. (Scotsman)
• In Turkey, Istanbul's police chief said a bomb blast at an Internet cafe in the city had wounded 14 people. (ABC)
• A suicide bombing occurs during a Shiite Muslim procession in Hangu, Pakistan, resulting in riots during the Muslim branch's most important holiday, Ashura. At least 27 people were killed and dozens injured in the result violence. (ABC)
• A large-scale slaughter is planned at a Nigerian farm where thousands of chickens have died from bird flu. (BBC)
• The House of Keys, the lower house of the Isle of Man, a crown dependency of the United Kingdom, votes to lower the voting age to 16. (BBC)
• Mannheim, Germany — Ernst Zündel, a German white supremacist extradited from Canada on accusations he repeatedly denied the Holocaust, returned to court Thursday to face charges of incitement, libel and disparaging the dead. (ABC)
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy: administration at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, ordered a halt to the on-campus distribution of the student newspaper Cadre after the cartoons were re-printed in the newspaper. Campus authorities also attempted to seize all 2,000 copies of the edition containing the cartoons. (CBC)

• Chad and Sudan sign the Tripoli Agreement, ending the Chadian-Sudanese conflict. (AlertNet)
• Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Congresswoman with NSA oversight authority, became the first Republican on an intelligence committee to call for a congressional investigation into Bush's warrantless wiretap program. (NY Times)
• An explosion at Russian military base at Kurchaloi in Chechnya kills at least 12 soldiers. The cause is unknown; however, a separatist attack has been officially ruled out. (Al Jazeera)(Mail and Guardian)
• Japanese Princess Kiko is pregnant with her third child. (ABC)
• Thousands of native South Americans march 900 miles south of Rio de Janeiro to the spot where Sepe Tiaraju was killed in 1756, demanding that land in Brazil be given for a new "Guaraní nation."
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy: in Afghanistan, four people are killed and eleven others are wounded by police firing on hundreds of protesters attempting to storm US military base. (AP)

• Private Andrei Sychev, an 18-year old conscript soldier who was so severely beaten in a hazing incident at his base in Chelyabinsk on New Year's Eve that his legs and genitals had to be amputated, is transferred to Moscow for further treatment. The incident has caused uproar in Russia with President Putin addressing the State Duma on army bullying. 16 soldiers officially died in hazing incidents last year, although the figure does not include related suicides. (RIA Novosti) (Radio Free Europe)
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
  • An Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri, has announced a competition for the best cartoon of the Holocaust "as a test of the boundaries of free speech". (BBC) (WikiNews)
  • As the Danish embassy in Tehran is attacked by hundreds of protesters, five people are killed in Afghanistan as protests against European Muhammed cartoons sweep across the country. (BBC)
  • Prime Minister of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen says violent Muslim protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad are a worldwide crisis spinning out of the control of governments. (Reuters)
• Monitored by thousands of UN peacekeepers, the people of Haiti go to polling stations in the country's first election since the ousting of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. (CTV)
• An Israeli airstrike on a car kills two Palestinian militants in Gaza City. (Reuters)
• Mounir El Motassadeq, a member of the Hamburg cell led by Mohammed Atta, is ordered an early release by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. The Berlin court rules there is an absence of proof in the government's case that Motassadeq was informed about the 9/11 terrorist plot. (BBC)
• Scotland is to follow England into implementing the controversial UK National DNA Database of those arrested, but acquitted or released without charges. (Scotsman)
• Japan urges North Korea to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program and halt missile development, but a Japanese official said Pyongyang insists that Washington drop sanctions first. (Reuters)
• Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is convicted on 11 of 15 charges of solicitation and incitement to murder, and incitement to racial hatred after a lengthy trial at London's Central Criminal Court and is sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. (BBC)
• The number of people attempting to view illegal child pornography on the web has risen since 2004, according to British Telecommunications (BT). They use a system to block sites carrying the images of children, which has been getting some 35,000 hits a day for the past four months. (BBC News)

• In Costa Rica, the presidential election is a tight race and too close to call. (Reuters)
• Mauritania denounces amendments to an oil contract made by former leader Maaouiya Ould Taya with Woodside Petroleum. The Mauritanian authorities declare that the amendments were signed "outside the legal framework of normal practice, to the great detriment of our country", and could cost Mauritania up to $200 million a year. {BBC) (Radio France International)
• U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearings begin regarding the NSA warrantless surveillance program, with testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (NPR)
• As Stephen Harper is sworn in as Canada's 22nd Prime Minister, David Emerson crosses the floor from the Liberal Party to join Harper's Conservative Party, and is appointed as Minister of International Trade. Harper also appointed Michael Fortier, an unelected party supporter, to minister of public works and government services and to the senate. (CTV) (CBC)
• U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists working in the Foja Mountains in eastern Papua, Indonesia, discover 20 previously unknown frog species, a new species of honeyeater, four new butterflies, and at least five new plants. Also discovered were a kangaroo unknown in Papua, and a Six-wired Bird of Paradise, previously known only from dead specimens whose origin was unknown. (ABC)
• German car company BMW is banned from the Google index after attempting to deliberately deceive Google users. (Outer Court)
• In the Egyptian port of Safaga, relatives of hundreds of passengers killed when the ferry al-Salam Boccaccio '98 sank in the Red Sea, attack the office of El Salam Maritime Transport. (BBC)
• Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant appears before the media for the first time, saying she expects to resume a normal life. (CBC)

• American football: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 21-10 in Super Bowl XL. (Sports Illustrated)
• Iran resumes most of its nuclear program after it was voted to be referred to the United Nations Security Council. However it says that it is still open for renegotiation. (BBC)
• The Danish embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is set on fire by protesters because of the continued controversy over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, and rumors of Qur'an burnings in Denmark. (BBC)

• Saddam Hussein aims to sue Tony Blair and George W. Bush for crimes against Iraq. (Scotsman)
• Georgia, USA. 17 human rights activists sentenced to prison including one 81 year old retired World War II Veteran for protesting outside Fort Benning military camp. (Scoop, New Zealand)
• Twenty-seven out of 35 countries on the IAEA's Board of Governors vote to refer the nuclear program of Iran to the United Nations Security Council out of concern over Iran's plans to enrich nuclear materials and to refuse IAEA inspection of the process. (BBC)
• A stampede at a sports stadium in Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines, kills 73 and injures more than 320, mostly women. Tens of thousands of people had gathered to watch the anniversary presentation of the popular ABS-CBN early afternoon TV gameshow, Wowowee. (BBC) (CNN)
• The Danish, and as a consequence of sharing the same building, the Chilean and Swedish embassies in Damascus, are firebombed by protestors denouncing the publication of what they consider sacrilegious cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The Norwegian embassy is also burned. (BBC)

• Jamal al-Bedawi, who masterminded the USS Cole bombing, and Fawaz al-Rabeiee, who planned the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg, escape from a prison in Yemen along with 22 other prisoners, 12 of whom were convicted members of Al-Qaida. (BBC)
• The United States expels Venezuelan diplomat Jeny Figueredo Frias in retaliation for yesterday's expulsion of suspected US spy John Correa from Venezuela. A State Department spokesman described the move as part of "tit-for-tat diplomatic games". (VOA)
• The International Atomic Energy Agency has deferred until Saturday a vote on whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns its nuclear programs may produce weapons. (CBC)
• A plot to assassinate President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia by shooting down his helicopter has been foiled. (Yahoo)
• Queues build up at vendors as the EuroMillions lottery offers a jackpot of €180 million after 11 successive rollovers (statistically expected once in 25 years). Some British vendors report a 1200% increase in sales. EuroMillions tickets are sold in Austria, Belgium. France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. An Irish woman won €115,436,126 last July. (BBC), (Guardian). UPDATE: The winning numbers were 9 21 30 39 50 with Lucky Star numbers 01 and 03; the jackpot was shared between three winning tickets, two in France and one in Portugal. (UK National Lottery)
• Two car bombs explode minutes apart in southern Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 90 others. (CNN)
• A strong earthquake registering magnitude 5.9 shakes northeastern Japan, but there is no danger of a tsunami. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Hezbollah fires some 30 mortar shells at IDF outposts along the northern Israeli border, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier. In response, Israeli Air Force strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. (Reuters) (YNET)
  • At least three Qassam rockets are fired from Gaza by Palestinian militants at Israeli civilian targets. One rocket strikes a home in Kibbutz Karmiyah, injuring four people, including a one-year-old infant. The home belongs to a family recently evicted during Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. (YNET)
• The United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likens Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to Adolf Hitler. In retaliation, Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel refers to the US as the Third Reich. (AP), (AP)
• The M/V al-Salam Boccaccio 98, a ferry carrying 1272 passengers and 105 crew, sinks in poor weather in the Red Sea while travelling between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 314 people have been rescued so far. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• Dutch D66 party chairman Boris Dittrich resigns because the Dutch Government voted 'Yes' to Dutch participation in a NATO-led ISAF operation in Afghanistan. (Expatica)

• A leaked memo in the UK, detailing a conversation between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003, has revealed that Blair intended to follow the US into Iraq even without a UN resolution, and that Bush considered provoking a response from Iraq using falsely marked Lockheed U-2 spy planes to provide an excuse for war. (Guardian)
• Venezuela has expelled U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Correa, a military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Caracas, on suspicion of espionage. (Newsweek) (BBC)
• Representative John Boehner of Ohio becomes the U.S. House Majority Leader, beating out acting majority leader Roy Blunt in a house vote. (New York Times)
• Royal Dutch Shell breaks the record for the highest ever annual profit for a British company with a total of £13.12bn (BBC news)
• The oil tanker Seabulk Pride, carrying approx 100,000 barrels (approx. 16 million L) of oil, runs aground in the port of Nikiski, Alaska. (BBC News)
• The mobile phones of high ranking Greek government officials, including Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis have been revealed to have been tapped by unknown eavesdroppers. (Reuters) (Athens News Agency)

• Governor of West Virginia Joe Manchin asks for a halt in coal mining following two more coal mining deaths in the state that saw fourteen people die in coal mining disasters in January. (CNN).
• More than 200 Israeli settlers and Israeli Security Forces are injured when the Security Forces brutally beat the settlers of the Amona outpost in the West Bank.(Haaretz)
• The controversy surrounding the Muhammad cartoons escalates as newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain republish the controversial pictures in defiance of widespread Muslim protests in the Middle East and elsewhere.(BBC News)
• The Latin American TV station teleSUR, backed by the Venezuelan government, has signed a co-operation agreement with the Arabic channel al-Jazeera. (BBC News)
• Shares in Google fall dramatically after the company reported profits below Wall Street estimates. $12 billion in market value was lost. (AP)
• Astronomers measure the size of newly discovered solar system object 2003 UB313 as larger than Pluto with 84% probability. (astro.uni-bonn.de), (AP via Yahoo!)

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