The Venezuelan National Guard forcibly took control of two bottling plants and began removing beverages that had been stored there. An ally of President Hugo Chavez, General Felipe Acosta, said the action was necessary to prevent food shortages. Venezuela is now in the seventh week of a widespread worker strike in opposition to President Chavez. (BBC)

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it had shut down six email marketers and charged them with selling fake international drivers' licenses. (CNN/Reuters)

President Bush asked the U.S. Congress to approve a plan restricting the maximum awards given for non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000. Bush had initially proposed the plan last year, when it was blocked by Senate Democrats. The law would benefit doctors and insurance companies, but is opposed by trial lawyers. (WaPost)

The Bush administration brief to the Supreme Court concerning the use of racial criteria in the University of Michigan's admissions process did not ask the court to rule against any consideration of race in making admissions decisions, according to the New York Times. The brief did ask the court to rule Michigan's specific admissions procedures unconstitutional, however. The administration may have nuanced its position as stated in the brief in order to increase the argument's palatability to Supreme Court justices. (NYT)

AOL Time Warner said CEO Richard Parsons would replace Steve Case as chairman in May. Parsons will also continue to serve as CEO. (CNet/Reuters)

Further tests found no indication of anthrax on a piece of mail that had been sent to the Federal Reserve Board and had originally tested positive for the deadly bacteria. (UPI)

Argentina and the International Money Fund agreed to a deal in which Argentina will make a $1 billion debt repayment to the IMF in time for a Friday deadline, and the IMF will loan Argentina about $6 billion. It is not clear how Argentina will use the funds to address its current financial crisis. (ABCNews/AP)

Researchers in California announced they had engineered a bacterium that produces an amino acid not produced by any other known organism. The technique they used may be helpful in developing new drugs. (New Scientist)

U.N. weapons experts in Iraq said they had found 11 undeclared warheads capable of carrying chemical weapons. Iraq denied that the warheads were for chemical weapons, and said they had been listed in its December weapons declaration to the U.N. (WaPost/AP)

A Belgian scientist warned that a number of diseases and pests threaten to wipe out the common banana within 10 years. Genetic manipulation could save the plant, the scientist said. (BBC)

Researchers reported findings that some types of insects had evolved to grow wings at least four seperate times over the course of tens of millions of years. (Reuters)

A U.S. District Court judge ordered Microsoft to provide Sun Microsystems' Java software with its own Windows operating system within 120 days. The ruling is expected to be appealed. (ZDNet)

The space shuttle Columbia launched on the U.S. space program's first purely scientific expedition in several years. The shuttle's crew includes the first Israeli astronaut. (CNN)

A local court in Moscow began hearing a claim filed on behalf of the hostages in the October siege of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels. The $59 million lawsuit against the city of Moscow is unusual in Russia, where damage claims are usually small. (BBC)

A Bush administration aid announced a budget forecast predicting a deficit of $200 billion for this year, and as much as $300 billion in 2004. Concerns that the cost of President Bush's proposed tax cut would raise that deficit significantly higher prompted 11 U.S. senators, including five Republicans, to meet to discuss possible alternate proposals. (NYT)

The United States requested a session of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to discuss how to proceed after U.N. weapons inspectors file their Jan. 27 report on Iraq. The chief U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, has indicated that he intended to follow the Jan. 27 report with a more substantial report in March, a schedule the Bush administration does not agree with. (NYT)

A Virginia Juvenile Court judge ruled that 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, the younger of the two sniper suspects accused of killing 13 and wounding 5, can be tried as an adult. If convicted as an adult, Malvo would be eligible for the death penalty. (Yahoo/AP)

Disappointing reports from Intel Corp., DuPont Co. and Automatic Data Processing Inc. pushed stock markets lower. The Dow closed at 8,723.18, down 1.35 percent; the Nasdaq fell to 1,438.80, 1.52 percent lower; and the S&P lost 1.44 percent, closing at 918.22. (Reuters)

In a statement to the U.S. Supreme Court, President Bush opposed the University of Michigan's admissions policy, which gives applicants from "underrepresented minorities" an additional 20 points on a 150-point evaluative scale. The court is considering whether the policy is constitutional. (WaPost)

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will be delayed by up to two-and-a-half years, as the ESA works to fix a fault with the Ariane 5 launcher and adjusts the Rosetta's mission plan. The probe had been scheduled to launch this month and land on the comet Wirtanen in 2010. (Nature)

The FBI said that the whereabouts of 30 vials containing samples of bubonic and pneumonic plague bacteria had all been accounted for. The vials had been reported missing from the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center on Tuesday afternoon. (CNN)

U.N. investigators in the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed that rebel troops in the north-eastern part of the country had raped, tortured, arbitrarily executed and cannibalized victims. The atrocities occurred during the last months of 2002. (BBC)

North Korea refused a recent U.S. offer of aid in exchange for discontinuing its nuclear weapons program. The refusal may or may not itself be a negotiating tactic. (WaPost)

The United States submitted an undisclosed proposal to NATO concerning NATO's possible involvement in a military conflict with Iraq. NATO member Turkey shares a border with Iraq. (BBC)

Britain's Bloomsbury Publishers announced that author J.K. Rowling had finished writing the long-anticipated fifth installment of her highly profitable "Harry Potter" series. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" will be published on June 21. (Yahoo/WSJ)

Tests indicated that a letter addressed to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board showed possible signs of anthrax contamination. The Postal Service sorting facility where the letter was found was not believed to have been contaminated, but was closed as a precaution, officials said. (WaPost)

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1998 Copyright Extension Act did not violate constitutional law or free-speech protections. The so-called Sony Bono Law extends the duration of copyrights by 20 years, to the life of the author plus 70 years. (CNet/Reuters)

South Korea announced that it and North Korea would meet for four days of talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The talks, between cabinet-level government officials, will start Jan. 21. (CNN)

U.N. weapons inspectors visited the Republican Palace, a large presidential residence in Baghdad. (CNN, BBC)

The development of a leukemia-like condition in a second patient in a French gene-therapy trial prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after deliberation, to place a temporary hold on 27 similar trials involving hundreds of patients in the U.S. The French trial has so far successfully treated nine of 11 young boys for a fatal immune deficiency. (NYT, FDA.gov)

President Bush said the U.S. would consider providing energy resources and helping North Korea restructure its agricultural system if North Korea ended its nuclear weapons program. (WaPost)

The U.S. government is concerned about the threat of shoulder-launched missile attacks on passenger planes and is working to develop and implement protective measures, the Washington Post reported. Al Qaeda is believed to have been behind two failed missile attacks on aircraft in the Middle East in the past year. The portable missiles could be smuggled into the United States relatively easily. (WaPost)

The New York Times reported that a senior Bush administration delegate said the administration was willing to negotiate with North Korea concerning its nuclear weapons program. The Washington Post, however, reported that the views of the delegate, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, were not shared by others in the administration. (NYT, WaPost)

A team of astronomers in Chile and Hawaii found three previously undetected moons orbiting Neptune. Neptune is now known to have 11 moons. (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia announced an initiative calling for increased political participation and reform within Arab nations.
(BBC, Ha'aretz)

Pope John Paul said political leaders should make more effort to avoid war in Iraq. It was the first time since the current crisis began that he made a statement about Iraq directly. (Globe&Mail)

The month-long cold spell in Nepal, Bangladesh and Northern India has claimed almost 1,000 lives. (CNN)

Defense contractor Raytheon Co. announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an informal review of accounting practices in its commuter aircraft business from 1997 to 2001. (IHT)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8,785.98, up 0.01 percent. The Nasdaq fell 0.1 percent to 1,446.04. And the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.1 percent, to 926.26. (Yahoo News)

The U.S. Navy will deploy seven ships from California, complementing seven ships that left the United States' east coast earlier today. The ships will carry up to 7,000 U.S. Marines to the Persian Gulf region. (Yahoo News)

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was certain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, and that if Iraq does not surrender them then it should be forcibly disarmed, even if the United Nations fails to approve military action. (BBC)

The Who's Pete Townshend was arrested in London on suspicion of possessing child pornography. (MSNBC)

Arms experts at the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said they "need to take a few months" to complete their work in Iraq. (Reuters)

A federal judge ruled that two trade associations had failed to justify an appeal of the settlement between Microsoft Corp., the U.S. federal government and several U.S. state governments. (Yahoo News)

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Republicans in the U.S. Senate complained to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card that they feel ignored and insulted by the Bush administration, particularly with regard to plans for a possible war with Iraq. (ChiSun-Times)

Venezuelan troops used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up an opposition march on a military base in Caracas. (BBC)

The singer, bassist and keyboardist for the pop band the Bee Gees died while in a hospital in New York seeking treatment for an intestinal blockage. He was 53. (Rolling Stone)

OPEC's decision to increase oil output by 6.5 percent failed to move oil prices significantly lower. The United States' depleted oil reserves, combined with a drop in oil shipments from Venezuela, have raised concerns about a shortfall in the event of war. (BBC)

Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) announced he would seek the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2004. He said he thinks he could do a better job than current president George W. Bush. (CNN)

Dell Computer announced a plan to sell electronic cash registers (including touch screen, bar code scanner and thermal printer). Its new product line will compete with offerings from IBM and NCR. (CNet)

The Los Angeles Times, saying that analysts and activists are concerned about U.S. oil interests there, reported that West African countries have oil, but their regimes are oppressive and corrupt. (LATimes)

Steve Case, who founded America Online and oversaw the company's 2001 merger with Time Warner, will step down in May, prior to AOL/TW's annual shareholder meeting. The company's AOL unit has been performing poorly. (WaPost)

The Washington Post reported that Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have been maneuvering to "dramatically [tighten] their hold on power" by appointing chairmanships by political allegiance instead of seniority in the House; revising internal rules; and voiding the eight-year term limit on House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)'s position. (WaPost)

The U.S. Department of Defense said it believes the U.S. military cannot properly prepare for war if it is subject to existing environmental regulations. (WaPost)

The New York Times reported that the American military shared intelligence, concerning a specific plan to bomb a civilian airliner carrying U.S. troops and supplies, directly with the airline company, "rather than risk any delays from working through domestic law enforcement authorities or federal transportation safety agencies." The Times said that U.S. military officials are more alert than ever to the risks of possible terrorist attacks on U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf. (NYTimes)

The combination of the declining stock market and low interest rates has forced many large corporations to pour cash into their pension plans in order to comply with regulations. General Motors and IBM are particularly hard hit, as are the steel, airline, auto and telecommunications industries. A number of the companies are trying to find a way around the legal regulations. (NYTimes)