World Briefs

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras' leftist president hurled insults Friday at congressional leaders who are considering whether to oust him from power in a standoff over his push to revamp the constitution.

President Manuel Zelaya is promoting a Sunday referendum on constitutional changes that has plunged the country into crisis by setting the president at odds with the military, the courts and the legislature that have branded the vote illegal.

Many shops and gasoline stations were closed Friday in the capital, Tegucigalpa, after the city's leading business chamber advised its members to stay shut for fear of disturbances.

The Organization of American States called an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the crisis´.

STOCKHOLM – Angry demonstrators broke into the Iranian Embassy outside Stockholm on Friday, climbing in through shattered windows and injuring one embassy worker. More than 150 people had gathered outside the embassy to protest against the Iranian regimewhen some of them attacked the building with rocks and tore down a fence to enter the embassy grounds, police spokesman Ulf Hoglund said.

Martinique – President Nicolas Sarkozy offered Friday to hold a referendum on autonomy for the island of Martinique, one of France's Caribbean territories gripped by unrest early this year.

On Thursday, Sarkozy began a visit to Martinique and Guadeloupe, part of a drive to heal ties with the overseas departments where a general strike degenerated into weeks of rioting in February.

SYDNEY – Australia's Qantas cancelled a three billion US dollar order for 15 of Boeing's troubled 787 Dreamliner aircraft, citing a marked deterioration in the global economic environment.

Qantas said in a statement that it had reached agreement to "cancel orders for 15 B787-9s scheduled for delivery in 2014/2015."

Qantas and Boeing had also agreed to postpone delivery of a further 15 Dreamliners by four years.The cancellation takes Qantas' total B787 orders from 65 to 50 by 2017, and follows a decision to more than halve its profit forecast in April and axe up to 1,750 jobs. Qantas shares on the Sydney stock exchange closed up 1.77 percent at 2.01 dollars