TEGUCIGALPA - INTERNATIONAL pressure mounted on Honduras on Monday to restore elected President Manuel Zelaya to power as demonstrators defied a curfew to protest his ouster by the military.
Zelaya's referemdum ruled illegal, opposed by military
Elected to a non-renewable four-year term in 2005, Mr Zelaya had planned a vote on Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a referendum on changing the constitution.
But the referendum had been ruled illegal by Honduras's top court and was opposed by the military.
UNITED NATIONS - OUSTED Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was set to address the UN General Assembly as member states on Monday stepped up condemnation demanded his reinstatement after a military coup.
General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann officially invited Mr Zelaya to address the 192-member body and the deposed leader 'is likely to do so around 11am (1500 GMT) Tuesday,' Mr D'Escoto's spokesman, Mr Enrique Yeves, told AFP.
WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama said on Monday the United States believes that ousted leader Manuel Zelaya 'remains the president of Honduras' and the coup in his country was a throwback to a 'dark past.'
Mr Obama addressed the political crisis in Honduras following talks with Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe and warned the coup was a backward step after two decades of 'enormous' political progress' for the Western Hemisphere.
TEGUCIGALPA - CLASHES flared on Monday between Honduran troops and demonstrators protesting the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya leaving several people injured, an AFP photographer said.
'There are riots, police are cracking down ... heard shooting. There are some injured,' the photographer said.
US President Barack Obama said the United States believed Zelaya 'remains the president of Honduras' a day after troops bundled the 57-year-old out of his bed in pajamas and whisked him away to exile in Costa Rica.
Obama said the coup in the Central American nation was 'not legal' and called for international cooperation to solve the crisis peacefully.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the international community's 'immediate priority is to restore full democratic and constitutional order in that country.'
Just hours after Mr Zelaya was deposed, the Honduran Congress swore in its speaker, Mr Roberto Micheletti, as the interim president until January.
In one of his first acts, Mr Micheletti imposed a 48-hour curfew on the capital and insisted he had come to power via a legal process. He also began naming members of his cabinet on Monday.
But Mr Zelaya has said he remains the elected leader, and scores of young people, many wearing scarves to cover their faces, protested in the capital, Tegucigalpa, on Monday. Shots had been heard in the city late on Sunday.
'President Mel is the only one,' said Joseph, who was wielding an iron bar, and using the president's nickname.
'It was a coup, Mel Zelaya did not resign,' agreed Mr Amilcar Umanzo, brandishing a human rights manual in his hand. 'The political and economic class united to overthrow the constitutional president,' he added.
Mr Zelaya's overthrow was triggered by a standoff with the military and legal institutions over his bid to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term in November elections. -- AFP
