January 27, 2009 (Tuesday)
- Sir Paul Stephenson is appointed Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service. (BBC)
- At least one person is killed and eight wounded by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. (BBC)(Australian News)
- Seven people die in a murder-suicide in Wilmington, California. (UPI) (New York Times) (mercurynews.com)[permanent dead link]
- Florida hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel is arrested by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged with fraud. (Bloomberg)
- The United Kingdom Information Tribunal orders Her Majesty's Government to release the minutes of Cabinet discussions regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (AP via Google News)
- United Kingdom Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Peter Mandelson unveils a £2.3-billion bailout for the British motor industry. (BBC)
- Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies predicts. (Sky News)
- Two crew members escape a FedEx ATR 42 that crashed at Texas's Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. (Lubbock Online)
- The ninth World Social Forum is held in Belém, Brazil. (SwissInfo)
- A man hijacks a bus in Bulgaria and holds the 37 passengers hostage for two hours before surrendering. (Reuters)
- A special leaders meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, held in Papua New Guinea, sets a deadline of 1 May for Fiji to set a date for elections before the end of the year. Fiji rejects the deadline. (Xinhua)
- John Updike dies.