Worker

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Workers around the world united in anger during May Day rallies Wednesday - from fury in Europe over years of austerity measures that have cut wages, reduced benefits and eliminated many jobs altogether, to rage in Asia over relentlessly low pay, the rising cost of living and hideous working conditions that have left hundreds dead in recent months alone. In protests, parades, strikes and other demonstrations held in cities across the planet, activists lashed out at political and business leaders they allege have ignored workers' voices or enriched themselves at the expense of laborers during what has been a difficult few years for the global economy.

SEOUL - After North Korea on Friday rejected formal talks to resolve a standoff at a jointly operated border industrial complex, South Korea said it would call home its remaining workers from the facility, formally severing the last major connection between the two countries. South Korea's decision diminishes the already slim odds of the complex's survival and widens a divide between Seoul and Pyongyang that has grown during weeks of back-and-forth threats. The Kaesong Industrial Complex had stood as the chief symbol of cooperation between the neighbors after opening in 2004 as a capitalist bubble on the northern side of the border where South Korean companies employed cheap North Korean labor.

FANNIE MAE ASKEW loved to sing the old gospel songs. Songs like "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" and "How Great Thou Art" seemed to take her closer to her spiritual home. Even in her final illness, Fannie was singing the hymns. A daughter of the South, Fannie Mae worked for the Philadelphia School District as a cafeteria helper at Pepper Middle School, and was an active member of Mount Zion Baptist Church for many years. She died Tuesday at age 93. She was living in Newtown Square and had lived previously in Southwest Philadelphia.

There's a constant clamor that the United States is falling behind in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) capabilities, but that's not really the problem, says a Rutgers University professor who is weighing in on the immigration debate now taking place in Washington. The problem, he said, is that various work visas are bringing in so many STEM workers from other countries who are willing to work for lower wages that U.S. STEM graduates either can't command the pay they expected or can't find jobs in their fields.

TACARIGUA, Venezuela - The razor-close vote to replace late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sparked what opposition leaders and human-rights groups say is a government crackdown on public employees who either didn't back Chavez's handpicked successor or failed to show sufficient support for the ruling party. The April 14 election had revealed a major shift in public support away from the Chavez program as problems such as food shortages, soaring inflation and crime, as well as the absence of the late leader's famous charm, led hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to back the opposition for the first time since Chavez took power 14 years ago. It was an ominous start for successor Nicolas Maduro's government, which is struggling to write the second chapter of the country's socialist transformation amid deepening economic problems and widening divisions in a bureaucracy and public that once solidly backed Chavez.

ATLANTIC CITY - Craig Snow of Hope Force International arrived in Atlantic City from Nashville two days after Sandy. "I was about to leave because I didn't think that Atlantic City got hit," said Snow, a tall, bald, neatly dressed out-of-towner, now ensconced in a fourth-floor office suite in a dreary building on New York Avenue. "Then I realized Atlantic City did not have the dramatic but did have the traumatic. " A veteran of rebuilding in Biloxi, Miss., and New Orleans, Snow's and other missionary groups dug in for the long haul in this casino town, setting up the Atlantic City Long Term Recovery Group and securing nearly $1 million in grants to help rebuild.

"RENOIR" aims to do for the great Auguste Renoir what "The Last Station" did for Leo Tolstoy. It's a lovely, painterly period piece that mimics the colors of Renoir's art, but one that never manages to find the warm, beating heart of the man. His paintings inspired passion in art galleries and museums, and in those who surrounded him and tended to his needs as he soldiered on, ravaged by old age, hell-bent on capturing more "beauty" at the expense of...

Mary Elizabeth Whitehead, 86, of Mount Airy, a retired bank worker who enjoyed playing pinochle, traveling, and cooking, died Tuesday, March 26, of cancer at her home. Mrs. Whitehead "was very outgoing," said her daughter, Sylvia Adrienne Faltz. "She always had good advice for the young and old. " She was the mother of John Whitehead, who with Gene McFadden made up the singing and songwriting duo of McFadden and Whitehead. The pair were known for their 1979 hit, "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now. " The song, ubiquitous in the early 1980s, was the unofficial anthem for the Phillies as they won the 1980 World Series and the Eagles as they competed in the 1981 Super Bowl.

Joseph W. Strode Jr., 83, of West Chester, an acclaimed community worker, died of a kidney ailment Monday, April 8, at Chester County Hospital. Mr. Strode was the third-generation partner in Strode's Sausage & Scrapple, a business in West Chester that his grandfather started in 1876. The family had the distinction of operating one of the original booths in the Reading Terminal Market. He sold out in the 1980s. The son of Ethel and Joseph Strode, Mr. Strode spent his life in West Chester.

WASHINGTON - Senior Pentagon leaders are taking another look at sharply reducing the number of unpaid furlough days that department civilians will have to take in the coming months, suggesting they may be able to cut the number from 14 to as few as seven, defense officials said Thursday. If the number is reduced, it would be the second time the Pentagon has cut the number of furlough days. It had initially been set at 22 days. The officials say no decision has been made and that they are not ruling out efforts to drop the furloughs entirely.