Democracy Now!

Former President Bill Clinton has made a surprise visit to North Korea to try to win the release of two jailed US journalists that were be put on trial on charges of illegal entry and hostile acts. The two reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were detained along the Chinese border on March 17. The reporters work for Al Gore’s Current TV.

A group of high-ranking Latin American diplomats are planning to head to Honduras to pressure the coup-installed leaders to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The trip is being organized by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the Organization of American States. On Monday, Cesar Caceres, a spokesperson for the coup government, rejected calls for Zelaya’s return.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun a seven-nation, eleven-day trip to Africa. Her trip begins in Kenya, where she is expected to meet with Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Somalia at present is at war, since January 2009 when the southern half of the country fell into the hands of radical Islamist rebels.

After two Zelaya supporters died in Honduras, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya vowed on Saturday to return to power through peaceful means and said he would take his case to the International Criminal Court. He declared that it was in the convenience of the United States to withhold a common vision of democracy, and not support the coup d’état.

The Obama administration’s special envoy to Sudan is calling for a major shift in U.S. policy towards the Sudanese government. In May 2007, the Bush administration imposed economic and other sanctions against Sudan, because of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. In the Darfur conflict, due to violence and disease, UN estimates 400.000 people killed and 2 millions displaced.

In Washington state, a Quaker pacifist has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the US government of discrimination for not recognizing his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms. Conscientious objectors refuse to participate in wars because they are propped up by racism and dehumanization and set the stage for never-ending wars and occupation.

Confirming the May’s announcements, British forces will end the 3,700 troops withdrawal from Iraq by the end of July, this Friday, ending their more than six years as an occupying force. Iraqi lawmakers blocked a vote on an agreement that would have allowed 100 British troops to remain in Iraq beyond the Friday deadline.

The Obama administration took major steps this week toward helping several major US defense contractors sell sophisticated US arms and nuclear technology to India. Increased US-India nuclear cooperation is stoking fears the US is escalating India’s arms race with Pakistan. Both states are declared nuclear states endangering the regional situation.

At the G8 meeting in Italy, world leaders pledged $12 billion for a “food security initiative” for the world’s poorest countries. The total committed falls three billion dollars short of the $15 billion promised by President Obama.

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is in Washington today for meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s Zelaya’s highest-level meeting with a U.S. official since his overthrow last month.