The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia began to use Russia’s international direct dialling phone code, +7, Sunday 15 November, instead of Georgia’s, +995, in a further break with Georgia. Russia and Georgia fought a war in July over South Ossetia, another breakaway region in Georgia.
”The old codes will work until Jan 1. Then they will be turned off and people will use the new codes of independent Abkhazia,” said Nadir Bitiev, a senior aide to Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh, reports Reuters. Two-thirds of the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) members must agree to admitting a new member. Only the Russian Federation recognizes Abkhazia as an independent country, along with Venezuela and Nicaragua. Moscow Times
Honduras’ ousted president Manuel Zelaya is in neighbouring Nicaragua at the head of a caravan of vehicles set to cross the border near El Progreso, Honduras. He has said he hopes the soldiers guarding the border will lay down their arms and recognize him as their president. The de facto government in Honduras imposed a 18:00 to 06:00 curfew on the border region and has said it will arrest Zelaya if he enters the country. US and Organization of American States (OAS) officials have counselled caution, warning of the possibility of violence. CNN, El Heraldo.hn (Spa)
A defiant Manuel Zelaya, until recently president of the Central American nation of Honduras, told a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Nicaragua 29 June that he would return home this week. The Honduran military had bundled Zelaya onto a plane to Costa Rica early the previous day. US President Barack Obama called his ouster a coup and a “dangerous precedent”. In a bid to extend his four-year term, Zelaya clashed with congress, the supreme court, the Catholic church and even his own party, the Liberals. Elected as a centre-right candidate, Zelaya has increasingly allied himself to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. In the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, troops fired tear gas at protestors who were supporting Zelaya. BBC, Los Angeles Times, NYT
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