World

SAN DIEGO, Calif, (Reuters) – Once powerful Mexican  drug lord Benjamin Arellano Felix pleaded guilty in a U.S. 

RIO BRAVO, Mexico,  (Reuters) – A fight between rival gangs inside a prison in  northern Mexico left 31 inmates dead in the latest violence to  erupt inside the country’s overcrowded jails, local officials  said yesterday.

DES MOINES, Iowa/MANCHESTER, N.H., (Reuters) –   Michele Bachmann was out, Rick Perry was back and Rick  Santorum was up in the most volatile Republican presidential  nominating contest in decades yesterday, as conservative  Republicans searched for an alternative to frontrunner Mitt  Romney.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Two white men were jailed yesterday for murdering a black teenager in London 1993, a  landmark case which exposed the “institutional racism” of the  capital’s police in an official inquiry into the initial botched  investigation.

LAGO AGRIO (Reuters) – An Ecuadorean  appeals court yesterday upheld a ruling that Chevron Corp   should pay $18 billion in damages to plaintiffs who  accused the U.S.

BEIRUT – The commander of Syria’s armed rebels threatened yesterday to step up attacks on President Bashar al-Assad’s  forces, saying he was frustrated with Arab League monitors’ lack  of progress in ending a government crackdown on protests.

TEHRAN, (Reuters) – Iran threatened yesterday  to take action if the U.S.

NIAMEY, (Reuters) – Arsonists set fire to part  of Niger’s Justice Ministry day, destroying files used in  anti-corruption investigations including probes into a number of  judges, the government said.

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – The Commonwealth, Australia  and New Zealand called on Fiji’s military ruler, Commodore Frank  Bainimarama, to hold credible elections and restore democracy  after he announced an end to emergency laws imposed since 2009.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A British court yesterday  convicted two men of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen  Lawrence, a landmark case that exposed racism in the London  police and led to a change in the law allowing suspects to be  tried twice for the same crime.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong-un and protect him as “human shields” while working to solve the “burning issue” of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong-il.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has armed itself with some of the toughest sanctions yet targeting Iran but must carefully assess how to avoid catching energy-importing allies such as Japan, South Korea and India in the crossfire.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Humanity faces a decisive challenge – educating new generations in justice and peace in order to avoid the violent tragedies of the past, Pope Benedict said in his New Year address on Sunday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Armed Syrian rebels captured dozens of members of the security forces by seizing two military checkpoints yesterday, the opposition said, even as the Arab League chief reported cautious progress in a peace monitoring mission.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest yesterday against the government and its new Basic Law in a show of anxiety over what they see as the ruling Fidesz party’s moves to weaken democratic institutions and cement its powers.

ABUJA (Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency yesterday in parts of Nigeria plagued by a violent Islamist insurgency, and ordered shut the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran said it had delayed promised long-range missile tests in the Gulf yesterday and signalled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its disputed nuclear programme.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy should mass protests nearly in their 10th month succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters yesterday.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Shi’ite youths chanting slogans against Bahrain’s royal family clashed with riot police across the Gulf island kingdom yesterday, trying to block highways in a second day of protests, residents said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A 15-year-old Afghan girl was brutally tortured, beaten and locked in a toilet by her husband’s family for months after she refused to become a prostitute, officials said yesterday.