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)
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)
A Pakistani lawyers' group in Lahore threatens to "burn alive" anyone who prosecutes lawyer accused of murdering a 12-year-old servant girl. (Asia News)
Reform of the banking system was one of the key themes at this year’s
European Parliament Vice-President Silvana Koch-Mehrin said "There was general disapproval of the disproportionate self-rewarding in the banking sector". (Gov Monitor)
Nationwide strikes led by Communist and Socialist parties take place in Greece to protest the government's handing of the country's debt. Most of the country was brought to a standstill as factories, schools, airports and hospitals closed down or reduced capacity (BBC)(Deutsche Welle)(Al Jazeera)
Prominent Uzbek photographer Umida Akhmedova is found guilty on charges of "slandering the nation" in her work, but is immediately pardoned under an amnesty. (BBC)(The Moscow Times)
Afghan officials report that at least 150 bodies were pulled from vehicles buried by avalanches in the Salang Pass in the Hindu Kush mountains earlier this week. (UPI.com)
Burma releases vice-chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Tin Oo at the age of 82, after he has spent more than a decade in prison or under house arrest. (BBC)
The men's downhill skiing is postponed due to "slushy conditions", with the women's super-combined event having already been postponed. (BBC)(Sky Sports)
Assassination of a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai:
Dubai police release the passport photographs of 11 “Europeans” suspected of the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. (BBC)
It emerges those suspected used fake British and Irish passports with Dublin saying it did not issue passports under their names, there is no evidence of their names on official Irish records and the counterfeits contain passport numbers with incorrect combinations of letters and digits. (The Daily Telegraph)
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)
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 ArchbishopDesmond 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)
It emerges that two additional fake Irish passports with genuine issue numbers were used by the suspects, with efforts underway to locate the two genuine holders. (RTÉ)(The Irish Times)
Hamas threatens Western nations and trades accusations with rival Palestinian faction Fatah over alleged involvement in the affair. (The Jerusalem Post)
Dubai's police chief calls for the head of Mossad to be arrested if Israel's spy agency is found to have been behind the killing of a Hamas boss in the emirate. (BBC)
Israel denies involvement in the assassination and claims that there is no evidence "that even remotely connects this incident to Israel" (The Jerusalem Post)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Minister of State for Food and Horticulture after admitting "an error of judgment" involving his contacts with the Garda Síochána. (RTÉ)(The Irish Times)
Prime Minister of the Ivory CoastGuillaume Soro announces the formation of a new government after 48 hours of negotiations, and opposition parties demand the reinstatement of the electoral commission. (Post Zambia)(Al Jazeera)
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)
Kim Yuna, Korean figure skater,won the gold medal with new world record in both short programme and free skate with the total of 228.56, which is another world record in the total score, becoming the first South Korean skater to medal in any discipline of figure skating at the Olympic Games. Kim's gold medal was South Korea's first medal at the Winter Olympics.(BBC)
A girls' boarding school dormitory in KwaZulu-Natal is shut down due to widespread lesbian activity. (BBC)
Wang Meng wins her third gold medal in the 1,000 meters short track at Vancouver to become China's first winter Olympian to win three gold medals at one Games and give China all the women's titles. (Shanghai Daily)(China Daily)
Brazilian police investigate after a newborn baby dies while two doctors argue during the mother's labour in an Ivinhema hospital. (The Irish Times)
Politiken apologises for its reprint of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban in 2008 but is criticised by other Danish newspapers. (BBC)
