An air strike by Philippines Armed Forces killed a total of 15 terrorists including 3 of the Most Wanted with links to al-Qaeda. The strike took place in Parang, Sulu killing terrorist leaders from Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). One official said the attack was in retaliation for the deaths of 19 soldiers in October.

Heavy snows and freezing temperatures have caused a state of emergency to be declared in 14 Serbian municipalities. As many as 11,500 villagers are stranded by the weather as authorities work to unblock roads to bring supplies needed to survive the cold. The extreme weather has claimed over 160 lives so far.

The Islamist extremist rebel group al-Shabaab ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) out of south and central areas of Somalia today.

The U.S. State Department has designated al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab a terrorist group.

RFE/RL - "The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab said on January 30 that they had decided to kick the ICRC out of areas under their control because it had "falsely" accused the Islamist group of hindering food distribution."

For the third time in two weeks the U.S. Navy has rescued an Iranian vessel in the politically and militarily tense Arabian Sea. This time it was the USS Dewey that provided food, water and over 150 pounds of supplies to Iranian fishermen who had abandoned their sinking dhow and boarded another more sea-worthy vessel.

Kabir Sokoto, the suspected leader of Boko Haram and the mastermind of the Christmas Day attack on a Nigerian church that left 37 people dead, escaped from police custody less than a day after being arrested.

Boko Haram, a radical Nigerian Islamist group, claims responsibility for this attack, and others as violence continues between Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south.

The Guardian - "Suspected Boko Haram chief Kabir Sokoto reportedly behind Christmas Day church massacre flees in handcuffs."

Reports from the Eritrean/Ethiopian border indicate that five foreign tourists have been killed and at least 4 others kidnapped by what the Ethiopian government says are gunmen who were trained and armed by the Eritrean government. Eritrea denies the charges and says it is a common practice by Ethiopia to blame them for violence on its borders. The dead have been identified as German, Hungarian and Austrian nationals, while the kidnapped are said to be two Germans, an Ethiopian police officer and a driver.

With newly appointed U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey scheduled to visit Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is prepared to provide an intelligence assessment that indicates Iran has not yet decided to make a nuclear bomb. There has been some speculation the U.S. asked Israel to delay any actions against Iran and its nuclear program, and in a radio interview Barak said Israel was "very far off" from any such decision.

After the U.S. Embassy issued a warning that said, "foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future," police in Thailand say they have detained a Lebanese man with suspected ties to Hezbollah. Earlier the U.S. had informed the Thai government that two suspected Muslim terrorists had entered Thailand.