Ousted President Zelaya begins caravan back to Honduras

Behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle, deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Thursday started his journey from Managua, Nicaragua, to the country’s border with Honduras. A caravan of Zelaya supporters and reporters headed north to the city of Esteli, close to the Honduran border.

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Conditions of Zelaya’s return key for weekend talks

A second round of talks between two disputed governments of Honduras is scheduled to take place Saturday in Costa Rica The outcome of this weekend’s talks, following an unproductive initial mediation last week, could set the tone for how the crisis, now in its third week, will play out, observers say. “If you take too long too resolve this type of issue, the force of the mediation loses clout,” Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said. Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military-led coup June 28.

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Resignation a possibility, interim Honduran leader says

Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti told reporters Wednesday that he would be willing to step down as long as ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya ceases his claims to the presidency. The provisional president said that if it became “extremely necessary” for him to step down in order to maintain peace in the country, he would, as long as Zelaya was not restored to power, Micheletti’s son, Aldo Micheletti, confirmed to CNN en Español. Meanwhile, Zelaya said his followers plan to take action inside the country this weekend, ratcheting up pressure on the provisional government that has ruled for more than two weeks.

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300 jailed in ‘flawed’ Saudi terror trials

More than 300 men convicted by Saudi Arabia for taking part in terror plots have been jailed following trials criticized by a rights group for their lack of transparency. Saudi Arabia reported last week that 330 people had been convicted of membership in a “deviant group” — a reference to the al Qaeda terrorist network, founded by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. On Monday, a Justice Ministry spokesman released more details about the group, saying that 323 will serve time in jail “varying from a few months to 30 years, with 13 of them sentenced to more than 20 years,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

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Talks planned to end World Cup strikes

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a major trade union representing the 70,000 construction workers currently striking at 2010 World Cup stadium building sites in South Africa, will meet with local organizers on Tuesday in a bid thrash out a resolution. The disgruntled labor force have been demanding a 13 percent pay rise from their employers before they return to work, resulting in a dispute that could threaten the completion of key arenas in time for next year’s event.

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Uganda seeks to ban female circumcision

In many cases it’s a woman that grips the blade — maybe clean, maybe dirty — that cuts a girl’s path to womanhood. The cutter, who works for a fee, can pursue any number of surgical options for the young girl’s rite of passage. She can remove the girl’s clitoris entirely, narrow her vagina with stitches, or make other excisions of the girl’s genitalia.

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Clinton Helps Push Honduran Foes to Negotiations

If the Latin American left knows anything, it’s the value of political theater. When leftist, coup-ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to return to his country on Sunday in a private jet, buzzing the Tegucigalpa airport before soldiers blocked the runway, many inside the Organization of American States and the Obama Administration considered it a reckless stunt that might hamper a negotiated solution to the crisis. But as it turns out, the aerial spectacle may have aided their cause: it finally coalesced hundreds of thousands of Zelaya supporters on the ground and helped prompt Honduran coup leaders, already facing international condemnation, to reconsider their hard-line stance against any brokered settlement

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Honduras accepts mediation offer, Costa Rica says

Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti has accepted an offer that an independent commission help broker an impasse over whether to allow the return of ousted President Jose Manual Zelaya, Costa Rica’s foreign ministry said Tuesday. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias offered to form a mediation panel with representatives from four or five countries. The development came as Zelaya, ousted by the Honduran military on June 28, met in Washington with U.S.

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