IT was a horrendous week for natural disasters, with serious flooding in Brazil, Sri Lanka and Australia, as well as in South Africa, where at least 32 people have died in the floods caused by heavy rains.
The deaths occured in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, where thousands have been left homeless as an estimated 700 homes have been swept away.
Sustained heavy rain and floods in the central and southern Philippines killed 42 people and damaged crops and infrastructure worth more than one billion pesos (€18m). Floods and landslides caused by more than two weeks of heavy rains in late December and January displaced nearly 400,000 people. Most of the dead either drowned or were buried by mudslides.
Authorities are set to evacuate residents of Lampung, Sumatra, over concerns the Anak Krakatau volcano may be about to erupt.
Lampung accounts for 85% of coffee production in Indonesia, which is the world's fourth largest producer. It also produces the world's most expensive coffee, the Kopi Luwak, which comes from a coffee-berry plant and passes through the digestive system of a civet. The coffee can cost as much as €200 for 454g (1lb).
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands in the South Pacific, at a shallow depth of 2.9 miles.
A British pilot was among four men to die when an avalanche hit a group of seven near the French alpine resort of Val d'Isere.
1,000,000 homes repossessed by banks in US in 2010, a number that it is expected will be surpassed this year
10,000 signatures collected by the Jewish?Funds for Justice calling on Fox News to sack TV presenter Glenn Beck
100 the age that one in five Britons can look forward to reaching, according to pensions department statistics
THE Soviet Invasion of 1968 brought to an end the Prague Spring revolution. The occupation by the Soviets was unpopular, but many Czechs and Slovaks assumed a resigned attitude to the presence of their powerful overlord.
It was as much in opposition to this lack of national spirit as against the military occupation that protests began anew in early 1969. On 16 January, a student from Všetaty, to the north of Prague, took the morning train into the capital. In his college dorm Jan Palach wrote a letter, which he copied four times, sending them to friends and to the Writers' Union. He put one copy into his briefcase before he walked into Wenceslas Square. At 4pm he stood on the ramp outside the National Museum and slowly poured a can of petrol over himself.
After he set himself on fire he ran, burning, across the intersection towards a shop, but collapsed beside the road.
A man put his coat over him before he was taken to a burns unit. He suffered 85% burns, and lived for three more days.
There had been other students willing to kill themselves in the following days, but Palach asked for no more due to the horrendous pain he suffered. One man, Jan Zajic, repeated the suicide in the same place one month later.
Anniversary ceremonies for Palach in 1989 helped spark the Velvet Revolution which led to the collapse of the communist regime.
Palach's supreme sacrifice took place 42 years ago on this day.
The US Court of Appeals ruled in a censorship case, saying it was legal for NYPD Blue to show a nude bottom 10 years ago. It harks back to the days when an American's rear end could still be captured on a 40-inch-screen
I've got a trial soon at Old Trafford, to see if I'm up to scratch and whether Sir Alex Ferguson will use me. To be honest, it's the biggest day in any young referee's career
Gerry Rafferty is to be buried in the same cemetery as Tommy Cooper and Heath Ledger. Clown to the left of him, joker to the right
Wikipedia is 10 years old this week. Well, I read that on Wikipedia, so it's probably not true
In the past four years, 520 students of the Kasturba Gandhi Valika Vidyalaya in Jharkhand ? all in classes eighth to tenth (ages 12-14) ? dropped out and got married. Parents produced fake certificates in order to avail Rs20,000 (€329) in state grants.
TWENTY-three people were killed and 19 injured after a lorry crashed into a ditch at Lalupi, in Moyo, Uganda district. The truck was carrying 80 guests to a wedding reception at the Catholic Missionary Centre when it crashed.
Sister Rosemary Lynch, who died Sunday in Las Vegas aged 93, co-founded Pace e Bene, an organisation promoting non-violence. She was walking with fellow Franciscan Sister Klaryta Antoszewska when a car "brushed" against her and she fell, dying four days later.
Boston's Emergency Medical Services will begin deploying an ambulance equipped with a hydraulic lift to ease transport of the heaviest patients. Most weeks, Boston rescue crews ferry two to four patients weighing at least 450lbs (over 32 stone).
Paul Ashford, 61, musician with the Miami, Stepaside and the Sharks
Michaela Harte, 28, school teacher; murdered in Mauritius
Audrey Pearl, 95, RMS Lusitania passenger and last survivor of sinking
Peter Yates, 81, British film maker who directed Steve McQueen in Bullitt (1968). Four times nominated for Oscars
Richard (Dick) Winters, 92, World War II commander of Easy Company whose exploits were made famous by the book and TV series Band of Brothers.
Margaret Whiting, 86, singer ('A Tree in the Meadow', 'Moonlight in Vermont')
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