Brazil's president asks
Micheleti to step down


Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva said Honduras's interim government is illegitimate and has called for it to step down.

Speaking to reporters in Stockholm, Sweden Tuesday, the Brazilian president said the crisis in Honduras would be solved if the leaders of the June 28 coup simply left office and returned democratically-elected president José Manuel Zelaya to office.

Da Silva was in the Swedish capital for a summit with European Union leaders.

Zelaya has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since his surprise return to Honduras last month.

Meanwhile, Both the Wall Street Journal and the Anti-Defamation League have expressed concern about anti-Semitic rhetoric in Honduras.

The Anti-Defamation league produced a news release titled: "Jews A Scapegoat In Honduras Political Stalemate."  Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady expressed concern over anti-Jewish remarks made by Radio Globo  news director, David Romero. Romero, who has been  accorded status as a press martyr, said “Sometimes I ask myself if Hitler wasn't right when he wanted to finish with that race, through the famous holocaust, because if there are people that are harmful to this country, they are the Jews, the Israelites.” He apologized Sunday in an interview and said his grandfather was a Jewish refugee to Honduras.

The anti-Defamation league cited these examples in its press release: 

        * False allegations by President Zelaya that "Israeli mercenaries" are trying to assassinate him;

        * False claims by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and other Zelaya supporters that Israel was the only country in the world to recognize Micheletti's de facto government;

        * Other remarks by Romero of Radio Globo, claiming that "officers of the Jewish army" are working in conspiracy with the Armed Forces in Honduras.

Chávez also appears to have said in one of his Sunday speeches that Israelis were on rooftops in Tegucigalpa using some kind of device to disrupt thoughts.

Ms. O'Grady noted the close connection between Chávez and some of the more extreme Middle Eastern regimes, including Iran.

Monday, interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti lifted a week-old emergency decree that had restricted civil liberties. The revocation order was expected to take effect when published in the government's official gazette. The order shut down pro-Zelaya outlets like Radio Globo, but Romero continued to transmit from his home.
 
Micheletti has been under international pressure to restore the civil liberties and negotiate an end to the political crisis stemming from Zelaya's ouster in the June coup.

A mission from the Organization of American States arrives in Honduras Wednesday for meetings on the political crisis.

The United States and other nations have condemned Zelaya's overthrow. Washington also has revoked the visas of Honduran officials and cut aid to the Central American country. Many conservative U.S. lawmakers have criticized President Barack Obama's support of Zelaya.

The de facto government says Zelaya was ousted because he was trying to illegally change the constitution to extend his term in office.

"From President Zelaya himself down to media pundits and political activists, there has been a troubling undercurrent of anti-Semitism in the situation in Honduras," said Abraham H. Foxman, Anti-Defamation League national director.  "We know from history that at times of turmoil and unrest, Jews are a convenient scapegoat, and that is happening now in Honduras, a country that has only a small Jewish minority."

Out of the country's eight million inhabitants, there are less than 100 Jewish families living in Honduras, the league said.
 

Suspected bandit, dealer
die in separate shootings


A 23-year-old suspected bandit died Monday night when he suffered a bullet wound in the chest.  He was identifiedd by the last name of Solano.

The Judicial Investigating Organization said he was one of three persons who stuck up operators of a small store in San Isidro de Heredia. When the men fled, shootings took place and Solano suffered the wound, agents said.

In Urbanización El Progresso in Puntarenas an 18-year-old died in his own home early Tuesday when someone shot him.

Agents said the man who had the last name of Zúñiga was found by his mother about 3 a.m. dead of the floor of his home. She lives next door. He suffered a bullet wound to the back of the head, agents said.

Agents said they found 50,000 colons (about $86), 15 doses of cocaine and 70 crack rocks at the scene, so they discarded robbery as a motive.

In Quepos, Fuerza Pública officers detained a man identified by the last names of  Fonseca Jiménez early Tuesday for investigation of the shooting of his son moments before. The son, a 17-year-old suffered two bullet wounds, police said.

The shooting happened in the center of Quepos. The youngerFonseca identified his father as the person who shot him but said he did not know the reason, police reported.


Five new ambassadors give
their credentials to Arias


Five new ambassadors presented their credentials to President Óscar Arias Sánchez Tuesday. They represent Belgium, the Czech Republic, Paraguay, El Salvador and Panamá.

The ambassador from Belgium is Gregorie Vardakis, who has been in his country's foreign service since 1981, said Casa Presidencial.

Pavel Procházka represents the Czech Republic. He has held a number of diplomatic posts.

Sebastián Vaquerano of El Salvador has been director of Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana. pubications coordinator of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales and since 1999 the owner of Editorial Legado in Costa Rica, Casa Presidencial said.

José Javier Mulion from Panamá was director of Correos de Panamá and national director for refugees with the HIgh Commissioner of the United Nations.

Paraguay's Oscar Buenaventura Llanes Torres also is a career diplomat having entered his country's service in 1999, said Casa Presidencial.


Collapse of excavation
leads to death of worker


A construction worker digging a ditch in Playa Matapalo died Monday evening when the walls of the excavation collapsed, the Judicial Investigating Organization said.

He was identified as a 31-year-old man with the last name of Chan. The mishap took place about 8 p.m. on the grounds of a hotel there, agents said.  The man and four others were doing the work in a ditch that was about five meters (about 16.5 feet).