Top Stories –
Talk to your TV –
Web-based phone company Skype agrees a deal with LG and Panasonic for them to embed the Skype technology in television models with Internet connections, and will sell separate Web cameras that have built-in microphones for TV viewers who want to use Skype.

Time to join the gym (again) –
About 5,000 members of website BeautifulPeople.com – the networking site for attractive individuals – have been placed back in the “rating” section for putting on weight over Christmas. The United States has the most members who got kicked out (1,520), followed by the U.K. (832) and Canada (533).
Top Video –

Los Angeles: in motion from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Top News –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Three soldiers are killed and 11 wounded in a bomb attack in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. (Press Trust of India)(Associated Press of Pakistan) (Xinhua)
• At least six police officers are killed and another 16 injured in a suicide car bomb attack in Dagestan, southern Russia.(Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
• Palestinians kill an Egyptian border guard and 50 people are injured in clashes between pro-Palestinian activists andEgyptian police as a Viva Palestina convoy nears the border with Gaza. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post)

Arts and culture

• Iris Robinson, the wife of Northern Ireland‘s First Minister, admits having previously attempted suicide. Her husbandPeter Robinson gives an emotional interview in which he speaks of being “deeply hurt” after learning of her extramarital affair. (BBC) (RTÉ) (RTÉ)

Business and economy

• China becomes the largest exporting country, pushing Germany from first place. (The Wall Street Journal)
• China’s tourism revenue hits USD 185 billion in 2009. (Xinhua)

Disasters and accidents

• Extreme weather across Europe leads to dozens of deaths, including at least 122 in Poland and at least 7 as a result of an avalanche in Switzerland. (BBC)
• At least 25 people are killed and at least three others are trapped in a mine fire in Xiangtan County in Hunan. (Xinhua)(Reuters Africa) (Press TV) (Times of India)

Environment

• Sea Shepherd claims that the Japanese Whaling Fleet‘s Shōnan Maru delibrately ram and sunk their ship; the Ady Gil.(euronews) (AFP)
• The Dauletabad – Salyp Yar gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Iran is opened. (Press TV) (Channel News Asia)

International relations

• Algerian US ambassador Abdellah Baali and Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili are upset at the decision of theUnited States to subject Algerians and Nigerians to tougher than usual security tests at airports, saying it is “discrimination” and “risks ties”. Both have officially complained. (BBC)
• The U.S. government lowers the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list, or have their visa revoked. (CNN)

Law and crime

• Yemen arrests three suspected Al-Qaeda members, including one leader, northwest of the capital Sana’a. (Yemen News Agency) (AFP)
• 50-year-old Chinese journalist Li Junqi is imprisoned for 16 years after accepting bribes for his part in a mass three-month cover-up of a coal mine disaster in Hebei in which 35 people, including a rescue worker, were killed prior to the2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. (China Daily) (Press Trust of India)

Politics and elections

• Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii resigns at the age of 77 due to ill health. (BBC) (Kyodo)
• Ex-Cabinet Ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt call for a secret ballot to settle the debate over the leadership of theLabour Party of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (BBC)

Science and technology

• Computer scientist Fabrice Bellard claims he has computed π to almost 2.7 trillion digits. (BBC) (The Times of India)(The Daily Telegraph)

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