Venus and Serena Dominate
Today both Venus and Serena Williams beat their opponents in the Australian Open. Serena, the defending champion for the Open, beat Petra Kvitova 6-1, 6-2. Venus defeated Sybille Bammer 6-2, 7-5. If the sisters continue to advance, they will face each other during the semifinals. The final competition takes place on Jan. 30. [AP]

Mass Graves Do Nothing to Stop Impending Disease
To deal with the people who died during Haiti's earthquake, earth movers have dug in to a hillside that is said to be north of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Once the digging is completed, 10,000 dead Haitians will be buried in a single day. This solution to the mass amounts of carnage left by the quake does nothing to quell the impending infection rates, though; doctors anticipate outbreaks of diarrhea and respiratory tract infections, among others, due to the amount of people that are crowded in makeshift hospitals and camps as well as the lack of sanitation, which will cause many more to die. [Washington Post]

After Scott Brown's Win, Democrats Look for Health Care Alternative
Since Scott Brown's unexpected win in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama and House and Senate Democrats are looking for a more muted alternative to the original version of health care reform. With Brown's win, Democrats lost their 60th seat to pass the hotly contested bill and now look to find other more smaller versions of the bill so that they may put their attention on other pressing items, such as job creation. [Business Week]


Americans Dislike Islam the Most
According to the Gallup World Religion Survey, which will be released on Thursday, of Christians, Jews and Buddhists, Americans dislike Muslims the most, even though many admitted they knew little about the faith. Part of the goal of the survey is finding ways to improve relations between the American and Muslim worlds. [Guardian]

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