International

Retired Soviet General Valentin Varennikov died in Moscow on Wednesday at the age of 85.

Gen Varennikov joined the Red Army after graduating from an officers' school in 1942 and was sent directly to the front.

They were all there. Over 40 of the best known singers and players of people’s songs performed May 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York. They were celebrating the 90th birthday of Pete Seeger, who sings songs to bring people together.

Germany: Nuclear withdrawal a campaign issue

Ethiopia: Arrests pose quandary for U.S.

Australia: Controversy over refugee rights

Ecuador: President Correa wins

Cuba: Foreign ministers hear from Raul Castro

Walmart’s plan to cull an entire layer of management from about 150 stores nationwide may have stalled temporarily but many employees fear the company will simply find another way of removing unwanted staff.

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 (IPS) - The issue of nuclear disarmament being discussed with new vigour in the halls of the U.N. as the third and final preparatory committee leading up to the 2010 review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) meets over the next two weeks.

Tel Aviv, May 6 (Prensa Latina) Israeli planes bombed underground tunnels on the southern Gaza border with Egypt, with Tel Aviv describing a UN report as biased which denounces Israeli aggressions against UN offices in the area. Israeli military planes flew over the Philadelphia Corridor separating Gaza from the Egyptian Sinai and destroyed three arm traffic routes to Gaza, with no victims reported, according to Israeli military forces and Palestinian media reports.

Iraqi scientists join forces with Americans to save antiquities

CHICAGO — The world cried in the spring of 2003, during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But perhaps archaeologists cried the hardest.

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 (IPS) - The United States is considering whether to endorse a major U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for the recognition of the rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples over their lands and resources.

MEXICO (Prensa Latina) Amid a battle with the H1N1 influenza virus, Mexicans must now deal with an economic emergency declared by the Federal District. La Jornada daily, quoting Governor Marcelo Ebrad, says the 2009 quarterly global indicators of economic activity dove seven percent. Mexico City was hardest hit, with home purchases dropping 40 percent.

JOHANNESBURG May 5 (Prensa Latina) The South African Parliament is expected to choose Jacob Zuma as the new South African President for the next five years, Wednesday. With 65.9 percent of the deputies of the South African National Assembly supporting him, it is anticipated that the African National Congress will elect Zuma, 67 years old and now head of the ANC.