Kenneth Bigley, a British hostage held in Iraq, appeared alive in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera. Seen in a cage wearing an orange jumpsuit, Bigley said "Tony Blair is lying. He doesn't care about me". (BBC)
Reports that ransom was paid to secure yesterday's release of two Italian aid workers raise fears that the burgeoning hostage crises will worsen. Gustavo Selva, an Italian lawmaker, states that "The sum ($1 million) is probably correct". To date about 130 foreigners have been taken hostage. About 30 of these have been killed. (Reuters)Archived 2005-01-05 at the Wayback Machine
Five masked men armed with bats and chains attack Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams outside the Israeli settlement of Ma'on in Hebron while the volunteers were escorting Palestinian children to school. CPT alleges the assaults are part of an ongoing pattern of intimidation by Israeli Settlers. (BBC)(Haaretz)(Al Jazeera)
Two Israeli children, aged three and five, are killed after a Qassam rocket attack from Palestinian terrorists on the town of Sderot. Hamas claimed the attack was launched in retaliation for the Israeli raid of the Jabaliya refugee camp, which left four Palestinians dead. (BBC)(Haaretz)
Two Palestinianteenagers are killed and power supplies are knocked out after an Israeli raid on the Jabaliya refugee camp. The raid was launched in retaliation for the rocket attacks on the town of Sderot which left two children dead. (BBC)
The asteroid4179 Toutatis passes within 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers, or about four times the distance from Earth to the Moon) of Earth. Toutatis is the largest known asteroid to pass this close to Earth. (Space.com)
The Montréal Expos play their last game at the Olympic Stadium in Montréal against the Florida Marlins in front of over 30,000 fans