January 17, 2015 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Terrorism in Yemen
- Gunmen abduct the chief of staff to Yemen's president in the center of the capital, Sana'a. It is uncertain if Shiite Houthi rebels or al-Qaeda militants kidnapped Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. (AP)
- Violence surrounding various protests against Charlie Hebdo leaves five protesters dead as well as some churches set ablaze in Niger. (BBC) (AFP via The Telegraph)
- Islamist insurgency in Nigeria:
- Following the January 16 Chad authorities decision to send troops to Nigeria and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram militants, the Russian ambassador to the country pledges to supply Cameroon with more modern weapons to combat the Islamist insurgents. (AFP via The Economic Times)
- 2013–15 Ukrainian crisis:
- Clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia rebels over Donetsk International Airport intensifies. (Al Jazeera)
- Greek anti-terror police arrest four people in Athens, Greece in alleged relation to the January 15 failed terrorist plot to kill police officers in Belgium. (Sky News Australia)
Arts and culture
- Pope Francis's visit to the Philippines
- Pope Francis celebrates mass at Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)-hit city of Tacloban with an audience of half-a-million people. (BBC)
- The Pope cuts his Tacloban trip short as an approaching typhoon threatened the city in the Philippines. This cyclone may also affect Francis's scheduled closing Mass on Sunday in the capital, Manila. (CNN) (AP via U-T San Diego)
Disasters and accidents
- The rescue and recovery efforts at the wreckage of the January 15 capsized tugboat on China's Yangtze River near the city of Jingjiang finds that twenty-one people are dead while three are rescued. (Straits Times)
- An entourage plane accompanying the Pope and carrying government officials experiences high winds and blows off the runway minutes after the pontiff's aircraft takes off safely in the Philippines. (The Independent)
- The Bridger Pipeline Company spills up to 50,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River, near Glendive, Montana. (CBS)
Law and crime
- Pemberton Township, New Jersey police arrest a woman and charge her with the murder of her newborn baby girl which she set on fire. Officers extinguish the fire, but the child later dies. (AP via MSN)
Sports
- In football, the Africa Cup of Nations gets underway in Equatorial Guinea. The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Morocco, but they refused to act as host because of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. (AAP via SBS)