Honduras braces for showdown

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will not be allowed to land in the country if he attempts to fly back a week after he was ousted by troops, the interim government said yesterday.

"I have ordered that he not be allowed back in, come what may," Enrique Ortez, the caretaker government's foreign minister said when asked about allowing Zelaya's aircraft to land. "We cannot allow recklessness, that a president of the republic dies, that a president of the republic is wounded, that anyone dies."

Zelaya was forced out at gunpoint and exiled to Costa Rica a week ago. But he said from Washington that he will try to return to the Central American country on Sunday, perhaps accompanied by a group of left-wing presidents.