New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked the government of Zimbabwe on Thursday to immediately end the ban on international humanitarian assistance in the country.

President Robert Mugabe, under attack for the violence in the presidential elections in May, retaliated by imposing severe restrictions on non-governmental organizations and private voluntary groups to assist large populations affected by the violence.

In June, Ban asked Mugabe to lift the curbs on relief groups, but Mugabe did not reply.

New York  - Wal-Mart reported record earnings in the second quarter despite a weaker economy as US consumers sought bargains at the discount giant.

Net profits rose 17 per cent to 3.5 billion dollars, or 87 cents per share, from 2.95 billion dollars, or 72 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said.

Revenue rose 10 per cent to to 102.7 billion dollars.

New York, Aug. 14: An anguished Elizabeth Edwards decided to stay with her cheating husband, John, because she is dying and worried about their two young children, one of her close friends has claimed.

"It's just tragic. That's all I can say about it," Hargrave McElroy, Elizabeth's best friend, told the Daily News.

In a longer interview with People magazine, McElroy, a North Carolina teacher, said John Edwards didn't confess his adultery with his flaky videographer, Rielle Hunter, until after he officially announced his presidential run in December 2006.

New York, Aug 14: The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic party, Bill Gwatney, died hours after being shot by a gunman who burst into the state party headquarters in Little Rock.

Police said that 49-year-old Gwatney died four hours after the shooting near the state Capital on Wednesday.

The officials said a gunman fired several shots at Gwatney, a former state legislator, in the party’s headquarters near the Capital. After a long car chase, the suspect was fatally wounded in a shootout with the police, the authorities said.

New York  - US markets fell Wednesday after retailers posted weaker sales as consumers hit by a weaker US economy stayed home.

The US Commerce Department said retail sales fell 0.1 per cent in July after gaining 0.3 per cent in the previous month. The news drove down retail stocks.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged the implementation of the ceasefire arrangement between Georgia and Russia negotiated by the French presidency of the European Union.

Ban called for an end to the hostilities and the withdrawal of forces to the positions held before the conflict erupted Thursday in South Ossetia, a de-facto independent Georgian enclave inhabited by ethnic Russians.