Drug-trafficking plane crashes in Honduras, two died

TEGUCIGALPA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Two people on board died on Wednesday as a cocaine-trafficking plane crashed on a highway in northern Honduras, military sources reported.

The accident occurred early on Wednesday morning. Witness said the light-plane burst into flames after colliding with a high tension cable in Tripoli, Atlantida department, some 300 kilometers north to Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

A spokesman from Honduras' Naval Forces said the plane was believed to be transporting drugs before the accident.

He said both crew on board were killed, their bodies completely burnt, which makes it impossible at the moment to find out their identity nor nationality.

The plane's itinerary remains unclear so far, he said.

This is the second cocaine-transporting plane crash reported since the coup d'etat on June 28 which turned the Central American country a scene of turbulence amid constant conflicts and messy social order.

The coup dethroned the Honduran President Manuel Zelaya by military force and later an interim government was designated by the Congress to replace him.

Honduran post-coup leader Roberto Micheletti had said that since Zelaya was ousted no more drug trafficker planes have entered the airspace of the country, insinuating the link between the ousted president and illegal drug trade.

Honduran interim gov't to resume crisis talk in Costa Rica

TEGUCIGALPA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The interim government in Honduras said its delegation will fly to Costa Rica later on Wednesday for a new round of mediation talk.

The de facto government's Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said in a press conference that the delegation he leads is going back to San Jose after a deadline of 72 hours set by the crisis mediator, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias.

However, Lopez discarded the ousted President Manuel Zelaya's return to his charge to be an issue for discussion.

"My government continues in the mediation which respects the powers of the Honduran State," and "this hypothesis of a possible the regress of Mr. Zelaya to occupy the presidency is totally denied," Lopez said.

Lopez made such statement in a press conference after his meeting with post-coup leader Robert Micheletti at the Presidential House.

Earlier he told reporters the mediation talk would be postponed and Honduran interim government "is waiting for a new proposal" from the mediator Arias.

The Costa Rican presidency said in a communique on Wednesday that the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Arias has prepared a "Declaration of San Jose" for both camps in conflict and vows to continue his mediating effort.

Arias' previous proposals including the reinstatement of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya, a unity government, earlier elections and general amnesty were declared "unacceptable" by the interim government led by ex congress leader Roberto Micheletti.

In the second talk round concluded on Sunday, no agreement was reached between both delegations and the main difference remains Zelaya's return to power.

The deposed Honduran president for his part had called his supporters for an insurrection and reiterated in various occasions that he would return to his country despite all cost.

His delegation spokeswoman, Rixi Moncada, said right after the failed talk round that Zelaya would not again come back to the negotiation table with Micheletti's "usurper" government, but "new representatives."

Arias, lamenting the risk of a civil war Honduras is facing, said he would spend 72 hours trying to convince the coup leaders to accept his seven proposals, a term to expire within next few hours.

His effort was primordially frustrated 24 hours later as the Honduran de facto government restated on Monday that Zelaya's return would not be an issue for discussion.

Facing increasing pressure from supporters of the ousted Honduran president, to the moment Micheletti's government has held on to its tough posture insisting its legal status.

On June 28 Zelaya was expulsed and deposed by militaries under Honduras' Supreme Court order, which has been condemned worldwide as a coup d'etat.

U.S., EU welcome international arbitration over Abyei

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States and the European Union on Wednesday welcomed an international arbitration over the disputed area of Abyei between northern and southern Sudan, calling for related parties to fully respect and implement the arbitration.

The decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding the boundaries of Abyei is "an important step in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and of great significance to the whole of Sudan," U.S. State Department said on Wednesday in a statement.

Boundaries' dispute over the oil-rich Abyei was one of the most sensitive issues in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached by the ruling National Congress Party in the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the south.

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on Wednesday redrew the boundaries of Abyei and ceded some productive oilfields to the north. Both the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the National Congress Party have pledged to respect the international arbitration.

In the statement responding to the arbitration, the United States and the European Union jointly called on the National Congress Party and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement to immediately implement the decision.

"Both parties must use their authority and influence to ensure that the Court's decision is respected and peacefully implemented," said the statement.

"The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army must avoid confrontation," said the statement, adding that the United States and the European Union will continue working with "all relevant stakeholders to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to Sudan."

Iraqi PM arrives at White House for meeting with Obama

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday afternoon arrived at the White House for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama over "a broad agenda of issues of mutual concern."

"The United States and Iraq enjoy a close relationship and are partners in building a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq through the responsible withdrawal of U.S. forces and the encouragement of new ties in trade, commerce, culture and education," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs last Wednesday.

It is the first meeting between Obama and Maliki since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June.

The United States currently has about 13,000 troops in Iraq. According to a security agreement on the U.S. troops' status in Iraq, all U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

U.S. lawmakers urges to re-list DPRK as state sponsor of terrorism

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on Wednesday called for the Obama administration to assess the possibilities of relisting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Senate on Wednesday discussed two amendments dealing with the DPRK and the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list on the National Defense Authorization Act.

The first amendment, which was adopted by a vote of 66-31, called on the Obama administration to submit a report within 30 days to assess the DPRK's behavior since it was removed from the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

The assessment should include an evaluation of any evidence that the DPRK has "engaged in acts of terrorism or provided support for acts of terrorism or terrorist organizations," according to SENATUS, a website specializing in coverage of the Senate's daily activities.

"If the report finds evidence that North Korea has in fact provided support for terrorism activities, they should immediately be relisted on the State terrorism list," said the report.

Under the six-party talk's framework which characterized with "action for action," on October 11, 2008, following Pyongyang agreed to all U.S. nuclear inspection demands, the Bush administration responded by removing the DPRK from the terrorism blacklist.

But voice asking to put the DPRK back on the list has been surging inside the United States since Pyongyang conducted an underground nuclear test on May 25 and subsequently fired at least seven ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang also boycotted the six-party talks on its nuclear program.

Responding to Pyongyang's behaviors, the Obama administration has decided to extend economic sanctions by prolonging the national emergency on the DPRK and has vowed to enforce sanctions against Pyongyang set in the 1874 UN Security Council Resolution.

Ousted Honduran president Zelaya calls for supporter entourage in his home-coming

MADRID, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Wednesday urged his followers to accompany him in his return to Honduras.

In an interview with the Spanish TV chain Candena Ser, Zelaya requested Honduran people to be with him in his return home after a 72-hours' term -- set by conflict mediator for the coup leader to hand out power -- expires.

The term, which counts since Sunday and will be over within a few hours, was set by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, mediator of Honduras' crisis, to convince Honduras' interim government led by ex Congress president Roberto Micheletti.

Zelaya said that his return to Honduras will start at 2100 GMT on Wednesday.

He said has respected the 72-hour term for "it is supported by the United States, the Organization of the American State and Latin American countries."

Although his return has been rejected by whom he called "coup-mongers," he said himself and his supporters are backed by the people and the international press.

Zelaya also said that that his life will be on risk because the armed forces under the de facto government had made it clear that they would "shoot and kill" if Zelaya tries to enter the country.

Mediator: Zelaya's conditional return as solution to Honduras' crisis

SAN JOSE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A possible agreement between deposed Honduran president and the interim government might be reached in Costa Rica to allow Manuel Zelaya's return home after weeks in exile.

Sources with the mediator Costa Rican government told reporters on Wednesday that both camps are to send delegations back to negotiation table for a new round of talk in San Jose.

Costa Rican president and chief mediator on Honduras' crisis Oscar Arias said he would announce a "Declaration of San Jose" later on Wednesday.

Honduras crisis talk parties meet again in Costa Rica for mediation

Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias (2nd L) stands with Carlos Lopez (L), representative for Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti, Rixi Moncada and Aristedes Mejia (R), representatives for deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, after negotiations in San Jose July 19, 2009.(Reuters Photo)

SAN JOSE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government met again on Wednesday with chief mediator Costa Rican president Oscar Arias for a third round of talk.

The Costa Rican presidency confirmed the news, saying the Honduran interim government's delegation has entered Arias' Presidential House minutes ago.

Zelaya's representatives flew in on Wednesday to hear Arias' new proposals for a solution to the on-going crisis started on June 28.

It is expected that the designated mediator, 1987 Nobel Peace Price-winning Arias will read "Declaration of San Jose" or a modified reconciliation plan later on Wednesday, as a 72-hour term he set to convince post-coup leaders on Zelaya's reinstatement expires.

Arias presents solution to Honduras crisis

SAN JOSE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A "Declaration of San Jose" was announced by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on Wednesday as a solution to Honduras' on-going crisis.

Costa Rican presidency confirmed to Xinhua that the declaration to be signed by the parties in conflict demands the ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's return to Honduras within 24 hours' time.

Just a few minutes ago, Arias as designated mediator of the crisis presented his "declaration" to both sides in conflict -- Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government led by ex Congress president Roberto Micheletti.

On June 28, Zelaya was dethroned by militaries and expulsed to Costa Rica in an act condemned worldwide as coup d'etat.

Obama pushes for healthcare reform at national press conference

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday appealed for national support to his healthcare reform that has been hit by strong opposition from Congress, industries and public.

Brazil, Mexico to discuss Honduras crisis

BRASILIA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will meet with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa here on Thursday to discuss bilateral and regional issues, with emphasis on the crisis in Honduras, official sources said.

The situation in Honduras will be the "main topic" of the regional agenda. Brazil and Mexico have demanded the immediate return of the deposed president Manuel Zelaya to power, a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry told media.

In addition, the two ministers will review various issues on bilateral relations, with emphasis on cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, science and technology, culture and education.

Espinosa's visit will coincide with a meeting of the Brazil-Mexico Bilateral Commission, established in 2007 with the aim to reinforce the process of political dialogue and cooperation between the two countries.

After the meeting with Amorim, Espinosa will travel to Paraguay's capital Asuncion, where she will attend the biannual summit of the Mercosur, the South American trade bloc formed by Argentina,

Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Mexico participates the summit as an observer.

Mexican police arrest four leading smugglers

MEXICO CITY, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Mexican police have arrested four leading members of a drug smuggling organization, local media said on Wednesday.

The drug smuggling gang, La Familia (The Family), murdered 23 people at the beginning of the month. In one of the incidents, 12 federal police officers were tortured and then killed in a field that links the town of Uruapan to the western state of Michoacan's main port, Lazaro Cardenas.

After the wave of violence, which saw shoot-outs in eight towns of Michoacan, the Mexican authorities sent 3,300 federal police and soldiers to the state.

It is said that the gang used the town of Lazaro Cardenas to illegally import cocaine from Colombia, most of which was then smuggled to the United States.

Brazilian president calls for caution in judicial investigations

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that the country's judicial authorities must be cautious in their investigations.

During an inauguration ceremony of Brazil's new attorney-general, Roberto Gurgel, Lula called for prudence in all judicial investigations to avoid condemning innocent people.

"An institution with the power of the federal prosecution office, assured by the Constitution, has the right and the obligation to act with maximum seriousness," he said.

The president said he would never ask for any privilege from the attorney-general or interfere in any way in a federal process, stressing the need of protecting the freedom of action of the federal prosecution office.

Judicial investigations should be carried out with defendants' constitutional rights fully respected and without hastiness, Lula said.

He also criticized local media's eagerness to condemn before the end of the due process.

Cuban President Raul Castro makes brief visit to Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Raul Castro arrived in Brazil's northeastern Bahia State on Wednesday for a brief visit.

Local authorities said Castro had to make a stop in Brazil to have his plane refueled on his way back to Cuba after his African tour which brought him to Algeria, Angola and Egypt.

Accompanied by Bahia State Governor Jacques Wagner, Castro visited several tourist spots in Bahia's capital city Salvador, including St. Francis Church and the Capoeira Museum. He will also have a private meeting with Wagner.

Castro will return to Cuba on Wednesday evening.

Peru to be affected by El Nino

LIMA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The meteorological phenomenon El Nino could reappear and affect Peru in the coming months, Peru's National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology (Senamhi) said on Wednesday.

Senamhi's director Elizabeth Silvestre said the continuous warming in the Pacific Ocean implies a high risk for a negative impact to come, and the agriculture harvests is likely to suffer the worst of up-coming droughts or floods.

Silvestre said the presence of El Nino could be confirmed by the end of July. El Nino is a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that influences weather patterns around the world.

Peruvian climate expert Abrham Levy said by the third week of September, when the winter season ends in Peru, it will be determined with certainty the impact of El Nino in the coastal area.

At the moment, he said, it is still too early to tell whether it is El Nino or merely seasonal cold fronts commonly seen in Peru's winter.

Meanwhile, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmosphere Agency has said a "phenomenon of El Nino between light and moderated" is developing.

Obama hails blocked bill to fund F-22 fighter jets

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday hailed the vote in Congress to strike down 1.75 billion US dollars in the fiscal 2010 defense budget bill that would fund more F-22 fighter jets.

"I'm grateful that the Senate just voted against an additional 1.75 billion dollars to buy F-22 fighter jets that military experts and members of both parties say we do not need," Obama said after the 58-40 vote by the Senate late on Tuesday.

"At a time when we are fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, this would have been an inexcusable waste of money," the president said. "Every dollar of waste in our defense budget is a dollar we can't spend to support our troops or prepare for future threats or protect the American people.

"Our budget is a zero-sum game, and if more money goes to F-22s, it is our troops and citizens that loose," he added.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended to the president to end production of the F-22 at the conclusion of its current funding program in fiscal 2009, as part of his overhaul defense budget reform.

Instead, Gates recommended in his 2010 budget bill to produce more newest manned aircraft, the stealth F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which can carry a larger suite of weapons and is better suited for air-to-ground missions such as destroying sophisticated enemy air defenses.

An F-35 also costs half as much as an F-22 and has potential to become the "backbone of America's tactical aviation fleet for decades to come," Gates said.

"The F-22, to be blunt, does not make much sense anyplace else in the spectrum of conflict," said the defense secretary last week at the Economic Club of Chicago.

At the Gate's recommendation, Obama administration has promised to veto any Congress budget proposal that allows for more money for the program.

However, the plan to end the production of F-22 was hit by fierce resistance at Congress since it means loss of thousands of jobs for many lawmakers' states or districts.

Obama meets Iraqi PM at White House

US President Barack Obama (R) and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki give a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, July 22, 2009. Obama met Maliki here on Wednesday, the first between the two sides since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan)

US President Barack Obama (R) and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, July 22, 2009. Obama met Maliki here on Wednesday, the first between the two sides since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan)

US President Barack Obama (R) and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrive at a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, July 22, 2009. Obama met Maliki here on Wednesday, the first between the two sides since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan)

US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki give a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, July 22, 2009. Obama met Maliki here on Wednesday, the first between the two sides since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June.

Bus burns out in western Canadian's Albert, no one hurt

VANCOUVER, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A bus burst into flames Wednesday on the highway near Ponoka, central Alberta province of western Canada, but no one was hurt, local media reported.

The bus carrying 18 passengers was moving on the highway when it blow a tire, igniting the flames. The bus was quickly evacuated with the help of two off-duty firefighters. All passengers aboard escaped safely without any injury before the bus burst into flames.

The bus driver's fire extinguisher was unable to stop the flames from spreading rapidly. The bus and all the belongings of the passengers were destroyed in the fire.

Witnesses described the bus "engulfed in flames" in the highway.

Extreme cold spell hits Argentina

A woman clading in heavy coat walks on the street of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on July 22, 2009. An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature. (Xinhua/Juan Vittori)

A woman covers her mouth with her scarf to prevent the cold in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on July 22, 2009. An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature. (Xinhua/Juan Vittori)

A woman clading in heavy coat walks on the street of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on July 22, 2009. An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature. (Xinhua/Juan Vittori)

A resident walks past a car covered with snow in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 22, 2009. An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature. (Xinhua/LUCAS PAGANO)

A snowfall hits Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina on July 22, 2009. An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature. (Xinhua/LUCAS PAGANO)

An extreme cold spell hit Argentina on Wednesday, bringing snowfalls in some provinces of the country and greatly lowering down the temprature.

Brazil, Mexico FMs to discuss Honduras crisis

BRASILIA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will discuss the political crisis in Honduras with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa during her visit to Brazil, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The situation in Honduras will be the "main topic" of discussions on Thursday between the two foreign ministers, whose governments have demanded an immediate return of deposed Honduran President

Manuel Zelaya to power, the ministry said.

The two ministers will also address issues on the bilateral agenda, with an emphasis on cooperation in politics, economy, science and technology, culture and education.

Espinosa's visit to Brazil will coincide with a meeting of the Brazil-Mexico Bilateral Commission, established in 2007 aimed at reinforcing political dialogue and cooperation between the two countries.

After meeting Amorim, Espinosa will travel to Paraguay to attend the biannual summit of the Mercosur, an organization that groups Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, in which Mexico is an observer.

Two wildfires in western Canada near full containment

VANCOUVER, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Two wildfires in Kelowna area in Canada's western British Columbia province are close to full containment Wednesday, while a third one continuing to grow, according to fire officials.

The two massive wildfires in Glenrosa and Rose Valley are 80 percent under control and are expected to be fully contained later Wednesday, but it will be some time before they are extinguished, said fire officials.

Jason Johnson, the Emergency Operations Center Director said: "It has been a difficult few days and the emergency isn't over, but the news that the Glenrosa and Rose Valley fires are close to full containment is most welcome."

Local media reported that firefighters fighting the Glenrosa fire, estimated at 300 hectares, were working to create a fuel-free barrier on the southern flank of the fire. Fire crews at the Rose

Valley were working with heavy equipment and supported by helicopter bucketing to contain the fire, estimated at 100 hectares.

With the firefighters gaining upper hand over the fires, nearly half of 11,000 evacuees who were forced to flee West Kelowna because of forest fires were allowed to return home Tuesday, and fire officials said the remaining are expected to return late Wednesday afternoon. But they will remain under an evacuation alert, which means they have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

Many returning residents felt relieved when they saw their houses standing there but some were surprised to find their evacuated homes had been visited by thieves who took advantage of the situation.

Resident Barbare Kreibom told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Wednesday that she was "shocked" to find her son's gaming system and skateboard stolen. Although she felt "violated," she said some people lost much more to looters.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk of Royal Canadian Mounted Police said police had received at least 10 confirmed reports of break-and-enters from the evacuated homes in Glenrosa, and appealed to returning residents to keep an eye out for clues about criminal activity around their property.

As of Wednesday noon, the wildfire burning at Terrace Mountain has swelled in size to about 2,000 hectares from about 1,800 hectares one day earlier. The B.C. Forest Service is aggressively battling this fire with 175 firefighters on the ground, with seven helicopters and heavy machinery continuing to build guards around the fire's perimeter. This fire is estimated to be 30 percent contained.

Though there is no structure immediately threatened by this fire, authorities issued a new evacuation order affecting 10 properties and 13 people north of Kelowna, local media reported. Besides, an evacuation alert has been placed for approximately 2,200 residents and property owners living in several communities.

The three fires blazing across West Kelowna started Saturday afternoon and were spreading rapidly within hours. They are believed to be caused by people and an investigation team is conducting an examination into the fires' causes.

Of the total 2,024 fires that happened in British Columbia in 2008, 41.8 percent were human-caused, according to figures from the B.C. Forest Service.

Poll says Obama's glow shines less brightly

WASHINGTON: The hope and optimism that washed over the United States in the opening months of Barack Obama's presidency are giving way to harsh realities.

An Associated Press-GfK Poll shows that a majority of Americans are back to thinking that the country is headed in the wrong direction after a fleeting period in which more thought it was on the right track.

Obama still has a solid 55 percent approval rating - better than Bill Clinton and about even with George W. Bush six months into their presidencies - but there are growing doubts about whether he can succeed at some of the biggest items on his to-do list. And there is a growing sense that he is trying to tackle too much too soon.

The number of people who think Obama can improve the economy is down a sobering 19 percentage points from the euphoric days just before his inauguration. Ditto for expectations about creating jobs. Also down significantly: the share of people who think he can reduce the deficit, remove troops from Iraq and improve respect for the US around the world, all slipping 15 points.

On overhauling health care, a signature issue for Obama, hopes for success are down a lesser 6 points.

Does all of that mean Obama has lost his mojo? Has "Yes-we-can" morphed into "Maybe"?

"I think it's just reality," said Sandy Smith, a 48-year-old public relations worker from Los Angeles. "He's not Superman, right?"

Obama did win a major spending victory yesterday when the Senate voted to terminate further production of the U.S. Air Force's topline F-22 fighter jets. Obama and his allies sided with the Pentagon's desire for smaller jets better suited to 21st century wars.

It's not unusual for approval ratings to slide once presidents actually get to work. In Obama's case, the problems he's confronting domestically and internationally are legion, and his ability to blame them on his predecessor is fading. Challenges still abound in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unemployment, at 7.6 percent in January, hit 9.5 percent in June and is expected to keep rising well into next year. The president is deep into the debate over how to overhaul the US health care system, and people are nervous about how their own insurance could be affected.

It's all taking a toll on expectations. The number of people who think it's realistic to expect at least some noticeable improvement in the economy during Obama's first year in office dropped from 27 percent in January to 16 percent in the latest survey.

There's been slippage, as well, in how people view the president personally, although he's still well regarded. About two-thirds now think he understands the problems of ordinary Americans, down from 81 percent in January.

"He doesn't know enough about any of this," says Michelle Kelsey, a 37-year-old student in Breckenridge, Missouri. But then again, Kelsey says, "Nobody could have done better."

"The easiest way to keep your poll numbers up," Obama said in a TV interview that aired Tuesday, "is to do not that much here in this town, and not to cause a lot of controversy. And some people would probably advise that that's the approach you should take.

"But that's not why the American people sent me here. They sent me here to solve problems," he said.

Fresh protests break out in Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Fresh protests broke out Wednesday in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, as the deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government started a new round of mediation talk in Costa Rica.

A clash was reported between high school students and the police in the Kennedy district, the most populated area of the capital city.

Witnesses said a group of riot police tried to expel the students who were staging a peaceful pro-Zelaya demonstration.

Also on Wednesday, Zelaya's supporters rallied in different places of Tegucigalpa for a massive protest.

Some 200 women protestors gathered in front of the U.S. embassy, demanding "less talking and more action at the international field against this coup."

People also marked an artistic and cultural day at the Autonomous National University of Tegucigalpa to show support to the deposed leader.

Meanwhile, an anti-Zelaya organization Democratic Civic Union (UCD) held a protest titled "For the Patriotism and Courage" to support post-coup interim president and ex-Congress leader Roberto Micheletti.

According to the UCD, the protest aims to "support the democracy" and reject Zelaya's return to the Central American country, where the president was dethroned in a coup d'etat on June 28.

Tegucigalpa's mayor, Ricardo Alvarez, said that: "Zelaya can not come to country to retake the power, because he has violated the laws."

Zelaya was ousted and forced into exile in a coup on June 28, after he angered the army, the legislative and the judiciary by insisting on a constitution amendment that would allow him to seek re-election.

The deposed Honduran president reiterated in various occasions that he would return to his country despite all cost, while the interim government said his reinstatement was out of the question.

Honduras talks near failure, leader vows return

Supporters of Honduras' interim government march in Tegucigalpa, Wednesday, July 22, 2009. U.S. officials are considering sanctions on Honduras if mediation efforts by Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias fail to resolve the crisis.(AP)

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica 鈥?Talks on resolving the Honduran political crisis headed toward failure Wednesday when the interim government indicated it would reject a mediator's final proposal for returning ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power.

Zelaya, who is in neighboring Nicaragua, declared the mediation effort a failure and vowed to return to Honduras on Friday without an agreement. He said he would travel to northern Nicaragua on Thursday and try to cross the border by land the next day accompanied by his wife and children.

"The coup leaders are totally refusing my reinstatement," Zelaya said during a brief news conference in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. "By refusing to sign, (the talks) have failed."

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated the talks with U.S. backing, presented an 11-point plan that called for Zelaya's return to the presidency in two days and offered amnesty for the coup leaders that ousted him.

Arias said the plan was his last attempt at mediating a peaceful solution to the conflict. He said Zelaya and the interim government should turn to the Organization of American States for a new mediator if they refuse to sign the agreement.

Arias warned both sides that time was running out for a peaceful solution and urged them to set an example by becoming the first country in modern history to reverse a coup through a negotiated agreement.

"The clock is ticking fast, and it's ticking against the Honduran people," Arias said in Costa Rica's capital, San Jose. "I warn you that this plan is not perfect. Nothing in democracy is perfect."

Mauricio Villeda, of interim President Roberto Micheletti's delegation, said he would take the proposals back to Honduras to present to the president, congress and the Supreme Court for consideration.

But Micheletti's foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, flatly rejected returning Zelaya to the presidency, saying the executive branch cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding the reinstatement of the ousted leader.

"A proposal of that nature is inconceivable, unacceptable," Lopez told Radio America.

Micheletti's refusal to budge comes despite stepped up pressure from the United States and other nations, which have warned of tough sanctions unless Zelaya is restored.

Rixi Moncada, of Zelaya's delegation, called the mediation efforts a failure and called on the United Nations and the OAS to "adopt the coercive measures necessary to force the interim government to submit" to the resolutions that both organizations have approved calling for the return of Zelaya.

"The mediation had only one goal: to enforce the mandate of the OAS and restore the constitutional order in Honduras with the return of President Manuel Zelaya," Moncada said. "That is why, for us, the Accord of San Jose has failed."

Zelaya had given mediators a midnight deadline to achieve his reinstatement, threatening to return to Honduras with or without an agreement and seek the prosecution of leaders of the coup that forced him into exile.

Such a scenario risks provoking violence: thousands of Honduras have protested almost daily since the June 28 coup both against and in favor of Zelaya. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Zelaya foes took to the streets in the biggest show of opposition yet to his return.

Arias' plan is similar to an earlier proposal that Micheletti rejected.

It includes a timetable that would return Zelaya to Honduras by Friday to carry out the rest of his four-year term, which ends in January 2010. It calls for establishing a power-sharing government by July 27 and holding presidential elections a month early on Oct. 28.

The plan also would force Zelaya to drop efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that provoked his ouster.

Zelaya angered many people in Honduras by ignoring Congress' and the courts' rejection of his effort to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, which many saw as an attempt to abolish presidential term limits and impose a socialist government in the style of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

The reconciliation plan would provide Zelaya immunity from prosecution for trying to hold the referendum, along with amnesty for coup leaders.

Arias said he included several new points, including some proposed by the interim government with the help of a U.S. senator, who has not been identified.

Among the new ideas was a truth commission to investigate the events leading up to the coup.

Tens of thousands of Micheletti's supporters rallied in the Honduran capital on Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations seen yet. Many chanted "Honduras!", waved the country's blue-and-white flag and wore white shirts printed with the slogan "I'm Defending My Constitution."

They accused Zelaya of being a Chavez pawn.

"They wanted to impose communism on us, and we don't want to be communists," said retired gardener Florencio Mejia, 80, as he marched in a blue-and white baseball cap, clutching a Honduran flag.

Dentist Julia Garcia echoed Micheletti's comments that the country would tough out economic sanctions from other countries.

"We prefer six months of isolation, to losing our liberty," Garcia said.

Tensions remained high, as marchers and Zelaya supporters exchanged shouts and insults.

"These people have all been paid to march, and their bosses would fire them if they didn't come," said Zelaya supporter Alba Galindo.

No foreign government has recognized the Micheletti administration.

Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood, speaking to reporters in Washington, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Micheletti's government in a phone call over the weekend.

U.S. officials are considering sanctions and the European Union has already frozen euro65 million ($92 million) in development aid and warned of further steps.

"The secretary of state made very clear that Mr. Micheletti, the de facto regime, needs to take this mediation effort seriously and respond appropriately," Wood said. "Should that not happen, there are clear consequences with regard to our assistance to Honduras."

Zelaya told Honduras' Radio Globo that he was gathering Hondurans and Honduran exiles in neighboring countries to participate in his return, and said that once he was reinstated as president, "a process of dialogue and reconciliation and forgiveness will begin, but there will be trial for those who carried out the coup."

(Agencies)

Man claims he found condom in French onion soup

SANTA ANA, Calif. 鈥?A man has sued a local Claim Jumper restaurant claiming he ordered French onion soup and bit into a condom instead of melted cheese. Zdenek Philip Hodousek filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court seeking unspecified damages over fears he may have contracted a disease.

Hodousek's attorney Eric Traut said his client wants to have restaurant employees' DNA tested to find a match to the condom.

A public relations firm representing Claim Jumper said no one can prove the so-called "foreign object" Hodousek took from the restaurant is the item that was submitted to a lab for testing.

The firm said an internal probe revealed no employee wrongdoing.

(Agencies)

Honduras rivals renew bid for crisis solution

By Alejandra del Palacio, Luan Xiang

SAN JOSE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A third round of mediation talks aimed at ending the political crisis in Honduras began in Costa Rica on Wednesday as the deposed leader of Honduras announced his plan to return home later Wednesday.

The chief mediator, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, presented a "Declaration of San Jose" to both camps as a final solution to the ongoing political crisis. The declaration is expected to be signed later on Wednesday by both sides.

ZELAYA'S RETURN

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya announced earlier on Wednesday from Nicaragua that he would return to Honduras with or without agreement between the parties once a 72-hour deadline for a solution, set by Arias, ends at midnight Wednesday.

Moreover, in an interview with the Spanish TV network Candena Ser, Zelaya urged his followers to accompany him on his return to Honduras, starting at 2100 GMT on Wednesday.

Arias set the deadline last Sunday for Honduras' interim government to accept a declaration proposed last week during the second round of talks.

Zelaya said that his life would be at risk because the armed forces under the de facto government had made it clear they would "shoot and kill" Zelaya if he tried to enter the country.

The post-coup government of Roberto Micheletti, on the other hand, has expressed several times their refusal to accept Zelaya's return to power.

According to the de facto government, the moment Zelaya enters Honduras, he will be detained and sent to court for violating the constitution.

Honduran interim foreign minister Carlos Lopez restated the position at a press conference before the delegation he led flew back to San Jose for the third round of talks.

"This hypothesis of a possible return of Mr. Zelaya to occupy the presidency" is totally rejected, Lopez said in a press conference after his meeting with post-coup leader Micheletti at the Presidential House.

RIVAL'S PROTESTS

As the talks resumed in Costa Rica, protests against and in support of Zelaya took place in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Clashes were reported between high school students and riot police in the Kennedy district, the most populous part of the capital city, in a pro-Zelaya march.

On the same day, other Zelaya's supporters gathered at different parts of Tegucigalpa for a massive march.

In front of the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, some 200 protestors demanded "less talking and more action on the international field against this coup."

Zelaya's sympathizers also held an artistic and cultural day at the Autonomous National University of Tegucigalpa to support the deposed leader.

Sources said the supporters of Zelaya also summoned a strike and road blocks for Thursday.

Meanwhile, an anti-Zelaya organization, the Democratic Civic Union (UCD), held a march to support post-coup interim president Micheletti.

The UCD said that the march intended to "support democracy" and to oppose Zelaya's return to the Central American country.

Ricardo Alvarez, the mayor of Tegucigalpa, said Zelaya "cannot come to this country to retake power, because he has violated the laws."

FIDEL CASTRO'S CRITICISM

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has dismissed the Costa Rican mediation effort, calling it a "sweetener" maneuver by the U.S. government.

Castro said in his column, "Commander's Reflections," published on Wednesday, that only the Honduran people would be able to create its own history after the June 28 coup, which dethroned Zelaya.

He said the U.S.-backed mediation effort in Costa Rica was merely Washington-designed maneuvers to win time as, inside Honduras, the pro-Zelaya movement grew stronger.

Castro said that Arias' mediation was "promoted by the extreme right-wing in the U.S. ... and supported by the Department of State, but (the mediation) evolved wrongly due to the firm resistance of the people."

Clinton: US to enhance cooperation with Thailand

Phuket, Thailand, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States has committed to working with Thailand closely on the national, regional and global issues, as Thailand is the economic and strategic importance to it, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a joint press conference after a bilateral talk with Thailand's Foreign Minister on Thursday morning.

Clinton was participating in the 42th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Post Ministerial Conferences and 16th ASEAN Regional Forum, which have been organized in a southern province of Phuket on July 17-23.

According to Clinton, Thailand resolves to correct political challenges. "The people of Thailand can count on the United States to work with you to find the path forward that honors your democratic tradition," she said.

Meanwhile, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who also joined the press conference with Clinton, said the United States and Thailand promises to strengthen the bilateral tie.

In addition to that, the two countries will work closely within the ASEAN context particularly in the ASEAN-U.S. dialogue and also in the other regional organizations, Kasit said.

The United States has reaffirmed its continued interest and full participation for the well-being of the Asia-Pacific region and Southeast Asia's peace and security development, Kasit said.

Clinton added that during her participation of the ASEAN meetings here she had a number of productive conversations with the ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Regional Forum.

"And, I think that that's laid groundwork for our future collaboration on urgent issues from the Democratic People Republic of Korea, Myanmar, to threat of terrorism and human trafficking," said Clinton.

She said she is looking forward to return to do follow-up after these meetings.

Clinton: N. Korea running out of options on nukes

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi address the media prior to a bilateral meeting Thursday, July 23, 2009, at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phuket, Thailand. (AP Photo)

Faced with a fresh refusal by North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday the communist regime has "no friends left" to shield it from punishing U.N. penalties.

"North Korea's continued pursuit of its nuclear ambitions is sure to elevate tensions on the Korean peninsula and could provoke an arms race in the region," Clinton told a news conference after conferring with officials from 26 other countries and organizations. She cited near unanimity on fully enforcing the latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its repeated nuclear and missile tests.

Clinton said the U.S. will continue to insist that North Korea return to the bargaining table and verifiably dismantle its nuclear program. At the same time, she held out the prospect of restoring U.S. diplomatic ties to North Korea and other incentives 鈥?actions the Obama administration would be willing to consider only if the North Koreans take irreversible steps to denuclearize.

Wrapping up a weeklong trip to India and Thailand, Clinton offered a somewhat more optimistic message about another trouble spot on the U.S. foreign policy agenda: Myanmar, the military-run southeast Asian nation also known as Burma.

"There is a positive direction that we see with Burma," she said. She praised Myanmar's government for committing to enforce the U.N. sanctions against North Korea, calling it important in light of Myanmar's suspected secret military links to North Korea.

And she suggested Myanmar may have played a role this month in persuading a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying weaponry in violation of the sanctions to return home instead of continuing to its destination, which U.S. officials said was probably Myanmar.

Clinton also called on Myanmar to unconditionally release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest.

On North Korea, Clinton stressed a point she has made repeatedly 鈥?that a fully nuclear North Korea might compel other countries in Asia to follow suit. She mentioned no names, but Japan and South Korea are thought to be among those that might go nuclear under circumstances in which they felt threatened by the North and less than fully confident of protection under a U.S. nuclear umbrella.

Clinton also said, "I wanted to make very clear that the United States does not seek any kind of offensive action against North Korea." She said a North Korean delegate at Thursday's meeting complained of being subjected to U.S. nuclear threats, but she said this showed a disconnect with reality, given that U.S. nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea nearly 20 years ago.

She said the world 鈥?including China, which has been North Korea's most loyal supporter 鈥?has made it clear to Pyongyang that it has "no place to go."

"They have no friends left that will protect them from the international community's efforts to move toward denuclearization," she said.

Just moments before she spoke at this southern Thai seaside resort, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation at the Phuket conference said his government will not return to six-party talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, citing the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States.

"The six-party talks are over," Ri Hung Sik said.

The Phuket forum, known as the Asian Regional Forum and drawing senior officials from 27 nations, is one of the rare instances of U.S. and North Korean diplomats appearing together, although U.S. officials said there was no substantive contact. Clinton told the news conference she was disappointed in what she heard from the North Korean delegate who addressed the conference.

"Unfortunately, the North Korean delegation offered only an insistent refusal to recognize that North Korea has been on the wrong course," she said. "In their presentation today they evinced no willingness to pursue the path of denuclearization, and that was troubling."

"The question is: Where do we go from here?" she asked.

Her reply, essentially, was that the U.S. and its negotiating partners will not back down from their insistence that North Korea not only resume negotiations but scrap its nuclear program in a verifiable way and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which it once was a signatory but recently abandoned. And she said the U.N. sanctions will be applied as strictly and fully as possible.

"The bottom line is this: If North Korea intends to engage in international commerce its vessels must conform to terms" of the U.N. sanctions, "or find no port," she said. "Our goal in enforcing these sanctions and others proposed earlier is not to create suffering or destabilize North Korea. Our quarrel is not with the North Korean people."

Clinton said the Obama administration would soon send Philip Goldberg, its coordinator for implementing the U.N. sanctions that were approved by the Security Council in June, back to Asia for a new round of consultations on a joint enforcement strategy.

And, in what she called an illustration of U.S. concern about the welfare of North Korea's people, Clinton said the administration intends to appoint a special envoy to focus on North Korean human rights.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry, bristling at an earlier Clinton comment likening the regime to "small children" demanding attention, released a statement Thursday saying: "We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community. Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."

Turning to another major security problem, Clinton held a one-on-one meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and said afterward that the Pakistani military's progress in fighting Taliban insurgents has been "encouraging" but incomplete.

Clinton said she hoped to learn more about the situation when she visits Pakistan this fall.

Qureshi told reporters that the military operations have been successful, and said he asserted that public opinion in Pakistan has changed decisively against extremism.

(Agencies)

About 30 people arrested in US corruption probe: report

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- About 30 people, including two mayors, were arrested in New Jersey and New York on Thursday as part of a federal corruption investigation, said a CNN report.

Canadians long for majority government: poll

OTTAWA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Canadians have a strong desire for a majority government, after having been ruled by three minority governments since 2004, according to polls released Thursday.

But those polled are equally split as to which party should lead the majority government, as the ruling Conservatives and opposition Liberals remain in deadlock.

In an EKOS poll commissioned for the CBC and released Thursday, 26 percent said they wanted a Liberal majority, while 25 percent called for a Conservative majority.

Only 15 percent of those polled called for a Liberal minority and nine percent said the best result would be a Conservative minority. Twenty-five percent would not want any of the above choices.

In terms of support rate, the poll put the Conservatives at 32.8 percent, with the Liberals at 32.5 percent. The NDP were third at 14.8 percent, the Greens fourth at 11.5 percent and the Bloc Quebecois at 8.4 percent.

The poll was completed between July 15 and 21 and included a random sample of 3,158 Canadians aged 18 or older. The margin of error for a survey of this size is plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey released earlier this month showed similar results. Sixty-four percent of respondents prefer a majority over a minority government, up from 52 percent two years ago.

Only 24 percent said they preferred a minority, as compared to 36 percent in 2007.

In terms of parties, 30 percent prefer a Liberal majority, and 14 percent a Liberal minority, as compared to the 24 percent who backed a Conservative majority and nine percent who wanted a Conservative minority.

Minority governments are not common in Canadian politics. Including the current government, there have been only 11 minority governments in Canadian history.

One of Bin Laden's sons reportedly killed in Pakistan: CNN

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- One of the sons of Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda terrorist network, was believed killed in Pakistan earlier this year, the CNN reported Thursday.

Citing a U.S. counterterrorism official, the CNN said that Saad bin Laden was probably killed in a missile strike by a U.S. predator drone.

"We believe he is dead, although in all of these instances, unless you have DNA or other hard evidence, you don't know for sure," the official told the CNN.

According to the CNN's report, Saad fled Afghanistan to Iran after the war broke out in October 2001 to Iran and had been held under house arrest there since.

Saad was believed to have moved back to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region last year but did not play a significant role in his father's terrorist networks, the CNN said.

Six wounded in campus shooting in U.S. state of Texas

HOUSTON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Six people were wounded on Wednesday night by gunfire on the Texas Southern University campus during a community rally, and police were investigating whether a gang rivalry was behind the drive-by shooting, local media reported on Thursday.

University spokeswoman Eva Pickens said university officials were told that the shootings, which occurred at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, were gang-related, according to the local newspaper Houston Chronicle.

All the six people, including a male student, were treated for injuries that were serious but not life-threatening, said Pickens.

She said university police, who are investigating the case, reported that the shootings involved two rival gangs -- one from Missouri City, a suburb southwest of Houston, and the other from Fresno, a small town outside Missouri City.

People were gathered at the event that included a Houston rapper's performance when a car drove by and shots were fired into the crowd from the vehicle, according to Pickens. The sound of gunfire made people drop to the pavement of the parking lot where the rally was being held to promote community service and voter registration.

Angela Anderson, another spokeswoman for the university, declined to elaborate about how police came to the conclusion that gangs were involved. "It's an ongoing investigation," she said late Wednesday.

California's proposal to cut inmate population set aside

LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A vote on a controversial provision to reduce the amount of time that thousands of inmates spend in California's prisons has been delayed, it was reported on Thursday.

The provision put forward by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders was designed to save public money in an effort to close California's 26.3-billion-dollar deficit, the Los Angeles Times said.

The Wednesday decision to delay voting on the provision followed a blowup a day earlier in which Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said he would withdraw his support for the entire budget deal if the proposal to cut the inmate population by 27,000 was included, according to the paper.

Blakeslee said he had no idea of the prison plan when he cast his vote to support the budget deal reached earlier this week.

The plan would allow the state to place on home detention prisoners with a year left on their sentences and those who are elderly or infirm, and to change sentencing and parole rules to reward offenders who show evidence of rehabilitation, said the paper.

Blakeslee and some police groups have labeled the corrections proposal "early release," a politically volatile concept that lawmakers and the Schwarzenegger administration say is a mischaracterization.

Blakeslee said his caucus was now ready to "move forward," and would offer its own plan "to achieve the necessary savings without jeopardizing public safety."

Democratic legislative leaders agreed to put off dealing with the issue to defuse the dispute.

Schwarzenegger, speaking to reporters, said the prison issue had caused "some misunderstandings, and we are ironing them out."

"There will be difficult moments," Schwarzenegger said. "But the bottom line is we're going to get this budget done."

Another component of the budget that continued to stoke anger was the state's plan to borrow or take 4.7 billion dollars from local governments.

More than 180 cities have passed resolutions to join Los Angeles County in suing the state, said Judy Mitchell, mayor of Rolling Hills Estates and president of the League of California Cities.

The budget proposal was a "Ponzi scheme that passes off responsibility to future governors, legislators and to our taxpayers," Mitchell said in remarks published by the paper.

Also drawing heat was the budget's plan to allow new offshore oil drilling for the first time in 40 years. Lawmakers and Schwarzenegger settled on a plan to allow the project near Santa Barbara County, which is estimated to be able to raise 100 million dollars in royalties in the coming year.

State Democratic Party Chairman John Burton called on Wednesday for it to be rejected, referring to it as a "sweetheart deal" for an oil company and "an affront to all Californians."

Zelaya's followers block Honduras' border paths prior to his return

TEGUCIGALPA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Followers of ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya on Thursday blocked the main paths of the country and entrances to public institutions.

Juan Barahona, president of local Workers' Unitary Federation (UFT) told Xinhua that since early morning Thursday, protesters hadclosed the country's access to the North.

Ambrosio Ord ez, interim traffic vice minister, confirmed on Thursday that the exits of Santa Rosa de Copan in the northwest, San Pedro Sula in the north, Santa Barbara in the west, Tocoa in the Atlantic and Danli in the east were all blocked.

Syndicate members from different governmental dependencies haven taken over the entrance to the Honduran Institute of Social Security, one of the main public hospitals of the country.

Zelaya's supporters have formed a "People's Resistance" movement to demand the deposed president's return to power.

Zelaya announced on Wednesday night he would come back despite all risks, as an attempt to recover his presidency.

On June 28, he was dethroned in a worldwide condemned coup d'etat and expulsed to Costa Rica.

Zelaya is reportedly on the move towards Nicaraguan locations bordering Honduras, from where he will intend to enter Honduran territory after an almost month-long exile.

Int'l press to escort ousted Honduran president back home

MANAGUA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A vehicle caravan of reporters, cameramen and photographers from the international press will accompany ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to return to Honduras on Thursday.

Zelaya planned to set off at around 3 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) from Managua, a source with Honduran embassy in Nicaragua told Xinhua.

From a long list of reporters who applied for entourage membership, it is not given who were the chosen ones.

Zelaya said on Wednesday night that at midday Thursday he would travel to Esteli and Ocotal, Nicaraguan region bordering Honduras. He said on Friday he would enter Honduran territory, hopefully to be welcomed not only by his family.

Meanwhile, reporters from local media reported on Thursday that the Honduran migratory authorities are closed for service.

Nicaragua media said that, over the frontier, Honduran police and soldiers were deployed in nearby areas, seemingly in tense waiting for order to act.

Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Ana Isabel Morales told official Radio Nicaragua that her government "is observing the situation to take necessary measure as to guarantee our citizens' safety."

Family charged in canal deaths in Canada

OTTAWA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The parents and brother of the victims have been charged in their deaths after three sisters and another woman were found dead in a vehicle submerged in the Rideau Canal in southern Canada, police said Thursday.

The three sisters, at 19, 17 and 13 respectively, were found with another woman, 50, in a car submerged in water at a Rideau Canal lock near Kingston, Ontario last month.

The girls' father, mother and their 18-year-old brother all face four counts of first-degree murder each, Kingston police announced Thursday.

The woman victim, who was alleged by the father to be his cousin, was actually his first wife, police said.

Three weeks ago, the father reported police that the family was driving home from a vacation in Niagara Falls in two cars when one of the cars carrying the girls went missing. He said the eldest girl had taken the car without permission. On June 30, police found the four bodies in the submerged vehicle.

Police now allege that the parents and their son all operated the car which was dumped in the canal, and that the father lied when he told police the deaths occurred by accident during a family vacation.

But the details of what led to the deaths were not disclosed.

The family is originally from Afghanistan but moved to Canada after spending 15 years in Dubai. Police say the family's culture may have contributed to the deaths.

Ousted Honduran president heads for Nicaraguan border

MANAGUA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya left Honduran embassy in Nicaraguan capital Managua and set off for border city Esteli Thursday afternoon in an attempt to return home after almost month-long exile.

Sources with the Honduran embassy told Xinhua Zelaya left the diplomatic base at around 4:15 p.m. local time (2215 GMT) in a vehicle caravan escorted by international press.

Zelaya announced on Wednesday after a failed mediation talk in Costa Rica that he plans to cross the Nicaragua-Honduras frontier on Friday.

Elizabeth Sierra, spokeswoman from Honduran embassy in Managua, told reporters that Zelaya's entourage includes his Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, his Agriculture Institute Minister Francisco Funes, Sierra herself and other embassy officials.

Zelaya made a brief speech before his second home-return attempt. He told the press caravan that it would be a legitimate president's peaceful journey back home they were about to make.

Sierra said Zelaya would decide where to enter Honduran territory once he arrives in Esteli.

Other sources with Honduran embassy mentioned possibilities of Zelaya's entry via Honduran borders with neighboring countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador besides Nicaragua.

Zelaya said on Wednesday night that at midday Thursday he would travel to Esteli and Ocotal, Nicarguan region bordering Honduras. He said on Friday he would enter Honduran territory, hopefully to be welcomed not only by his family.

Meanwhile, reporters from local media reported on Thursday that the Honduran migratory authorities are closed for service.

Nicaragua media said that over the frontier Honduran police and soldiers were deployed in nearby areas, seemingly in a tense waiting for order to act.

Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Ana Isabel Morales told official Radio Nicaragua that her government "is observing the situation to take necessary measure as to guarantee our citizens' safety."

On June 28, Zelaya was forced to leave his country by military forces and later deposed by Honduras' Congress. His demand for reinstatement in power has been rejected by the post-coup interim government ever since.

Mayors, legislators, clergy nabbed in New Jersey corruption probe

by Willian M. Reilly

NEW YORK, July 23 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 people, including three mayors, other elected and appointed officials and Jewish clergy were arrested in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York on Thursday in an investigation into public corruption, international money laundering and human organ marketing, authorities said.

There were so many arrests that handcuffed suspects were brought to court for processing in a bus. Variously dressed, several wore traditional orthodox clothes.

"Corruption was a way of life," Ralph J. Marra Jr., the acting United States attorney in Newark, New Jersey, across the Hudson River and a few miles west of New York City, told reporters. "They existed in an ethics-free zone."

The investigation was continuing and evidence gathered would be followed "to wherever the crime and corruption is occurring," Marra said.

New Jersey mayors Peter Cammarano of Hoboken, Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, Mayor Anthony Suarez of Ridgefield and Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini of Jersey City and assemblymen L. Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt were among the officials named in the 10-year probe.

Rabbis in Brooklyn, New York, in Deal and Elberon, and other communities along the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, New Jersey, were identified as from the enclaves of Syrian Jews and from the Hassidic sect.

Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, New York, was named in a plot where a kidney from a donor paid 10,000 U.S. dollars was sold for 160,000 dollars, Mara said.

"Usually donors are vulnerable people who need the money," said Weysan Dun, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent in charge of the Newark office. "This scheme preys on donors."

The grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin, was arrested for his part in a money-laundering scheme, said Dun, adding the plot stretched to Switzerland and Israel.

Edward Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime team in the Newark division, who supervised the case "for just about 10 years," said "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst if not the worst in the nation. Corruption is not only pervasive but has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture. The impact that corruption has had on New Jersey has been profound."

He said the arrests highlight three separate criminal schemes which share themes of "deceit, abuse of power and betrayal of trust" and it "touches all levels of state government."

The investigation was started under U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie who preceded Marra and who now is running against Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

Most of the officials arrested were Democrats, but Marra said there were some Republicans.

"This case is not about politics. It is certainly not about religion. It is about crime, corruption, it is about arrogance. Itis about a shocking betrayal of public confidence," Dun said. "It is about criminals who used politics and religion to cloak their criminal activities and to enrich themselves while betraying those who trusted them."

He said the case uncovered "a web of corruption that spanned the state similar to the way a spider's web might cover your face if you accidentally walk into it." He said all of the defendants may not have known other defendants, but "they were connected through their illicit activities with the cooperating witness."

Mara said the case evolved with the help of a witness, identified as a real estate developer, who was introduced to the defendants.

"Basically he was marketing himself as interested in developing," Dun said, explaining the witness would need permits and loans for his project. "He was a middleman hooking up, so to speak, with people willing to help him."

Mara said the cooperating witness met targets of the investigation "in parking lots, at restaurants, luncheonettes, diners, offices basement boiler rooms and bathrooms and the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale."

Dun explained evidence was gathered with the use of both video and audio recordings. "We are very confident with the evidence developed," he said.

"If you commit a crime long enough and persist in committing crimes you will be caught," he warned. "Sooner or later if you consistently engage in criminal activity the crosshairs of justice will be upon you."

Dun told New Jersey citizens that ending corruption was their responsibility.

"Corruption in this state will not end due to law enforcement's efforts," Dun said. "It will only end when the citizens of the state and the many honest public officials demand that it end and stop tolerating it. It's time for the citizens of New jersey to ask 'What do we need to do wipe this spider web of corruption off of the face of our state?'"

Heavy rain damages houses, school in El

MEXICO CITY, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain damaged 26 houses and at least one school in a town near the Salvadorian capital San Salvador on Wednesday, news reports reaching here said Thursday.

The strongest rain was in Palma, a town in Chalatenango that borders San Salvador province to the south and Honduras to the north.

The local meteorological service said there would be moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday in the central and western part of the country, which was caused by a nearby tropical wave on the move.

Biden brings tough love to Georgia

Visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks after receiving an award from Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, not seen, during a reception in honor of Biden, Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, July 22, 2009. (Photo/AP)

Visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks after receiving an award from Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, not seen, during a reception in honor of Biden, Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, July 22, 2009. (Photo/AP)

TBILISI, Georgia 鈥?A year after Georgia's disastrous war with Russia, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assured the small country on Thursday that the United States stands behind it in their continuing conflicts with their region's dominant power.

But his message was tempered by tough love.

While saying Russia should withdraw its forces from two separatist Georgian regions, Biden also said Georgia should abandon any hopes of reclaiming those regions by force.

Further, he assured that the United States would stand behind Georgia's sovereignty, but Georgia must still strive to build a democratic society, six years after its peaceful Rose Revolution ousted a Soviet-era leader and brought President Mikhail Saakashvili to power.

"Your Rose Revolution will only be complete when government is transparent, accountable and fully participatory, when issues are debated inside this chamber, not only out on the streets," Biden told federal and local officials from across the former Soviet republic.

Georgia's opposition has held street protests since April to call for Saakashvili to step down, saying he has grown increasingly authoritarian.

Few nations are more pro-American than Georgia, and the audience listened in rapt silence for most of the speech delivered in the ornate chamber of the country's parliament building.

But Biden won several standing ovations when he criticized Russia's actions during and after its August 2008 war with Georgia. He pledged that the Obama administration would not abandon Georgia even as it sought to mend relations with Moscow, badly damaged by the Russian-Georgian war.

"I come here on behalf of the United States with a simple, straightforward message: We, the United States, stand by you on your journey to a secure, free and democratic, and once again united, Georgia," Biden said, bringing the audience to its feet.

After the outbreak of fighting in the separatist-held territory of South Ossetia, Russia sent tanks, troops and warplanes deep into Georgia in August.

Moscow later recognized the independence claims of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a separatist-held territory on the Black Sea. Only Nicaragua has followed suit.

Biden told the crowd that Georgia's best hope for reclaiming its lost territories wasn't military action 鈥?it was building a free, prosperous society that those territories would want to join.

"It's a sad certainty but it is true, there is no military option to reintegration," he said.

Saakashvili welcomed Biden's visit, saying it demonstrated the strong bonds between the two nations.

Biden also met with opposition leaders, who later praised the message he brought and his support for Georgia's sovereignty.

Irakly Alasania, a Saakashvili critic and former Georgian ambassador to the United Nations, lauded Biden's call for political and social reforms.

Biden told opposition leaders the U.S. stood behind the country, not Saakashvili individually, and "that the choice of president and a government is a matter for the Georgian people and not for any other state," said Nino Burdzhanadze, a former speaker of parliament.

Biden delivered the speech near the end of his two-day visit to Tbilisi, during which he and Saakashvili have discussed economic aid and a proposal for $16 million next year for military training and reorganization, officials on both sides said.

Biden's national security adviser Tony Blinken and a senior Georgian adviser denied that Saakashvili had asked Biden for anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and U.S. participation in an EU observer mission along its border with the disputed regions. The U.S. official who had told that to reporters earlier Thursday said later he had spoken in error.

Saakashvili has previously expressed a strong interest in acquiring U.S. weapons as he seeks to rebuild his military after the war, and Georgian officials in recent days have said they wanted the U.S. to join the observer mission.

But Blinken said the Georgians have not formally requested heavy weapons, and that the EU has not invited U.S. participation in the mission. Blinken did not rule out the U.S. providing either after a formal request.

In Moscow, the government said it would not stand by while Georgia was resupplied with weapons.

"We will continue inhibiting rearmament of the Saakashvili regime," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Georgia is one of the world's biggest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, receiving about $1 billion from Washington over the past year 鈥?most toward reconstruction and humanitarian relief.

Saakashvili said he remarked to Biden during a meal: "I told you there was no such thing as a free dinner in Georgia."

(Agencies)

Honduran interim gov't extends curfew hours around border to guard against Zelaya's return

TEGUCIGALPA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Honduras' interim government announced that from Thursday on, curfew hours will be extended in the country's border areas, in response to claims by ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return home.

The curfew lasts from 6:00 p.m. (2400 GMT) to 6:00 a.m. (1200 GMT) in border areas, and 12:00 p.m. (0600 GMT) to 4:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) in the rest of the country.

The interim government announced the decision through national television, saying that "the curfew is established to guarantee the peace, and protect Honduran people and their property," and "will remain as long as the situation requires it."

The interim government beefed up guarding forces in the Honduran border amid possible arrival of Zelaya between Friday or Saturday.

Zelaya left the Honduran embassy in Nicaraguan capital Managua and set off for border city Esteli Thursday afternoon in an attempt to return home after almost a month of exile.

Zelaya announced after a third round of mediation talks in Costa Rica failed on Wednesday that he planned to cross the Nicaragua-Honduras frontier on Friday.

Elizabeth Sierra, spokeswoman from Honduran embassy in Managua, said Zelaya would decide where to enter Honduran territory once he arrives in Esteli.

Other sources with Honduran embassy mentioned possibilities of Zelaya's entry via Honduran borders with neighboring countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador, besides Nicaragua.

Zelaya was ousted and forced into exile in a coup on June 28, after he angered the army, the legislative and judiciary by insisting on a constitution amendment that would allow him to seek re-election. His demand for reinstatement has been rejected by the post-coup interim government ever since.

MANAGUA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya left Honduran embassy in Nicaraguan capital Managua and set off for border city Esteli Thursday afternoon in an attempt to return home after almost month-long exile.

Sources with the Honduran embassy told Xinhua Zelaya left the diplomatic base at around 4:15 p.m. local time (2215 GMT) in a vehicle caravan escorted by international press. Full story

MANAGUA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A vehicle caravan of reporters, cameramen and photographers from the international press will accompany ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to return to Honduras on Thursday.

Zelaya planned to set off at around 3 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) from Managua, a source with Honduran embassy in Nicaragua told Xinhua.

U.S. military bases in Colombia "unfriendly": Venezuelan president

CARACAS, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that the installation of U.S. military bases in Colombia, Venezuela's neighbor, is "an unfriendly act."

Chavez said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday met with Maria Luisa Chiappe, Colombia's ambassadress to Caracas, to inform her of the Venezuelan posture.

The president expressed concern about the increasing presence of U.S. military bases in the region, which he said "obliges us to review the full scheme of our ties with Colombia."

U.S. military bases in Colombia could be used to carry out attacks on Venezuela, thus bringing danger to the peace in South America, he said.

Chavez added that in view of this, Venezuela's delegation would not attend a high-level meeting with Colombia scheduled for this week.

Colombian officials have said the country is planning four new U.S. military bases near its border with Venezuela .

Mexican capital announces water-saving plan

MEXICO CITY, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Mexico City will launch a 760-million-peso (58-million-U.S. dollar) water-saving plan to ensure that water shortages seen early this year will not repeat in the first half of next year, the city's mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday.

Ebrard, asking for help from the 20 million people who live in the city and its conurbation, said the program seeks to reduce citizens' average daily consumption of water from the present 307 liters to 184.3 liters.

The city suffered a series of water supply cuts during the first half of this year, peaked with the suspension of half of the city's water supply during the second weekend of April.

The city's water supply comes from Cutzamala, a reservoir in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero, administered by the National Water Commission.

Ebrard said the city will help residents replace shower heads, bath taps, cisterns and storage tanks with water-saving ones, estimating that it could save 6.43 million cubic meters of water a month.

He said water thus saved from August to next May would represent two months of additional water for the city.

City offices will also seek ways to cut their water consumption by 20 percent this year, and make even steeper cuts in 2010, he said.

Also on Thursday, federal legislator Jesus Manuel Patron Montalvo, who heads the Water Resources Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, said 40 percent of the city's water is lost in transport and a similar amount in leaks.

"This situation cannot be faced unilaterally, it is a matter that must be tackled by a broader group that includes state and federal authorities," he said.

He urged the city to work closely with the state of Mexico that surrounds it in solving the problem.

Ousted Honduran leader accuses U.S. right extremists of supporting coup

MADRID, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya on Thursday accused some U.S. politicians of backing the June 28 coup.

Plotters of the coup that ousted Zelaya were backed by "the extreme right-wing in Washington," he told Spanish Radio Nacional de Espana (RNE).

He said some U.S. congressmen interfered in the Honduran politics with a double standard in moral.

"They talk of democracy in the United States, but in fact they are tyrants and dictators because they support coups," Zelaya said.

Zelaya also said talks with the post-coup government in Tegucigalpa were over because "we do not negotiate with terrorists."

The mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez failed as the interim authorities refused to listen to his proposals, Zelaya said.

Zelaya was ousted and forced into exile in a coup on June 28, after he angered the army, the legislative and judiciary by insisting on a constitution amendment that would allow him to seek re-election. His demand for reinstatement has been rejected by the post-coup interim government ever since.

Ousted Honduran president says to return home this weekend

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya answers questions during a news conference at the Honduras embassy in Managua July 21, 2009. (Reuters Photo)

BUENOS AIRES, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Thursday said he will enter Honduran territory on Saturday or Sunday.

He said he would return home surrounded by Hondurans who support him along with a caravan of journalists.

Zelaya told Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias on Thursday that "We will go slow, inviting Hondurans to join in to form a strong contingent."

Zelaya said that on Thursday he will set off for a Nicaraguan municipality bordering Honduras and from there he will start his trip back to his country, from where he was expulsed by militaries on June 28.

"I am not afraid, and I am aware of the threats that once I arrive I will be shot dead," he said, adding he was warned not to return as his enemies are ready to take extreme measures.

Zelaya restated his right to retake the charge that the Honduran people granted him in the elections.

"Neither the Honduran people nor the international community" support the coup action, he said.

Mayors, legislators, clergy nabbed in New Jersey corruption probe

Photo taken on July 23, 2009 shows the Federal Court in Newark city of New Jersey State of the United States. Three mayors, two legislators and many government officials of New Jersey State were arrested for public corruption, international money laundering and human organ marketing and detained in the court where they are being inquested. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

NEW YORK, July 23 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 people, including three mayors, other elected and appointed officials and Jewish clergy were arrested in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York on Thursday in an investigation into public corruption, international money laundering and human organ marketing, authorities said.

There were so many arrests that handcuffed suspects were brought to court for processing in a bus. Variously dressed, several wore traditional orthodox clothes.

"Corruption was a way of life," Ralph J. Marra Jr., the acting United States attorney in Newark, New Jersey, across the Hudson River and a few miles west of New York City, told reporters. "They existed in an ethics-free zone."

The investigation was continuing and evidence gathered would be followed "to wherever the crime and corruption is occurring," Marra said.

New Jersey mayors Peter Cammarano of Hoboken, Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, Mayor Anthony Suarez of Ridgefield and Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini of Jersey City and assemblymen L. Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt were among the officials named in the 10-year probe.

Rabbis in Brooklyn, New York, in Deal and Elberon, and other communities along the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, New Jersey, were identified as from the enclaves of Syrian Jews and from the Hassidic sect.

Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, New York, was named in a plot where a kidney from a donor paid 10,000 U.S. dollars was sold for 160,000 dollars, Mara said.

"Usually donors are vulnerable people who need the money," said Weysan Dun, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent in charge of the Newark office. "This scheme preys on donors."

The grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin, was arrested for his part in a money-laundering scheme, said Dun, adding the plot stretched to Switzerland and Israel.

Edward Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime team in the Newark division, who supervised the case "for just about 10 years," said "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst if not the worst in the nation. Corruption is not only pervasive but has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture. The impact that corruption has had on New Jersey has been profound."

He said the arrests highlight three separate criminal schemes which share themes of "deceit, abuse of power and betrayal of trust" and it "touches all levels of state government."

The investigation was started under U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie who preceded Marra and who now is running against Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

Most of the officials arrested were Democrats, but Marra said there were some Republicans.

"This case is not about politics. It is certainly not about religion. It is about crime, corruption, it is about arrogance. Itis about a shocking betrayal of public confidence," Dun said. "It is about criminals who used politics and religion to cloak their criminal activities and to enrich themselves while betraying those who trusted them."

He said the case uncovered "a web of corruption that spanned the state similar to the way a spider's web might cover your face if you accidentally walk into it." He said all of the defendants may not have known other defendants, but "they were connected through their illicit activities with the cooperating witness."

Mara said the case evolved with the help of a witness, identified as a real estate developer, who was introduced to the defendants.

"Basically he was marketing himself as interested in developing," Dun said, explaining the witness would need permits and loans for his project. "He was a middleman hooking up, so to speak, with people willing to help him."

Mara said the cooperating witness met targets of the investigation "in parking lots, at restaurants, luncheonettes, diners, offices basement boiler rooms and bathrooms and the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale."

Dun explained evidence was gathered with the use of both video and audio recordings. "We are very confident with the evidence developed," he said.

"If you commit a crime long enough and persist in committing crimes you will be caught," he warned. "Sooner or later if you consistently engage in criminal activity the crosshairs of justice will be upon you."

Dun told New Jersey citizens that ending corruption was their responsibility.

"Corruption in this state will not end due to law enforcement's efforts," Dun said. "It will only end when the citizens of the state and the many honest public officials demand that it end and stop tolerating it. It's time for the citizens of New jersey to ask 'What do we need to do wipe this spider web of corruption off of the face of our state?'"

Brazilian president says garbage to be sent back to Britain

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Containers with garbage inside imported from Britain into Brazil, which were discovered over the past months, will be sent back, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday.

He referred to the 89 containers, which were imported from February to May and detected in different states of Brazil. The garbage inside weighed over 1,400 tons.

"We are going to send all garbage back. We don't want to import garbage from anyone as we don't want to send our garbage anywhere," Lula said.

According to import documents, the containers were supposed to only have plastic scraps for recycling, but they actually contained domestic and hospital garbage, as well as parts of worn-out computers.

Lula said the Brazilian police will investigate the incident and punish those responsible.

He also said Brazil will inform Britain of the incident, and criticized the fact that even though

Britain is sending its garbage to Brazil, it still pressures Brazil to preserve its environment.

The British government announced Thursday that three people suspected of playing a role in the garbage exports have been arrested in Swindon of southern England.

Chilean president urges end to Honduras political stand-off

ASUNCION, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Visitng Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has expressed regret at the failure to find a way to return Honduras to constitutional order and urged the opposing parties to compromise.

Speaking in the Paraguayan capital Asuncion during a visit on Thursday, Bachelet urged ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and post-coup leader Roberto Micheletti to make all possible efforts to find a peaceful solution and to avoid the risk of a bloodbath.

Bachelet, current president of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), praised the efforts made by mediator Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, saying "he has worked tirelessly in accordance with the Organization of American States' (OAS) resolution on the issue to achieve a compromise to restore the democracy in Honduras."

According to Bachelet, the agreement proposed by Arias had the essential points and the necessary guarantees for both parties to reach a compromise.

On July 19, Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Central American civil wars, presented the "Accord of San Jose" to both Zelaya and the post-coup interim government of Roberto Micheletti as a final solution to the political crisis in Honduras, and set a 72-hour deadline for both camps to reach a deal.

Micheletti has refused to sign the accord and rejected Arias' second and final mediation plan, which included advancing the presidential elections and forming a government of national unity led by Zelaya till 2010.

Zelaya, who has been in exile since he was ousted in a military coup on June 28, announced Wednesday night he would make a second attempt to return to Honduras, saying that "because the interim government refused to sign the accord, the mediation efforts had failed."

Bachelet also requested the OAS to take extra measures to implement the resolutions of the Extraordinary General Assembly regarding the Honduras crisis.

"If this period (Arias' mediation) has failed, we think that now the OAS has to take all the additional measures to fulfill the aims of the approved resolutions by the General Assembly," Bachelet said.

Obama's healthcare reform suffers blow at Senate

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's overhaul healthcare reform suffered another blow on Thursday as the Senate gave up voting on the bill before the August recess.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that his floor would rather have a product "that is one that is based on quality and thoughtfulness," than "trying to jam something through."

However, he said that the Senate Finance Committee would pass component of its overall legislation before the recess, which will be blended with another legislation approved by the Senate's main health committee earlier this month.

"The decision was made to give them more time for the finance committee part of what we're trying to do and I don't think it is unreasonable. This is a complex, difficult issue," he added.

In recent weeks, Obama has stepped up his efforts to push forward his overhaul healthcare reform at Congress, which is aimed at curbing rapidly rising costs and expanding health insurance coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans.

The president has earlier set a timetable for Congress to vote on the healthcare reform bill before its month-long recess starting Aug. 7.

On Thursday, Obama, for his first time, indicated that he would be ok with the delay in passing the healthcare reform bill at Congress, when he sell the plan in Ohio, the politically critical heartland.

"We may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the end of August, or the beginning of August: that's OK; I just want people to keep on working, just keep working," Obama said.

"I want to get it done by the end of this year, I want it done by the fall," he added.

Brazil, Mexico call for immediate return of ousted Honduras leader

BRASILIA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian and Mexican foreign ministers on Wednesday demanded the immediate reinstatement of ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa said in a joint statement after a meeting in Brasilia that their two countries support the resolution of the Organization of American States (OAS) which requires the return of the ousted Honduran president.

"The foreign ministers reiterated the contents of the resolutions of the OAS and the United Nations regarding the situation in Honduras and reaffirmed the position of their governments to reject the coup d'etat in that country," the statement said.

At a news conference after their meeting, Amorim said there's still room for Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in Honduras.

For her part, Espinosa called for an "immediate and unconditional" return of Zelaya.

Zelaya was ousted and forced into exile in a coup on June 28, after he angered the army, the legislative and the judiciary by insisting on a constitution amendment that would allow him to seek re-election.

His demand for reinstatement has been rejected by the post-coup interim government.