Managua, May 3 (RHC) -- Thousands of Nicaraguans, along with representatives of Latin American governments, parties and social organizations, paid their last respects to Sandinista Commander Tomás Borge during a heavily attended posthumous tribute led by President Daniel Ortega.

Bogotá, May 3 (RHC) -- Cross-border crime and new forms of crime in the region will be the high points of a three-day meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which got underway Thursday in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

Vienna, May 3 (RHC)-- Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh has stressed the importance of eliminating the world’s arsenal of 23,000 nuclear weapons.

Mexico City, May 3 (NNN-MERCOPRESS-RHC) -- Mexico’s Central Bank announced a 5.3-percent increase of remittances sent by nationals living abroad in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the same period of last year.

Beijing, May 3 (RHC)-- Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Thursday that China and the United States should promote peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.  Hu made the remarks when addressing the opening session of the fourth round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S&ED) in Beijing.

La Paz, May 3 (RHC) -- The Confederation of Bolivian Workers called a national meeting for Thursday to review progress of three commissions currently negotiating with the government.

Paris, May 3 (RHC)-- Following a nearly three-hour televised debate in Paris last night, most analysts agreed that the obvious winner was Francois Hollande, the presidential candidate of France's Socialist Party, who faces off against incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in elections on Sunday.

Bogotá, May 3 (PL-RHC) -- Ministers of Defence of Colombia, Juan Carlos Pinzón, and Brazil, Celso Amorim, discussed joint plans on security and cooperation during a bilateral meeting on Wednesday.

Ramallah, May 3 (RHC)-- Protests are continuing in the occupied West Bank in an ongoing show of solidarity with a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners.  On Wednesday, Israeli troops fired tear gas at hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators marching on the military camp of Ofer.

Tel Aviv, May 3 (RHC)-- The Israeli military has ended an internal probe of its killing of 21 members of a Palestinian family, concluding it was not at fault.

Tel Aviv, May 3 (RHC)-- The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting the Barack Obama administration has agreed to an Israeli government request to thwart a United Nations panel investigating settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Washington, May 3 (RHC)-- A U.S. federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold former George W. Bush administration lawyer John Yoo accountable for authoring the "torture memos" that permitted harsh abuses on detainees.

Lima, May 3 (ANDINA-RHC) -- Peruvian President Ollanta Humala will pay an official visit to South Korea from May 10 to 12. Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affair said the program of activities scheduled for the South American leader includes a meeting with his counterpart, Lee Myung Bak, and carrying out investment and trade promotion activities.

Washington, May 3 (RHC)-- The Barack Obama administration is reportedly seeking to ease barriers to exporting guns and other weapons abroad in the hopes of improving trade and sales by U.S. firms.

Caracas, May 3 (venezuelanalysis.com-RHC) -- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Venezuela have agreed to take measures to execute their 2009 memorandum of understanding (MOU) towards the elimination of malaria in West Africa.