January 17, 2006 (Tuesday)
- The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Gonzales v. Oregon by a 6–3 vote that Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act" providing for physician-assisted suicide is consistent with the federal Controlled Substances Act. (BBC)
- Kidnappers of journalist Jill Carroll demand that the United States release all female Iraqi prisoners within 72 hours. (CNN)
- Two Jordanian peacekeepers, serving as part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, have been killed by gunfire in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters)[permanent dead link]
- In Côte d'Ivoire, supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attack United Nations peacekeepers after the Ivorian Popular Front withdraws from the Ivorian Civil War peace process. (BBC)
- South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk has been offered a job at Clonaid studying human embryonic stem cell lines. Clonaid is a subsidiary of the cult known as the Raelians, who believe that cloning is the first step toward immortality. (Reuters)
- A draft of the new version (3) of the GNU General Public License is released. The "new" version has provisions blocking GPL code from being used in, or "secured" by, digital rights management schemes. The "Freeness" provisions also restricts the patent rights coders can claim in their GPL-licensed programs. (wired) (text of draft)
- An original manuscript of the Chán Buddhist Wu Men Guan (Mumonkan) dated to 1246 is exhibited online by the i4uuu museum. (eMediaWire)
- Taiwanese Premier Frank Hsieh announces his resignation following the defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party in recent elections. (BBC)
- Japanese company Huser's president Susumu Ojima receives a summons of a witness by the Diet because of suspicions etc. that he instructed one-class authorized architect Hidetsugu Aneha to reduce the quantity of reinforced concrete. (The Japan Times Online)