Prion Researchers discover prions spreading through airborne transmission on aerosol particles, in an animal testing experiment focusing on scrapie infection in laboratory mice.
South Korea South Korea buries 1.4 million domestic pigs alive after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
United States Senate U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas, announces she will not seek re-election in 2012.
England Voters in the English constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth go to the polls for a by-election resulting in a win by Labour candidate Debbie Abrahams.
Taoiseach Taoiseach Brian Cowen again announces he is not resigning amid continuing speculation of a motion of no confidence following his admission that he dined and played golf with Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick before the bank's nationalisation.
Referendum The South Sudanese independence referendum, 2011 is confirmed by organisers to have had a turnout above the necessary threshold needed for it to be valid.
Nigeria Thousands of members of Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party begin voting on whether incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan should be their choice of candidate in April presidential elections.
WikiLeaks The WikiLeaks website honours a pledge made in July by offering financial aid to the legal team of Bradley Manning, a soldier accused by the United States of providing secret U.S. embassy cables for international public consumption.
Turkish Prime Minister Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responds to Avigdor Liberman's recent controversial comments about Turkey by advising Israel to replace him with another person in his role as foreign minister. Editorials in right and left-wing Israeli newspapers also call for Liberman to be sacked after his comments offended Israel's Turkish counterparts.
Tajikistan Tajikistan's lower house of parliament ratifies an agreement to turn over 380 square miles (approx. 1,000 square kilometers) of territory to China, ending a century-old conflict over disputed territory.
Chemical tanker A tanker carrying sulfuric acid capsizes in the Rhine in Germany with two crew members missing.
Vietnam Three people drown and six are missing after a boat taking people home from an engagement ceremony capsized in northern Vietnam.
Sri Lanka More than one million people are affected by flooding in Sri Lanka, with 21 dead and 270,000 made homeless.
Floods in Queensland, Australia The death toll reaches at least 15 and is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
Flood waters peak in Brisbane, Australia, missing historic levels but still threatening thousands of homes.
Floods in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil President Dilma Rousseff announces a R$ 780 million ($466.2 million) emergency relief budget for the areas affected.
Standard & Poor's Major credit rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s warn the U.S. that its increasing national debt may lead to a lowering of the nation's credit rating.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revokes a permit for a proposed coal mine in West Virginia which would have been one of America's largest citing "destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water".
China China is reported to have the highest wind power capacity after adding 16GW in 2010, bringing its total to 41.8GW, with the U.S. in second with 40.2GW installed.
Borders Group Executives of the troubled U.S. book retailer Borders meet with publishers to appeal for financing.
Israeli–Lebanese conflict The Israeli army returns Lebanese shepherd Charbel Tanious Khoury, whom it abducted on Wednesday when he crossed the blue line and entered Israeli territory, after interrogating him. He is the third Lebanese shepherd to be captured by Israel in the past year. Israel conducts 14 surveillance flights over Lebanese territory.
Israel places troops stationed in northern Israel on high alert following the collapse of the Lebanese government.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia A British cruise ship avoids a possible Somali pirate attack 100 mi off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean.
Ivory Coast Forces loyal to incumbent Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo attack and burn United Nations vehicles.
Protests in Tunisia President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali gives a televised address during which he attempts to appease protesters by vowing not to seek re-election in 2014. He also promises an end to live firing of "real bullets": three more people are killed in the Tunis suburb of Aouina less than an hour later.
At least six people are killed in further clashes: three in Menzel Bourguiba, one in Bizerte and one in Tataouine.