Honduran police crackdown on student protests

Source AP

Police fired teargas and water cannons at some 3,000 students who amassed in the Honduran capital on Wednesday to protest against the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya last June. Heavily-protected riot police beat back demonstrators who blocked one of the city's main thoroughfares in front of the National Autonomous University, fulfilling a pledge to clampdown on protests that have convulsed the Central American since June 28. Then, Zelaya was bundled out of the country in a military-backed coup, prompting international outrage and a domestic crisis that shows few signs of abating. On Wednesday his supporters chanted pro-Zelaya slogans and hurled rocks at banks of riot police, leaving the street strewn with detritus, including the husk of a burnt-out vehicle.