Two people have been killed and 17 injured in an attack on a police station in southern Colombia.

Officials said an explosive device was thrown at the police station in Orito, killing the wife and eight-month-old baby of the local commander.

Police said the country's largest left-wing guerrilla group, the Farc, had launched the attack.

Officials also suspect the rebels to be behind a bomb attack on a police station in Cauca province on Saturday.

More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16375202

Desperate for a late lift in Iowa, Republican Michele Bachmann is increasingly stressing a distinction in the presidential field: She's the only woman competing for the nomination.

The Minnesota congresswoman has made the gender card central to her closing argument. She's urging voters to embrace the idea of a "strong woman in the White House" and is molding herself as "America's Iron Lady" in the vein of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

It's a play that carries as much risk as potential reward because some of the ardent religious conservatives she's aggressively courting have traditional views about gender roles.

History is not on Bachmann's side, either. Iowa has never elected a woman as governor or to its congressional delegation, a footnote shared only with Mississippi.

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/bachmann-plays-gender-card-iowa-gop-vote-nears-140934217.html

Virginia's top lawyer on Sunday announced he will not proceed with his plan to file emergency legislation to change the Virginia law that has kept most of the GOP candidates off the primary ballot, the Richmond-Times Dispatch reports.

"I obviously feel very strongly that Virginia needs to change its ballot-access requirements for our statewide elections," Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said in a statement.

"However, after working through different scenarios with Republican and Democratic leaders to attempt to make changes in time for the 2012 presidential election, my concern grows that we cannot find a way to make such changes fair to the Romney and Paul campaigns that qualified even with Virginia's burdensome system.

"A further critical factor that I must consider is that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law — something I am particularly sensitive to as Virginia's attorney general."

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-attorney-general-drops-effort-gop-candidates-primary-095542634.html

Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems.

A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection.

Boeing partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp to retain the work.

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/boeing-wins-3-48-billion-u-missile-defense-020950294.html

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has blamed the US for being behind the recent wave of protests in Russia against the outcome of the Dec 4 parliamentary elections.

Chavez Wednesday said the US was attempting to destabilize Russia, and repeat the scenario in Egypt, Libya, Syria and the nations of South America.

'There goes the madness of the empire,' Chavez said on Venezuela de Television.

Political rallies have been held all across Russia since the disputed Duma elections, the largest of which, in Moscow, drew tens of thousands of protesters in an unprecedented display of opposition.

More at: http://in.news.yahoo.com/chavez-sees-us-hand-russia-protests-102856512.html