"Little-known disease found to be a threat to millions", “What President Obama Plans to Say in His Final State of the Union Speech”, “New Deputy Chairman of National Security Committee of Kazakhstan named", “Kazakh tenge plunges to historic low again”, “U

aljazeera.com. "Little-known disease found to be a threat to millions" - Difficult to diagnose but deadly bacterial disease, melioidosis, found likely to be endemic in many tropical countries. Research into the little-known but deadly bacterial disease melioidosis has revealed that millions of people are at threat. Also known as Whitmore's disease, the illness is caught from skin contact, inhaling or by drinking contaminated water infected with the bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei.

abcnews.go.com. “What President Obama Plans to Say in His Final State of the Union Speech" - In his final State of the Union address, President Obama plans to talk about the need to "fix our politics" in order to ensure that opportunity and security in America are strong. A White House official says this is slated to be President Obama's shortest State of the Union speech. His shortest State of the Union address to this point clocked in at 52 minutes in 2009.

akipress.com. “New Deputy Chairman of National Security Committee of Kazakhstan named" - Marat Osipov was appointed Deputy Chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan.

azh.kz. “Kazakh tenge plunges to historic low again" - The average weighted rate of tenge in morning trading session on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) has plunged to its historic low on Tuesday. Kazakhstan's currency fell to 370 tenge per $1 in three currency exchange offices in Astana. Other exchange offices were trading for 362,62 tenge per 1 dollar. The trades volume amounted to $82.9 million.

reuters.com. “U.N. war crimes investigators gathering testimony from starving Syrian town" - Residents of a besieged Syrian town have told U.N. investigators how the weakest in their midst, deprived of food and medicines in violation of international law, are suffering starvation and death, the top U.N. war crimes investigator told Reuters on Tuesday. An aid convoy on Monday brought the first food and medical relief for three months to the western town of Madaya, where 40,000 people are trapped by encircling government forces. Another United Nations official who oversaw the aid delivery described on Tuesday how he saw malnourished residents, particularly children, some of whom were little more than skeletons and barely moving.

wired.com. “Science Can Tell if North Korea's Test Was Really an H-Bomb”- IT WAS THE whomp felt 'round the world. At around 1:30 AM UTC, Jan 5, monitoring stations—over two dozen total in North America, Asia, and Europe—picked up a telltale seismic rattle. They triangulated the signal back to its source in North Korea's northeastern highlands at almost the exact moment that the rogue nation distributed a triumphal press release declaring that it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.