Top Stories –
The whole of the United Kingdom is covered in snow causing the usual chaos and even more “weather’s turned a bit nippy” conversations.
British Isles under snow

Google launches its own smart phone, the Nexus One in a bid to widen the popularity of its Android operating system.

The Nexus One

Top Video –

The PEN Story from PENStory on Vimeo.

Top News –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• The Yemeni government launches campaigns in three provinces to battle Al-Qaeda fighters. (Al Jazeera) (Times of India)
• The suicide bomber from Jordan, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan, is reported to be an al-Qaeda triple agent. (BBC) (The Guardian)

Arts and culture

• Facebook blocks a social network suicide website. (France 24) (The Guardian) (IOL)

Business and economy

• The World Food Programme suspends its operations in southern Somalia due to rising instability in the region.(Bloomberg) (Xinhua)
• Warren Buffett who through Berkshire Hathaway controls a significant block of the shares of Kraft came out in opposition to Kraft’s proposal to float 370 million shares in order to fund its bid for the UK based confectioner Cadbury. (Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

• As many as 1,000 people in the Solomon Islands are reportedly homeless following the two major earthquakes and tsunami which struck the country earlier this week. (Time Magazine)
• At least seven people are killed and 20 missing after a bridge collapse in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. (Latin American Herald Tribune) (China Daily) (IOL)
• The United Kingdom is once again deluged by heavy snowfall as the country endures its worst cold snap since 1979.(BBC)
• A Learjet cargo plane on approach to Chicago Executive Airport crashes into the Des Plaines River in Wheeling, Illinois.(Chicago Tribune)

International relations

• Slovakia admits responsibility for a major bomb alert on Dorset Street in Dublin, Ireland, after planting explosives on a civilian as a test. (RTÉ) (The Belfast Telegraph) (BBC)
• Iran bans its citizens from contact with 60 international organisations and media outlets over claims they conspired against the country. (Press TV) (Global Times) (The Times)
• The US State Department announces that they are revamping how foreign delegations are handled, in response to aSecret Service report that a third man had crashed the state dinner for the Prime Minister of India. (Reuters)(Associated Press)
• The United States reopens its embassy in Yemen after strikes on al-Qaeda. (CNN) (BBC)

Law and crime

• Andal Ampatuan, Jr., charged with 41 counts of murder in the Maguindanao massacre in November, pleads not guilty at the beginning of his trial in the Philippines. (Philippine Inquirer) (CNN) (AFP)

Politics and elections

• The President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson announces a referendum during a live televised speech. (BBC)(RTÉ) (Iceland Review)
• Opposition parties in Nigeria raise their concerns over “missing” President Umaru Yar’Adua who has been at a hospital in Saudi Arabia for six weeks. (BBC) (Nigeria Guardian) (Afrique en ligne)

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