Canada ( 3 )
Caribbean ( 2 )
South America ( 3 )
USA ( 2 )

Honduras night curfew reimposed

The interim government in Honduras has reimposed a night-time curfew after accusing opponents of seeking to provoke disturbances.

The measure, which the authorities say is due to "continued threats", runs from midnight to 0500.

Supporters of the ousted President, Manuel Zelaya, had earlier said they would call strikes and block roads.

Mr Zelaya, who is recognised internationally, says his backers have "the right to insurrection".

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Call to help Colombia's displaced

Amnesty International has denounced what it says is a dramatic rise in the number of people being displaced by Colombia's armed conflict.

The human rights group notes that 380,000 people were forced to flee in 2008, a rise of nearly 25% on 2007.

Communities in areas of economic, military or strategic importance are being targeted in particular, it says.

Amnesty says Colombia has one of the world's biggest displaced populations, put at between three and four million.

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Space shuttle finally blasts off

The US space agency Nasa has successfully launched the space shuttle Endeavour - at the sixth attempt.

Earlier launches at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida were called off because of bad weather and fuel leaks.

The crew will spend 11 days on the International Space Station, finishing work on a Japanese research laboratory.

If the shuttle had not taken off by Thursday, it would have had to have waited until the end of the month to make way for a Russian cargo ship.

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Meat dispute leads to higher prices

Price rises on many basic foods in Argentina appear to have frozen over the past year following government price controls.But despite these controls, the BBC food price index is registering a rise of around 19% and the increase has mostly been due to the rise in meat and milk prices.

There has been a lot of criticism from cattle ranchers and farmers who say the government forces them to sell their cattle at unrealistic prices.

On the outskirts of Buenos Aires lies the Liniers cattle market and outside its high walls, trucks from all over the country park up to unload their cargoes.

 

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Food prices falling in US stores

Americans famously eat a lot and are renowned for being among the biggest food consumers in the world.

On 4 July a man broke the world record for hot dog consumption - 68 dogs in 10 minutes, which works out at something like 1,000 calories a minute

But as far as costs are concerned for both the indulgent, and for the more regular consumer, prices seem to have fallen sharply in the past year.

For the last 12 months, the BBC has been monitoring prices at one Safeway supermarket in central Washington.

We look at the price of potatoes, eggs, meat, bread and milk, and we found that at this shop, at least, prices of these goods fell on average by 17% in the past year.

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