World: Twenty-five people died and hundreds were injured as riot police spearheaded by armored cars and water cannon made a bloody assault on protesters in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. Nine policemen were among the dead.

  When the armored cars tried to smash through protesters’ barriers they were set on fire with police officers inside. Police used stun grenades that wounded many with plastic shrapnel. Protesters responded with Molotov cocktails, rocks, and fireworks. They built a perimeter of fire that burned through the night.

The protesters are trying to overturn the government of President Viktor Yanukovych after he decided to establish closer ties with Russia rather than Europe. Opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk shouted over a loudspeaker, “We see that this regime started shooting at people again. They want to drown Ukraine in blood.”

>The BBC reports that Egypt is taking seriously a terrorist ultimatum to get all tourists out of the country within 48 hours. The threat carried on Twitter follows a bomb attack on a tourist bus that killed four people. The State Department issued an alert Jan. 30^th warning Americans of the risks of travelling in Egypt.  

Nation: A 13-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania is closed today after a 50-vehicle pileup on the icy highway.

Econ 101: Raising the minimum wage would cost some people their jobs while raising twice as many out of poverty, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office. While half million a million people could lose work by the end of 2016, a million would benefit, according to the CBO. In other economic news, bad weather and high costs have been holding back the market for new homes, according to the National Assn. of Home Builders. The association says the majority of homebuilders see market conditions as “poor.” Some analysts take that as a sign that the economy is weaker than previously thought.

The Obit Page: Bob Casale, a guitarist who was one of the original members of the 70s New Wave group “Devo,” died of heart failure at 61. Casale is the second member the group has lost. Drummer Alan Myers died of cancer at age 58 last April.

Sochi: All the following results have already appeared on television.

-With wet snow falling, David Wise of Reno won the first-ever Olympic halfpipe for skiing. He’s 23 and married with a two-year-old child. Pretty grounded for a high flyer. Wise had already won three gold medals in the Winter X Games.

-Russia was eliminated from the men’s hockey tournament with a 3-1 loss to Finland. For millions of Russians, hockey is the only event that matters.

-The Orange Crush continues as the Dutch finished 1,2, and 3 in the men’s 10,000 meter speed skating with Jorrit Bergsma setting an Olympic record. The Netherlands has won 21 speed skating medals and one in short track at Sochi.

Icy: Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir complained yesterday that their coach wasn’t fully in their corner for the competition. Virtue and Moir, who won silver, share coach Marina Zoueva with gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the US. “We expected Marina to be on our team and work with us like in Vancouver,” Moir said. The pair won gold in the last Olympics. Their coach Russian-born coach said in her thick accent, “I made them first, and now they are second. It’s OK, really.”

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