10 things you need to know today: January 9, 2015

1. French security forces say they have Charlie Hebdo terrorists cornered

French police early Friday surrounded the two suspects in the deadly terrorist raid on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the country's interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said. Authorities believe the men — brothers Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32 — barricaded themselves inside a printing business northeast of Paris with at least one employee as a hostage. A senior American official said Said Kouachi received terrorist training from al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen in 2011.

The New York Times

2. Obama calls for two years of free community college for U.S. students

President Obama on Friday will propose offering two free years of community college to hardworking students. The America's College Promise could benefit an estimated nine million students nationwide. Tuition for full-time students at public two-year colleges runs around $3,800 per year, so the program could cost tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. First it will have to get through the new Republican-controlled Congress, and House Speaker John Boehner's press secretary said without firm cost details Obama's pitch is "more like a talking point than a plan."

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The Wall Street Journal The Washington Post

3. Boko Haram raids destroy towns and leave 2,000 feared dead

More than 2,000 people were missing and feared dead after attacks by militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram attacked 10 villages in Nigeria. "These towns are just gone, burned down," Ahmed Zanna, a senator for the area raided by the terrorists. "The whole area is covered in bodies." Boko Haram has been fighting to establish an Islamic state since 2009. The conflict has driven 1.5 million people out of their homes, and left more than 2,000 dead last year.

BBC News NBC News

4. Democrat Barbara Boxer says she will retire from the Senate

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and liberal standard-bearer, announced Thursday that she would not run for another term in 2016. Boxer's retirement comes after more than 30 years in Congress. She said — in an interview by her grandson that was posted on her political website — that she planned to return to her home state to continue fighting for causes she believes in through her political action committee. "I am never going to retire," the 74-year-old politician said. "The work is too important."

Los Angeles Times

5. Ohio stops using controversial lethal-injection combination

Ohio on Thursday announced that it would stop using a controversial two-drug cocktail for lethal injections. The state expects its supply of one of the drugs, the sedative midazolam, to run out by April 1. Anesthesiologists have said midazolam does not adequately sedate condemned inmates during executions. The first time the combination was used, last January, the inmate snored and snorted for minutes on the gurney, leading to a moratorium. Ohio postponed a Feb. 11 execution, presumably due to the complications.

TIME

6. Economists expect job growth to reduce unemployment to 5.7 percent

Economists expect the December employment report to show that job growth remained strong, with nonfarm employers adding 240,000 jobs. The consensus prediction would be below November's strong addition of 321,000 jobs, but robust enough to help reduce unemployment to 5.7 percent, from 5.8 percent.

CNBC

7. Honda agrees to pay $70 million fine

Honda Motor Co. will pay $70 million in penalties under a deal with the U.S. government for failing to report 1,729 cases involving injuries or deaths involving its cars, officials said Thursday. Honda's two $35 million fines add up to the most any automaker has had to pay due to an investigation by the National Highway Transportation Administration. The agency's rules require car companies report possible defects in their vehicles as soon as possible.

Reuters

8. Court rules Connecticut can force teen to undergo chemo

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a teenager suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma can be forced to undergo potentially life-saving chemotherapy against her will. The girl's mother, Jackie Fortin, said her daughter, identified only as Cassandra C., "doesn't want to put 'poison' in her body." The state's highest court sided with the trial court, saying state officials could take over the teen's care because she had not shown she was "capable of acting independently concerning her life threatening medical condition."

The Washington Post

9. Stocks erase 2015 losses in two-day surge

U.S. stocks bounced back strong on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial average gaining 323 points. Added to a 213-point gain the day before, the surge erased all of the losses the big-stock index suffered in the first trading sessions of the year. Before the turnaround, the Dow had posted its worst three-day start to any year since 2008. The two-day rally put the Dow up 0.5 percent so far in 2015.

USA Today

10. Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes

A liberal blogger, Raif Badawi, has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia on charges including cybercrime, disobeying his father, and abandoning his Muslim faith. Badawi, founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, is due to receive the first round of 50 lashes on Friday, the human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. The rest of the flogging is to be imposed over 50 weeks. Badawi also was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a $266,666 fine.

Reuters