Honduras leaders reject deadline

The newly installed government in Honduras has rejected international calls to reinstate deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

The Organization of American States has given Honduras a 72-hour deadline for reinstatement or warned it could face suspension from the regional group.

Mr Zelaya has delayed his planned return home on Thursday, until the deadline expires at the weekend.

Interim leaders said he would be arrested for treason on his return.

The army ousted Mr Zelaya on Sunday over his plans for constitutional reform, which his critics said were aimed at prolonging his presidency.

Roberto Micheletti, the Speaker of Congress who was sworn in as interim president, said of the OAS deadline: “We can’t negotiate anything.

“We can’t reach an agreement because there are orders to capture the ex-President Zelaya here for crimes he committed when he was an official.”

Troops guarded government buildings during pro- and anti-Zelaya protests

He told the Associated Press: “He can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns.”

The president’s expulsion has been widely condemned by leaders ranging from US President Barack Obama to Mr Zelaya’s regional allies, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mr Zelaya, in Panama for the presidential inauguration, said: “I’m going to respect those 72 hours that the OAS asked for.”

The US has suspended military co-operation with Honduras and says it will decide next week whether to cut aid.

Mr Zelaya’s decision to postpone his return was described as “wise” by a senior official from US President Barack Obama’s administration, quoted by Reuters news agency.

Protests

The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have cut new loans and some European countries have recalled their ambassadors.

The head of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza, condemned what he described as “an old-fashioned coup” in Honduras, after an emergency meeting of the regional grouping on Tuesday.

“We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted,” he said.

But thousands of people demonstrated in the capital, Tegucigalpa, against the return of the ousted leader, whose popularity has slumped in opinion polls to around 30% in recent months.

source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8129787.stm

No more chemotherapy for Cory, says close family friend

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino is no longer receiving chemotherapy and has been moved from the intensive care unit (ICU) to a regular room at the Makati Medical Center, a close family friend said Thursday.

“She is no longer receiving chemotherapy or any other medical interventions,” Lourdes Siytangco, Mrs. Aquino’s former spokeswoman, quoted family members as saying. Mrs. Aquino was diagnosed with colon cancer last year.

“Former President Cory Aquino is now out of the ICU and in a private room, a decision she and her children made in consultation with her doctors,” Siytangco wrote in her regular column in the Manila Bulletin newspaper.

“The country’s beloved “Icon of Democracy’ is fighting the hardest battle of her life at the Makati Medical Center,” Siytangco wrote in her column, which was entitled “Cory fighting for her life.”

Siytangco said Mrs. Aquino’s “courageous battle with colon cancer has been inspiring with ‘bonus time’ for her living a quality life the past year and a half.”

She said Mrs. Aquino “is aware of the many people praying for her, sending her well-wishes and continues herself to be prayerful.” Supporters started a nine-day novena on Wednesday at the Greenbelt chapel in Makati for Mrs. Aquino’s recovery.

Siytangco said no visitors are allowed in Mrs. Aquino’s room at the hospital. Only the former president’s children Ballsy, Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, Pinky, Viel, and Kristina Bernadette are “taking turns” at her bedside, she said.

“The members of her family beg everyone’s understanding of their need for solitude and privacy at this delicate time,” Mrs. Aquino’s family said in a statement posted on Mrs. Aquino’s Web site.

Family friend Fr. June Sescon will celebrate the healing mass for Mrs. Aquino on Thursday, Siytangco said.

In a telephone interview with GMANews.TV, Siytangco said Mrs. Aquino “is stable. She is fine.” She declined to give further details.

Radio dzBB reported that family members of the former president declined to give media an update on her condition. No hospital official would give the media an update on Mrs. Aquino’s situation either.

Radio dzBB’s Louie Garcia reported early Thursday that Cory’s daughter Kris arrived at the Makati Medical Center at 12:30 a.m. but declined to give reporters a statement. The report said Kris brought clothes and fruits for her mother.

Sen. Aquino has also declined to discuss his mother’s health condition with reporters.

Palace offers prayers

Saddened over the health condition of the former President, Malacañang on Thursday offered prayers to strengthen her in her battle against colon cancer.

“Of course ikinalulungkot ng Malacañang ang report na ang dating Pangulong Corazon Aquino ay nasa maselang kalagayan. Kaya kami ay nakikiisa sa panawagan na ipagdasal natin na maka-survive si Pangulong Cory laban sa cancer,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in an interview on dzXL radio.

[Of course, we at Malacañang are saddened with the reports about the condition of Mrs. Aquino. We are heeding the call for prayers for President Aquino to survive her battle with cancer.]

He said he learned of Mrs. Aquino’s condition through Siytangco.

Mrs. Aquino was instrumental in the EDSA uprising in 2001 that brought down former President Joseph Estrada and helped catapult President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to power .

But she became a critic of Mrs. Arroyo in 2005, in the wake of the “Hello Garci” electoral scandal involving taped conversations between then poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and several politicians, including Mrs. Arroyo. - GMANews.TV

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