January 26, 2005 (Wednesday)
- Condoleezza Rice is confirmed in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 85-13 to become the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. (CNN) (BBC)
- After being incarcerated without trial for almost three years, the four British detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, are free to go home, having been released without charge by the UK government. (BBC)
- Conflict in Iraq: 36 U.S. soldiers have died in a single day in Iraq. A helicopter crash in western Iraq has claimed the lives of 30 U.S. marines and a sailor. It is the single worst loss of life for US forces since they invaded Iraq in March 2003. Elsewhere insurgents killed 4 US troops in Anbar, and another soldier was killed in Baghdad following an RPG attack. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine(BBC)
- The World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland (BBC) (SwissInfo) (CNN) (Forbes)
- In Glendale, California, a commuter train crashes into a sport utility vehicle left on the tracks, derailing the train and sending it into another commuter train, killing 11 and injuring at least 100. Juan Manuel Álvarez, who allegedly drove the car to the railway in an attempt to commit suicide, is accused of eleven murders. (CNN) (CNN)
- United States Supreme Court rejects appeal of Florida governor Jeb Bush to keep brain damaged Terri Schiavo alive against the wishes of her husband. Her parents try to remove her husband from the post of her guardian (Washington Times)
- In Moscow, students from Guinea-Bissau seize the country's embassy and take the ambassador as a hostage. They protest because they have not received their student's grants for more than a year (BBC)
- In Swaziland, country's main labour union have begun a two-day general strike to protest the new constitution because it would increase the power of the king Mswati III (Reuters AlertNet) (AllAfrica) (BBC)
- In Liberia, United Nations peacekeeping forces have sent troops and imposed a curfew to town of Harper to quell riots over alleged ritual killings (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
- In China, the death sentence of Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche is commuted to life imprisonment (Reuters AlertNet) (Human Rights Watch) (BBC)
- A meteorite lands in Cambodia and sparks several fires. Some locals hope it is a divine omen for peace (Reuters)[permanent dead link]
- In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court (supreme court) nullifies legislation that prevented tuition fees. Several states now are planning to introduce such fees. [1]