World in brief: May 19, 2010

CARACUS, Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez has invited Bolivian President Evo Morales and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to join Twitter. Chavez stresses that relations over cyber space will help strengthen the alliance between the three nations.

Chavez currently has over 360,000 followers on Twitter.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories
The United Nations has assisted in distributing rugged laptops to thousands of school children.

The initiative is designed to help bolster the education of children in developing countries. Their goal is to distribute 500,000 laptops within Gaza by 2012.

VOLGOGRAD, Russia
On April 30, businessman Vasily Bukhtienko, founder of the Josef Stalin museum near the site of the Battle of Stalingrad, was murdered by three assailants. He was struck in the leg with an electroshock device on a tennis court then beaten brutally.

Motive is still unknown.