World

TEHRAN/LONDON, (Reuters) – Iran announced yesterday new military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, but the West has readied plans to use strategic oil stocks to replace almost all Gulf oil lost if Iran blocks the waterway, industry sources and diplomats told Reuters.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 26  people and wounded 63 in Damascus yesterday, Syria’s interior  minister said, vowing an “iron fist” response to the carnage in  the heart of the Syrian capital after similar attacks two weeks  ago.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Colombian authorities  said they plan to hand over a pregnant 15-year-old Texas girl to  U.S.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Retirees looking to stretch  their pensions might consider spending their golden years in  Ecuador, Panama or Mexico, where cost of living is low and the  weather is warm, according to a new index.

LIMA, (Reuters) – Dutch citizen Joran Van der  Sloot, poised to plead guilty, went on trial yesterday on  charges of killing a young Peruvian woman in 2010, five years to  the day after a U.S.

BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – Bomb attacks in mainly Shi’ite  Muslim areas of Iraq killed at least 73 people and wounded  scores on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, raising  fears of an increase in sectarian strife.

LIMA, (Reuters) – Peru said on Thursday the  Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has been “abusing” its  powers and should be urgently reformed, joining a growing number  of Latin American countries to attack the panel after being  faulted for rights abuses.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – Kenya is investigating an  accusation by a security guard that the deputy chief justice  threatened her with a pistol during a security check at an  upmarket shopping mall on New Year’s eve, police and the  judiciary said yesterday.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombians closed shops and  stayed off the roads yesterday in parts of the North after  threats by one of the country’s main drug gangs sparked fear of  violent retribution for the killing of the group’s leader,  police said.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A New York City man  accused in a series of New Year’s Day Molotov cocktail attacks  that hit a mosque and a Hindu place of worship has been ordered  held without bail, prosecutors said yesterday.

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The European Union will  open a representative office in Myanmar to manage aid programmes  and promote political dialogue, an EU spokesman said yesterday.

LONDON, (Reuters) – London’s police must end  their cosy relationship with the media that has damaged their  reputation and seen officers leaking confidential information to  journalists in late-night drinking sessions, a report said yesterday.

PILAR (Reuters) – Argentina’s  popular president, Cristina Fernandez, is recovering well after  undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer yesterday, setting the  stage for her return to work later this month.

BERLIN, (Reuters) – German President Christian  Wulff admitted yesterday making a “grave mistake” by trying  to stop a paper publishing an embarrassing story about a home  loan, but said he had no plans to resign.

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.