Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

Mexico has begun negotiations with several Central American countries to merge its three individual Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with them into a single one, Mexican Economy Minister Eduardo Sojo said Friday.

Mexico will promote regional integration with Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which is expected to facilitate trade by harmonizing rules and different procedures, and also reduce operation costs, said Sojo.

Mexico signed FTAs with Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Northern Triangle nations (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) in 1995, 1998 and 2001 respectively .

Speaking at a business forum titled “Opportunities for Investment and Challenges to Competitiveness in the Mesoamerican Region” Sojo said such integration will help these nations withstand the growing competence of other regions.

Vatican City, Jun 26, 2008 / 10:16 am (CNA).- Thursday morning saw Pope Benedict receive bishops from Honduras as they completed their “ad limina” visit. The Pontiff exhorted the prelates to continue their work to promote the truth about marriage in their country.

Recalling that the Honduran people “is characterized by a profound religious spirit which finds expression, among other things, in the numerous and deep-rooted practices of popular devotion,” the Pope noted that this character faces challenges. Most notable among the challenges are “the spread of secularism and the proselytism of sects,” Benedict said.

There are times when a prosecution and a prison sentence are so fishy that they cry out for clemency. That’s why the U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to issue pardons — and a pardon is desperately necessary in a case that originated in Bayou La Batre.

Sometime between now and Sept. 4, Honduran businessman David Henson McNab will be released after nearly eight full years in a U.S. federal prison — all because, prosecutors say, he was too selfish about shellfish.

American importers Robert Blandford and Abner Schoenwetter, who entered prison three years later than McNab (unlike him, they had stayed free pending appeals), still must serve three years of their eight-year sentences.

At 2:00 a.m. this morning, over three thousand natives, armed with sticks and stones arrived at the archaeological park of Copan Ruins to take over it and stop the entrance of national and foreign tourist as a pressure measurement for the government to fulfill a series of necessities they have been facing for several years now.
The government has to resolve in a short term the purchase of over 4,000 acres of land for 103 million lempiras as well as other demands from the Mayan Chorti indigenous population.