Democracy Now!

The Obama administration is moving further away from its stated support for the reinstatement of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Porfirio Lobo, a wealthy landowner, emerged victorious with 55 percent of the vote. Zelaya’s supporters boycotted the election, and many Latin American countries have refused to recognize its outcome.

A Western Saharan human rights activist is in the third week of a hunger strike after being deported against her will by Moroccan authorities occupying her homeland. Aminatou Haidar, known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” is at the airport on the Canary Islands and is demanding that she be allowed to return to home. Morocco has occupied most of Western Sahara since 1975.

Israel is coming under widespread international criticism for its plan to engage in a new round of illegal settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land. Israel says it will build 900 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo. Palestinian Authority leaders began a renewed effort for endorsement of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.

Zelaya has remained in the Brazilian embassy since defiantly returning to Honduras one week ago. Coup leaders have now given Brazil a ten-day deadline to hand over Zelaya or face the embassy’s closure. Brazil has rejected the ultimatum and says Zelaya will stay as long as he needs. On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning the embassy siege.

The U.S.-drafted resolution called for further efforts to achieve “a world without nuclear weapons.” But critics of the resolution said it failed to include mandatory provisions that would have required nuclear weapons states to take concrete disarmament steps. The resolution also lacked any call on nuclear states to halt production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

The Obama administration has effectively abandoned a demand that Israel freeze settlement expansion before the resumption of peace talks. President Obama signaled the shift on Tuesday as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Obama urged both sides to “move forward” and enter final-status talks.

The ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is in Washington, where he will meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday. Zelaya criticized the Honduran coup regime for blocking his return and going ahead with an election campaign. Zelaya’s meeting with Clinton comes days after a State Department review advised that his ouster be officially declared a “military coup.”

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan arrived in Martha’s Vineyard to lead a protest near the home where President Obama is vacationing. Sheehan made international headlines four years ago when she led large protests outside President Bush’s home in Crawford, Texas. On Thursday, Sheehan criticized Obama for expanding the war in Afghanistan.

Former President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the construction sites of the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank and criticized Israel’s settlements in the region. Carter and Tutu are both part of The Elders, an organization of former global leaders trying to pressure Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch peace talks.

A delegation of foreign ministers from the Organization of American States is in Honduras this week to seek the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The delegation is hoping to revive a Costa Rica-brokered proposal that would restore Zelaya to office but limit his authority. On Monday, the head of the coup government, Micheletti, reiterated his opposition to the plan.