Russia:
* Our duty is to safeguard peace achieved by the victory in the 1941-45 war against Nazi Germany, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a military parade in Moscow
* A military parade dedicated to the 66th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War was launched on Moscow’s Red Square at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (06:00 GMT)
* Thousands of members of the Communist Party marched downtown Moscow proclaiming the socialist model as the only way for Russia’s revival and development
* Environmental activists have criticized Russian police for using heavy-handed tactics after they detained at least 25 people at a rally against the demolition of mature woodland near Moscow to make way for a new highway to St. Petersburg
World:
* Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said Tehran has evidence that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had died of disease long before the United States’ alleged raid on the terrorist, FARS Iranian news agency said
* Hundreds of Libyan refugees are feared dead after an overcrowded ship carrying some 600 people trying to flee Libya sank just outside of the port of Tripoli, world media reported
* The death toll from the recent 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in Japan has reached 14,919 people, while 9,893 remain unaccounted for, Kyodo news agency reported citing police data
* Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), detected a potentially dangerous radiation level at the damaged No. 1 reactor of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Kyodo news agency said
* Japan has no plans to dispose its spent nuclear fuel overseas, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chiaki Takahashi was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying
* FIFA will work together with the International police agency Interpol to fight against match-fixing and betting fraud
Business:
* Russia’s most popular internet search engine, Yandex, set a price range of its proposed initial public offering (IPO) of Class A ordinary shares on Nasdaq at $20.00 to $22.00 per share, the company said in a statement
* The strength of iPhone and iPad sales has pushed Apple ahead of Google for the first time as the most valuable brand in the world, global brands agency Millward Brown said in an annual report