January 17, 2014 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2013–14 Thai political crisis:
- At least three people are killed and fifteen are injured after an explosion in a passenger train travelling from Peshawar to Karachi. (PTI via Business Standard)
- Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon:
- Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan:
- Twenty-one people are killed in a suicide bombing attack on a Kabul restaurant. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Post-coup unrest in Egypt:
- Two people were shot dead as clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police flared up across Egypt. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- One of the last Japanese soldiers to surrender from World War II, Hiroo Onoda, who surrendered in the Philippines in 1974, dies at the age of 91. (CNN)
- Zara Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, gives birth to a daughter (later named Mia Tindall). (BBC News)
- President Yoweri Museveni refuses to sign a Ugandan bill that would criminalize homosexuality saying that they should instead be rehabilitated. (HuffPost)
- A fragment of pelvis bone unearthed in Winchester in 1999 may belong to King Alfred the Great or his son Edward the Elder. (BBC News)
Disasters
- Bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria claim at least one life with towns in the Grampians National Park region evacuated. (The Australian)
- Police in Glendora, California arrest three men suspected of starting the Colby Fire burning in the San Gabriel Mountains. (Los Angeles Times)
- California Governor Jerry Brown declares a drought emergency and asks residents of the state to voluntarily conserve water. (Los Angeles Times)
- A stampede at the home of Muslim religious leader Mohammed Burhanuddin in the Indian city of Mumbai results in 18 deaths. (SBS World News)
International relations
- President Barack Obama announces a sprawling reform that would begin the process of change in the National Security Agency. (The Chicago Tribune)
- Australia apologizes to Indonesia for breaching its territorial waters while conducting operations against people smugglers in Operation Sovereign Borders. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Law and crime
- A controversy regarding capital punishment in the United States erupts after the execution of Ohio killer Denis McGuire took 25 minutes. (BBC News)
- Two students, a male and a female in stable condition, are each shot in the arm by an at-large gunman, who may be a student, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley Charter School high school. (MSN)[permanent dead link]
Sport
- 2014 Winter Olympics
- Vladimir Putin cautions gay people should not "spread gay propaganda" when visiting the host city of Sochi. (BBC News)