In the capital, a sense of relief was instant and palpable. Kabul residents honked horns and exchanged celebratory text messages as the news spread. American, European and U.N. officials rushed to congratulate Karzai and pledged to work closely with his new administration.

Nevertheless, the decision to install Karzai without a clear electoral mandate raised questions about the legitimacy of his future administration. And despite calls for calm by his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, there were fears that opposition supporters might cause violent disturbances.

Aides to the president called a news conference Monday evening but then immediately canceled it, while Karzai was said to be conferring privately with advisers. Several hours later, security forces rushed to the Kabul airport amid reports that Abdurrashid Dostum, a former warlord and ally of Karzai, was flying back from exile in Turkey.

The terse announcement of Karzai’s victory was made by the chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, whose removal had been demanded by Abdullah as one of several conditions for remaining in the race. After Karzai rejected the demands, Abdullah, a former foreign minister and eye doctor, withdrew Sunday, saying he did not believe the Nov. 7 runoff would be fair or transparent.

“We declare Mr. Hamid Karzai, who received a majority of votes in the first-round election and is the only candidate in the second round, as the elected president of Afghanistan,” Lodin said.

He said the seven-member panel had been “fully prepared” to hold the runoff but had reached a consensus that it should be canceled for a combination of reasons. He noted there was only one candidate, that the poll would be costly and dangerous to hold, and that it could have created “many challenges to the country’s security and stability.”

The chairman cited several provisions in the Afghan constitution in support of the panel’s decision, but he also compared the situation to a wrestling match. Peppered with questions about how the commission reached its conclusion, Lodin said, “If one wrestler refuses to wrestle, the referee raises the hand of the other and declares him the winner.”

Lodin brushed off questions about Abdullah’s complaints that he had been biased during the election process toward Karzai, who appointed him and the other commission members. “We have answered these questions a thousand times. There is no need to discuss it further,” he said through an interpreter.

Aides to Abdullah said the announcement come came as no surprise and was another indication of the panel’s favoritism toward Karzai. One aide said there might be an appeal to the Afghan Supreme Court to determine whether the election commission had the authority to cancel the runoff.

“I think people were fed up with this controversy over election,” said Homayoun Shah Assefy, one of Abdullah’s running mates. “I think it’s a good thing that this is finished. Whether it’s legal or not, we can stop discussing this matter. Now he’s elected.”

Despite lingering questions over the commission’s impartiality, foreign officials welcomed the announcement and said it appeared to have a constitutional basis. U.S. officials here said that even if the decision were legally challenged, the Afghan high court would probably uphold it within a short time.

Afghan election commission declares Karzai winner

Karzai rejected Abdullah Abdullah’s conditions for next Saturday’s vote, including removing top election officials whom the challenger accused of involvement in cheating in the first-round balloting in August.

Abdullah has called a press conference for 10 a.m. Sunday to announce his final decision after Afghans and Westerners close to the challenger said he would withdraw. His campaign manager Satar Murad said the candidate might still change his mind, but that "as of now" he planned to call for a boycott.

A clouded electoral picture would further complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to decide whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.

The White House has been waiting for a new government in Kabul to announce a decision, but the war has intensified in the meantime. October was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces with at least 57 American deaths.

Western officials hoped that Abdullah would make a gracious exit for the good of the country rather than denounce Karzai for fraud, a move that could sharpen tensions at a time the United States and its allies are seeking unity against the Taliban.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton downplayed the prospect of an Abdullah withdrawal, saying it would not undermine the legitimacy of the election.

"I don’t think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election," Clinton told reporters in Abu Dhabi. "It’s a personal choice which may or may not be made."

Last-minute contacts were under way late Saturday between representatives of Karzai and Abdullah to resolve the crisis, and the challenger’s spokesman Fazel Sancharaki insisted no final decision on a withdrawal had been made. It appeared the uncertainty was aimed in part at allowing Abdullah to keep his options open until the last possible moment.

"I don’t know what will happen tomorrow morning," Murad said. "We understand it shouldn’t go forward, and there should be an interim government immediately after the 7th or 8th of November" until a vote next spring, Murad said.

He said the approach of winter meant there was not enough time to organize an election that would be reasonably free of fraud.

"Therefore, it’s not good for the country, and it’s not good for the people," Murad said. "We wouldn’t be having a legitimate government in the country if we went forward."

If the election proceeds as scheduled, Abdullah will urge supporters to stay at home, and "our followers will not turn up to the election centers."

U.S. officials pressured Karzai into agreeing to a runoff after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of his votes from the August ballot, citing fraud. Obama administration officials said they would be receptive to a power-sharing deal to avoid a runoff if Karzai and Abdullah could agree on a formula.

But Abdullah decided to exit the race after talks between the two sides broke down Thursday, according to two people close to the negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the candidate.

During recent talks, Abdullah demanded the removal of three key election officials, suspension of three Cabinet members and constitutional changes that would give him a say in the appointment of ministers and in major policy decisions, according to an Afghan close to the Karzai campaign.

Karzai refused the to agree to the conditions, the Afghan said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to talk about the confidential discussions.

Even if Abdullah withdraws, it’s unclear whether Karzai could be proclaimed the winner or if the runoff would still have to proceed, either with Abdullah on the ballot or the third-place finisher, lawmaker Ramazan Bashardost.

A spokesman for the Afghan election commission said that it is too late for Abdullah to officially withdraw and that a boycott will not prevent the runoff from going forward.

"The election will be held and all procedures will go as normal," Noor Mohammad Noor said.

U.S. officials have been concerned that the second round would expose Afghan civilians to attack by Taliban militants opposed to the election.

Last Wednesday, Taliban attackers killed five U.N. employees — including one American — and three Afghans in a brazen assault on a residential hotel housing international staff in the heart of Kabul. The three attackers also died.

Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said Afghan authorities had advance information that a Taliban attack in Kabul was in the works but was expected it during rush hour, and officials were unsure of the target.

Instead, the attackers struck just before dawn. Saleh said eight people had been arrested for their roles in the attack, including an Afghan imam who was apprehended when he arrived by plane in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

Saleh said the detainees told interrogators the attackers came from Pakistan’s Swat Valley and that the al-Qaida mastermind fled across the border into Pakistan’s lawless tribal area, where the al-Qaida leadership is believed hiding.

Casualties have been on the rise since President Barack Obama sent more troops to confront the Taliban.

On Saturday, the NATO-led force announced the latest coalition death in the war. The Canadian Defense Department said the casualty was a 24-year-old Canadian national killed in a bomb blast outside the southern city of Kandahar on Friday.

Abdullah plans runoff boycott to delay Afghan vote

No-one is using the age-old electoral mantra “free and fair”.

It is hard to find anyone who expects Afghanistan’s third major poll since 2001 to be fully free or fully fair.

These are the first elections since 2001 run primarily by Afghans – albeit with international support.

There’s been an unprecedented level of political debate and lively campaigning in this first truly contested poll.

But one embittered election expert described it as a “squandered opportunity”.

Badly cheated

Some foreign election observers have worried for months what kind of language they will use the day after Afghans cast ballots on 20 August for a president and members of provincial councils.

Set the bar too high and disgruntled candidates will seize upon this verdict as convincing evidence that their victory was stolen. Set it too low and Afghans who’ve invested energy and hope in a crucial process, however imperfect, will feel badly cheated.

“Good enough” is a phrase that slipped into conversation after the last parliamentary elections in 2005, amid disappointment over some of the candidates allowed to run and persistent allegations of vote rigging.

In a highly charged political atmosphere, pressure was exerted on irate losers to accept the results and move on. Too much was at stake.

Western officials involved in the process now admit there was “very significant fraud”. In some ballot boxes, neat piles of evenly folded ballots were evidence of stuffing.

A lot is also at stake this time, for Afghans and an international community determined to achieve success.

The question may be “good enough” for whom?

For all the talk of promoting democracy in Afghanistan, the ball was dropped after the 2005 polls.

Little was done to start work on this extraordinarily challenging process, despite a recommendation from the head of the Electoral Complaints Commission, Grant Kippen, to start preparations “well in advance of an election, including by means of a thorough lessons-learned analysis”.

“We started too late,” conceded a senior UN official.

‘Complicated elections’

In recent months, there has been a concerted push to fix gaping weaknesses and prevent the kind of fraud that could plunge Afghanistan into a political crisis at a critical juncture.

Doubts persist about the preparedness and impartiality of the Independent Election Commission. But there is praise too for its efforts to try to meet a series of deadlines.

UN envoy Kai Eide called this exercise “the most complicated elections I have seen anywhere in the world”.

Nothing can be taken for granted in a country still struggling to emerge from the heavy burdens of a quarter of a century of war.

How does a young election worker confront a powerful commander or tribal leader who arrives at a remote polling station with a stack of proxy votes from his village?

How do you hire and train thousands of women to carry out security searches in deeply conservative districts where women are rarely seen in public?

Afghan democracy may be a textbook all of its own. A myriad of influences and calculations weigh on voters in a political system driven by shifting networks of patronage and traditional loyalties.

But people who have survived a lifetime of hardship should not be underestimated. In earlier polls, despite Taliban threats and intimidation by armed commanders, Afghans still turned out in the furthest corners of the country boldly to exercise their right to vote.

The first presidential election after the fall of the Taliban was truly a high-water mark – an emotional, if not euphoric, moment in 2004 where more than 70% of Afghans turned out to give Hamid Karzai 55.4% of the vote.

Afghanistan’s day of reckoning

Webb will accompany Yettaw to Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday on a military aircraft, his office said.

Webb also met for about 40 minutes Saturday with Suu Kyi, a witness said. It was not known what they discussed.

“It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future,” Webb said in a statement.

Webb, a Virginia Democrat, is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade. Though he is not in the country on behalf of the State Department, his trip may indicate a shift in America’s hard-line stance against the reclusive country.

Webb is chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Before meeting Suu Kyi on Saturday, Webb met with Myanmar’s top official, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

Webb’s visit — part of a two-week, five-nation tour of Asia — comes just days after the conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi.

She was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 months of house arrest stemming from a May incident in which Yettaw swam two miles uninvited to her home, violating the terms of her house arrest.

Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor.

A Myanmar court initially sentenced Suu Kyi to three years in prison for violating her house arrest, but Than Shwe commuted it to the year and a half of house arrest.

Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, stayed in Suu Kyi’s home for two days.

He testified in court that God had sent him to Myanmar to protect the opposition leader because he dreamed that a terrorist group would assassinate her. He was convicted of violating immigration laws, municipal laws and Suu Kyi’s house arrest terms.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed “serious concern” over Suu Kyi’s conviction and its political impact, and urged the government to “create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue” with the pro-democracy leader.

Also Thursday, the European Union adopted “a new set of targeted measures” against Myanmar in reaction to the verdict against Suu Kyi. Under the measures, members of the Myanmar judiciary responsible for Suu Kyi’s conviction will be added to a list of people and entities subject to a travel ban and assets freeze.

Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years in one form of confinement or another — most recently under house arrest in a crumbling lakeside home. The country’s regime rarely allows her visitors, and foreigners are not allowed overnight stays in local households without government permission.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has said she doesn’t know Yettaw, did not know of his plans and denied any wrongdoing. She told the court she did not report the intrusion because she did not want Yettaw or anyone else to get in trouble.

Senator gains release of American jailed in Myanmar

Political, business, church, and media leaders say they can’t trust Mr. Zelaya to keep the commitments that would limit his authority under the Arias plan because, they say, Zelaya repeatedly violated the Constitution in the days that led up to his June 28 ouster over a proposed public vote that they think was aimed at extending his stay in office.

They also say that Zelaya has proved himself untrustworthy by failing to submit a budget to Congress last year and by shifting left in the middle of his term and allying himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a fierce critic of the United States, traditionally Honduras’ most important political and economic ally.

These officials say they prefer that de facto President Roberto Micheletti — or perhaps another senior government official who’d replace him — lead the country through the regularly scheduled Nov. 29 presidential elections and let the newly elected president take over as scheduled Jan. 27.

Opposition to the Arias plan runs so deep that Honduras’s decision-makers favor holding tight even in the face of international sanctions and threats that other countries won’t recognize the presidential election result.

“The president put himself above the law,” said Oswaldo Canales, who heads the 9,000-strong Evangelical Fraternity of Honduras, the country’s biggest Protestant organization. “No one is above the law. He cannot return.”

Zelaya’s supporters scoff at the notion that he’s untrustworthy and say those blocking his return are protecting powerful political and business interests. They say there’s no evidence that Zelaya intended to benefit personally from the referendum.

Mr. Arias hasn’t given up on his efforts, although swine flu has sidelined him for the past several days.

The team representing Honduras in the Arias negotiations remains active. It met Thursday in Washington with Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, to discuss rescheduling a trip to Honduras by foreign ministers and the OAS that the Micheletti government has delayed.

Powerful players in Honduras also would benefit from the Arias plan.

Honduras’ military leaders, for example, favor an amnesty that Arias has proposed for all actions through the day Zelaya was forced from the country at gunpoint.

While many people say the military correctly carried out the Supreme Court’s order to arrest Zelaya on charges of violating the Constitution, they also say it went too far by forcing him from Honduras. Deputy federal prosecutor Roy Urtecho said his office was investigating whether the military leaders committed a crime.

Senior officials in Zelaya’s Liberty Party who supported his ouster want to find a way to resolve the crisis before the election. Without a resolution, they fear divisions over what happened could send party candidate Elvir Santos to defeat.

The power struggle has disrupted commerce throughout Honduras and scared away tourists.

Most trade is flowing freely, however, after the country’s Central American neighbors declined to impose an embargo. The Obama administration also has declined to take punitive measures against Honduras’s economy.

Still, the opposition to a deal is intense, with news reporting slanted against Zelaya and virtually no public opinion leader voicing support.

“He’d breach the agreement, and nobody would stop him,” said Adolfo Facusse, the president of the Honduran National Industrial Association.

That sentiment is based on the events leading to Zelaya’s ouster, which began in March when Zelaya announced he wanted to consult the public on whether to rewrite the Constitution to permit a president to succeed himself.

The move alarmed the country’s elite because it resembled acts by Mr. Chávez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa to extend their stays in office.

In time, Honduras’ attorney general, Congress and Supreme Court ruled that the vote was illegal because the Constitution contains an unusual clause mandating that any president who tries to extend his term must step down.

Zelaya ignored the opposition, and fired the armed forces commander June 24 after the commander questioned the legality of Zelaya’s order to distribute the ballots despite the ruling that the referendum was illegal.

The next day, Zelaya led several thousand supporters to an air force base to seize the ballots, as troops stood by.

“If we didn’t have any doubts about what was happening, that ended there,” said Maria Eugenia Landa Molina, a Liberal Party member of Congress who once backed Zelaya but who now says he must never be allowed back into office.

Since his ouster, Zelaya has traveled to the US, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile to rally support to get the Micheletti government to bend. Each of those countries has voiced support for his return but stopped short of real action.

Zelaya said this week that the US has such influence over Honduras’s economy that Obama administration officials could put him back in power if they enacted tough economic measures. The administration has refused, however, to take anything more than symbolic measures and accused Zelaya of “provocative actions” that prompted his ouster.

Zelaya has tried to mobilize a popular uprising, but that movement seems to have little broad-based support, despite marches this week that attracted up to 10,000 people from throughout Honduras.

That makes the Arias plan the best hope for his return, though it’s hard to find anyone among his opponents willing to contemplate his return. They’re skeptical he’d follow the Arias dictate that he renounce efforts to change the Constitution.

“I saw Zelaya change when he got too close to Chávez,” said Marcia Villeda, another Liberal Party member of Congress who once supported Zelaya. “He fell in love with power and lost his perspective.”

“Every day that passes, the chances for Zelaya’s return dim,” said Julio Raudales, a former senior government official. “Getting someone to replace Micheletti is much more likely than having Zelaya return under the Arias plan.”

Mediation stalls in Honduras as leaders refuse Zelaya’s return

Zelaya told the Venezuela-based news network Telesur that his jet was denied permission to land Sunday evening in the Honduran capital, where military vehicles were arrayed on the runway.

At least one person was killed and eight wounded after security forces opened fire and used tear gas on several thousand protesters who ringed the airport, said Hugo Orellana, a Red Cross director in Honduras. Protest leaders put the death toll at three.

"I call on the Honduran armed forces to lower their weapons against the people," Zelaya said at a news conference in San Salvador. "I want to express my sincere solidarity to the families that made sacrifices during a peaceful march, that the people organized voluntarily to welcome their president, who was elected out of the sovereign will of the Honduran people."

Senior U.S. administration officials, who insisted on anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, had said that if Zelaya was denied entry to Honduras they expected he would return to Washington on Monday to continue conversations at the Organization of American States.

After being refused permission to land, Zelaya’s plane refueled in Nicaragua’s capital, Managua. During the stop, he met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega — a leftist ally of Zelaya and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez — and told Telesur that his supporters were trying to remove obstacles from the runway in Tegucigalpa when troops opened fire.

"The people pulled back when fired upon," he said.

In a statement read on national television in Honduras, the interim government said police opened fire when protesters tried to force their way onto airport grounds.

The provisional government that took power after the military deposed Zelaya on June 28 said he would be arrested if he returned. But several thousand protesters who ringed the airport said they would protect him with a human cordon.

Zelaya called on the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the United States to act after his return was thwarted.

"What are at risk are social reforms started in Latin America," he told Telesur. "What we see is a return of the right in Latin America — a more reactionary right, more prone to killing, more fascist than in the past. They’re regrouping. It’s almost a conspiracy, a plot."

At a news conference earlier Sunday, provisional President Roberto Micheletti said that Zelaya’s return could create unrest in a country that has seen demonstrators for both sides in the streets since Zelaya was forced out.

"I don’t want a single drop of blood to be spilled in Honduras," Micheletti said.

Zelaya was ousted on the day that he planned to follow through with a referendum that the courts and the Honduran Congress had ruled illegal and that the military said it would not support. Lawmakers voted to strip Zelaya of his powers and named Micheletti as president.

The provisional government said the military action against Zelaya was backed by a court order and that arrest warrants had been issued against him for violating the constitution.

The Organization of American States, a 35-nation hemispheric organization, on Saturday suspended Honduras’ membership for refusing to reinstate Zelaya. The U.N. General Assembly has demanded that he be restored; the United States and the World Bank have suspended some aid; and the European Union and other nations have recalled their ambassadors from Honduras.

In remarks Sunday, Micheletti extended a diplomatic branch to Venezuela’s Chavez and Nicaragua’s Ortega, two of Zelaya’s closest allies. The interim leader said his government was open to good-faith talks with the Organization of American States, but reiterated that his government was legitimate.

"We are going to remain here until the country becomes calm," he said.

After 18 years of nearly uninterrupted military rule, Honduras returned to civilian control in 1981. Since then, the military has not seemed interested in holding power in the nation of more than 7 million people, about 70 percent of whom live in poverty.

Military interventions were once common in Latin America, but civilian governments have held sway since the 1980s. Before Sunday, the only other military revolt this decade was an unsuccessful 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, when troops displaced him but backed down days later and allowed his reinstatement.

Ousted president shut out of Honduras

Sanader, who is president of the senior ruling party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), told an extraordinary news conference that he also decided to withdraw from his party duty and from active politics and become HDZ honorary president, the Croatian news agency HINA reported.

Sanader said he had made the decision after deep consideration, and recalled that he had been in politics 20 years, and at the helm of the HDZ for 10 years.

He said he would not run for president of the country later this year, and dismissed speculation that he is ill.

Sanader said he had informed Croatian President Stjepan Mesic of his decision on the phone.

Sanader said that he had notified the presidents of the ruling coalition parties about his decision, that they accepted it, and that the coalition would survive in parliament.

"We already have 83 signatures of support from our coalition partners, which are the majority as it is," he said, adding the coalition would nominate Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor as the new prime minister.

Kosor is likely to succeed Sanader also as president of the HDZ.

The Croatian government, consisting of a coalition of the HDZ, the Peasant Party, the Social Liberals and representatives of ethnic minorities, is deemed to have resigned with the resignation tendered by Sanader.

Under the Croatian law on the government, the prime minister forwards his resignation to the parliament and if the highest law-making body accepts the resignation, it will dissolve the cabinet of the resigning prime minister.

According to the make-up of the parliament and consultations conducted, the head of state should then nominate a person who enjoys the confidence of a majority of MPs as new prime-minister designate.

If within 30 days a vote of confidence is not passed for the new premier-designate and the candidates for new ministers, the parliament speaker shall inform the president who should then decide on the dissolution of the parliament and on calling early parliamentary elections.

Asked by the press if he was ruling out any possibility of becoming active in politics in the future, Sanader said he could not rule this out, and dismissed allegations that he was stepping down because of the difficult situation Croatia is in.

Responding to repeated questions from the press to explain in more detail reasons for his withdrawal, Sanader said he had done his part of the job.

"In life there are moments for a fresh start and I have come to the conclusion that this is one of those moments. I did my share, and now it is time for others," Sanader said.

"I am leaving satisfied as all strategic goals have been achieved. Croatia has become a true factor of the international politics, we are a member of the Security Council, NATO and we are on the threshold of the European Union, only a political decision needs to be made and we can finish negotiations in three months’ time," he said.

Following a meeting with Sanader on Wednesday evening, President Mesic said in a statement that he had taken note of Sanader’s decision to resign, stressing he was surprised by Sanader’s choice of the moment to announce his decision.

Croatian prime minister announces sudden resignation

With most results in, the Democrat party headed by PM Sali Berisha was narrowly ahead of its Socialist rivals, but possibly short of a majority.

However, the Socialists accused their rivals of manipulating the vote in order to win the election.

Election observers said the vote showed a marked improvement on previous polls, though there were still some concerns.

Mr Berisha said the results were a "vote of confidence" for his party and pledged that he would focus on moving Albania towards European Union membership.

"Integration is the main issue in the four years to come," the Associated Press news agency reported him as saying.

Albania joined Nato earlier this year and has filed for EU membership.

Too close to call?

Ditmir Busheti, a spokesman for the Socialist party, said party officials were investigation allegations of malpractice.

"The Democratic Party is in the process of manipulating the victory of the Socialist Party," AFP news agency reported him as saying.

"We are gathering all information confirming the manipulation of the results and we will not allow this process to be terminated until all fraud and manipulation" is revealed, he said.

With some 98% of ballot boxes counted the Democratic Party had 46.81%, narrowly ahead of the Socialists, led by Edi Rama, mayor of Albania’s capital Tirana, who had 45.42%.

A leftist coalition was trailing a distant third with just under 6%, the country’s electoral commission said.

Supporters of Mr Berisha had already taken to the streets after polls closed and preliminary results showed the Democrats in the lead.

But Mr Rama served early notice of his party’s intention to protest against any irregularities.

A spokesman for the electoral commission, Leonard Olli, told AFP on Wednesday: "You cannot claim victory until all of the ballots are counted, until the last of the votes has been counted."

Hundreds of international observers monitored the vote to avoid any repeat of problems seen in previous polls, which have been marred by violence.

The OSCE, Europe’s human rights and security watchdog, said on Monday: "Election day was overall calm and peaceful and the atmosphere was improved [compared to previous elections]."

It said new voter registration and identification procedures were a great improvement, but that public confidence had been undermined by "the politicisation of technical aspects of the process and violations observed during the campaign".

After more than 45 years of isolation under Communist rule, the country’s economy has slowly rebuilt itself.

Albania has not been as hard-hit by the global recession as many European countries but is still expecting a sharp drop in annual growth.

Albania PM claims narrow victory

World leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have told the new rulers of the Central American country to restore Zelaya, a leftist who was toppled by the army on Sunday and sent into exile after a dispute over presidential term limits.

The Organization of American States gave Honduras an ultimatum early on Wednesday to allow Zelaya back into office by this weekend or face suspension.

But the interim government’s response indicated there was little immediate hope of a negotiated solution to the crisis in Honduras, an impoverished coffee and textile producer.

Enrique Ortez, interim foreign minister, said Zelaya would be arrested if he came home and that the interim authorities were sure Zelaya had been removed in a legal process.

“We are not negotiating national sovereignty or the presidency,” he told Reuters in an interview. “There is no chance at all” of Zelaya coming back to power.

The crisis in Honduras has spiraled into the worst political turmoil in Central America since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, posing a test both for regional diplomacy and for Obama’s ability to improve the United States’ battered standing in Latin America.

The Honduran Congress has voted in a new government more favorable to the traditional business and ranching elite to replace Zelaya, who was toppled for trying to extend presidential term limits in power.

The president also upset the army, judiciary and members of his own Liberal Party for taking Honduras to the left.

In further signs of isolation of Honduras, the Inter-American Development Bank said it was pausing all new loans to the country until democracy is restored, while Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Europe will not talk to the new rulers if they attempt to get in touch.

“(The interim government) is going to try, but it’s better they don’t try, because they will not get an answer from us,” he told Spanish state radio.

Mindful of its history of intervention in Latin America and, at times, of backing coups, Washington is trying to play a limited, behind-the-scenes role to show support for democracy and Zelaya’s restoration without being accused of meddling.

STRESS TEST FOR U.S. DIPLOMACY

The Honduran coup has quickly become a “stress test” for the U.S. government’s commitment to defending democracy in Latin America.

Washington, which has put off until next week a decision on whether to cut aid to Honduras, is letting the OAS take a leading role.

“We will wait until the (OAS) secretary-general has finished his diplomatic initiative and reports back … on July 6 before we take any further action in relationship to assistance,” a senior Obama administration official said.

The U.S. military postponed activities with Honduran forces while the Obama administration reviewed the situation, the Pentagon said.

The United States has a task force of about 600 troops in Honduras, a U.S. ally in the 1980s when Washington helped Central American governments fight Marxist rebels.

The Honduran Congress approved a decree to crack down on opposition during a nightly curfew imposed after the coup. The decree allows security forces to hold suspects for more than 24 hours without charge and formalizes the prohibition of the right to free association at night.

Pro-Zelaya protesters clashed with security forces near the presidential palace on Monday and demonstrators applauding the coup that installed interim President Roberto Micheletti took to the streets on Tuesday. Protesters in favor of Zelaya marched again on Wednesday.

“Micheletti is a puppet of the powerful and we don’t want him as president,” said a masked student who identified himself as Ramon.

Zelaya, who took office in 2006 and had been due to leave power in January 2010, had become a divisive figure in Honduras, a coffee, textile and banana exporter of 7 million people, especially after he allied himself with a firebrand socialist Chavez.

Zelaya gave up a plan to return home on Thursday, accompanied by a group of foreign leaders, to serve out his term. He said he now did not expect to return before the weekend.

The crisis erupted as the country struggles with a sharp decline in remittances from Hondurans living in the United States and in vital textile exports. Thousands of jobs have already been lost due to the slowdown in exports.

But coffee producers say exports have not been affected even after protesters blocked major highways in the interior.

Honduras rulers reject world pressure to reverse coup

Berlusconi is the founder and major shareholder of Fininvest, one of the country’s ten largest privately owned companies, which currently operates in media and finance. Its portfolio includes three (out of seven) national analogue television channels, various digital television channels, as well as some of the larger-circulation news magazines. Together these account for nearly half the Italian market. He is the owner of the Italian football club A.C. Milan. Under his lead, the club has won a number of national and international trophies. With Ennio Doris he founded Mediolanum SpA, one of Italy’s biggest banking and insurance groups. Berlusconi, together with the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, is the main shareholder of Mediaset, a publicly traded company. According to Forbes magazine, Berlusconi is Italy’s third richest person, with personal assets worth $9.4 billion (USD) in 2008, preceded only by Michele Ferrero and Leonardo del Vecchio.

Berlusconi’s political rise was rapid and surrounded by controversy. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the March 1994 snap parliamentary elections, when Forza Italia gained a relative majority a mere three months after having been officially launched. However, his cabinet collapsed after seven months, due to internal disagreements in his coalition. In the April 1996 snap parliamentary elections, Berlusconi ran for Prime Minister again but was defeated by centre-left candidate Romano Prodi. In the May 2001 parliamentary elections, he was again the right candidate for Prime Minister and won against the centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi then formed his second and third governments, until 2006.

Berlusconi was leader of the right coalition in the April 2006 parliamentary elections, which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Romano Prodi. Less than two years since his 2006 resignation he was re-elected in the snap parliamentary elections of April 2008 and sworn in again as prime minister on 8 May 2008 after the collapse, on 24 January 2008, of Romano Prodi’s last government.

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