Minimum Wages are going up in some parts of the world – Brunei today begins a new system in which gays can be stoned to death – Hundreds of abandoned immigrants are rescued from death’s door  – Hey Comrades, it’s May Day.. Glory to the Workers’ inevitable triumph against global class oppression to be achieved through constant struggle and revolutionary fervor!  These are your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

President Nicolas Maduro will raise Venezuela’s minimum wage by 30 percent today, a gift before May Day celebrations.  Critics, including conservative leader Henrique Capriles, point out that’s still below the level of annual inflation, which was 56.2 percent last year.  Maduro replies that he is not ruling out another hike later this year.  This all comes after nearly three months of bitter street protests in areas that traditionally vote for the opposition. 

In America, conservative Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage from US$7.25 (A$7.80) to US$10.10 (A$10.88) per hour.  Doesn’t seem like much compared to wonderful Australia, does it?  Hey, it’s still three-times higher than Venezuela!  Anyhow, no one actually expected the bill to get through, given the gridlock in Washington which has Republicans refusing to pass any legislation favored by the President Obama.  States and municipalities with Democratic majorities are trying to get the ball rolling on their own.  For example, Hawaii hours earlier had increased its minimum wage to Obama’s preferred $10.10.  And Seattle is considering $15 per hour – the level demanded in a growing series of strikes by fast food and retail workers across America.

There’s been another massive demonstration in Brazil against the amount of money being spent on the World Cup, just weeks away.  This time, people in Sao Paulo decried the state of healthcare and public transportation as the red carpet is being rolled out for international tourists who can afford to cross oceans and hemispheres to see a game.

At least nine people are dead and 319 were rescued in “dire condition” in Sudan’s desert border near Libya.  It’s believed they are immigrants who were abandoned by the smugglers they paid to help get them across the desert to Libya’s Mediterranean ports.  That’s where thousands of would-be asylum seekers are packed onto rickety boats for dangerous journeys to Italy or Greece.  Amnesty International last year revealed that refugees from the Horn of Africa are often raped, beaten, chained up, held for ransom, or even killed attempting the dangerous journey north.

From today, gays can be stoned to death if they are prosecuted in Brunei.  Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah confirmed that his interpretation of Islamic Sharia law will replace real law in the city state.  Human rights advocates have condemned it as the return of medieval punishments out of touch with the 21st century.  Around the world, organizations are boycotting Brunei holdings – for example, the US women’s rights group Feminist Majority Foundation is pulling its award ceremony out of the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is part of the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection hotel group.

Thailand's Election Commission and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to hold a general election on 20 July.  But the conservative and monarchist opposition who disrupted a vote in February said they still wanted to see electoral reforms before a new poll.  By “reform”, they mean skewing the rules to preclude Yingluck’s brother Thaksin from wielding influence in Thailand.  Thaksin Shinawatra is a telecom billionaire who came to political power with populist policies such as free health care and development loans for the poor. 

The US says al Qaeda’s “core organization” had been severely degraded.  But affiliates in Africa and the Middle East are becoming more “operationally autonomous” and aggressive, and are becoming a bigger threat.  In addition, thousands of militants have traveled to Syria to join al Qaeda groups battling President Bashar al-Assad to get battle experience.

At least 10 people have died in a fire that gutted a Russian military in the Siberian Baikal region.  The defense ministry says two military and eight civilian workers were in a truck near the depot officials did not provide information about the cause of the blaze or how the victims died.