January 7, 2017 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- A fuel truck explodes in the Syrian town of Azaz, near the border with Turkey, killing at least 43 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (The Guardian)
- 2017 Ivory Coast mutiny
- Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara reaches a deal with soldiers who seized the town of Bouake in a pay protest. The soldiers are seeking bonuses, pay rises and faster promotion. (AFP via News24)
Disasters and accidents
- Flash flooding in southern Thailand kills at least 18 people. (Al Jazeera)
- A cold spell with the temperature reaching −30 °C in Moscow and other parts of Eastern Europe hits Europe. Nearly 20 people die in recent days; 10 in Poland. (The Independent)
International relations
- Israel, Palestine, and the United Nations
- Israel announces it will withhold $6 million from its annual United Nations dues in protest of the December 23, 2016, Security Council settlement resolution. (UPI)
Law and crime
- Mexican police search for a gunman who shot and wounded a U.S. Consular official in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The victim is in stable condition. (CBS News)
Politics and elections
- Former President and Prime Minister of Portugal Mário Soares dies at the age of 92. (France 24)
- Nana Akufo-Addo is sworn in as the fifth President of Ghana. (BBC)
- Presidential transition of Donald Trump
- United States President-elect Donald Trump indicates that he will nominate former Indiana senator Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence. (BBC)
Science and technology
- Free University of Berlin chemists confirm that carbon can bond with more than four atoms, previously seen as its limit because carbon has only four shareable electrons. The researchers used X-rays to, for the first time, map the molecule — a carbon atom bonded to six other carbon atoms. (Science News) (ZME Science)