North and South Korean naval forces exchanged fire today in disputed waters, a South Korean defense official has stated. The two Koreas clashed off their west coast, the first such incident in seven years, each blaming the other for the incident. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security meeting and urged the military to to ensure that the naval clash did not escalate into something greater, Yonhap reported. South Korea issued three verbal warnings to ship from the Communist north once the vessel had crossed a demarcation line late Tuesday morning, said Rear Adm. Lee Ki Sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South Koreans then fired a warning shot but when the North Korean vessel continued southward, the South Koreans opened fire. The North Koreans returned fire before heading back, their ship damaged in the exchange, Lee said. There were no South Korean casualties, Lee said. The naval skirmish comes just days after North Korea pressed for direct talks with the United States, saying the two need to settle their differences before meaningful multilateral nuclear discussions could proceed, state media reported. Honduras ousted president Manuel Zelaya’s erratic behavior continues to block a negotiated solution to his country’s constitutional crisis. Two days after he signed on to an agreement which left the matter of his reinstatement in the hands of the Honduran National Congress, he insisted that the agreement required his immediate reinstatement, even before the Congress had an opportunity to convene. Mr. Zelaya argued that, since the agreement required the various sectors of Honduran society to submit names of individuals to institute a unity government by last Thursday, he must be returned to the presidency by then. His side refused to submit any names for consideration and simply declared the agreement broken. His most recent pronouncements are to the effect that it is too late for the presidential elections that will be held in less than three weeks to be valid, even if he is reinstated. The pro-Zelaya organization “Resistance Front against the Coup d’état” has stated that its members will boycott the elections and take actions to try to impede them. Blas Padrino, of the Examiner, writes that “…for the Obama Administration, its initial support for Zelaya has been a costly mistake. Now that the United States has finally distanced itself from the ousted president and committed to support the elections, Zelaya’s schizophrenic behavior has become an embarrassment for the Administration. As the Organization of American States meets in Washington tomorrow to discuss the situation in Honduras once again, it is time for our State Department to take a definitive position of support for the November 29 elections, with or without Zelaya, and ask the other OAS members to do the same.” More than 100 practitioners and experts on elections from 25 African countries willconvene in Accra from November 12-14, to assess recent elections across the continent and come out with recommendations for standards that could mitigate conflict and improve election processes. A statement said recommendations from the colloquium would be aimed at enhancing prospects for credible elections in Africa by heightening standards of professionalism among election administration officials, political parties, civic groups, security services and the media. The Colloquium on “African Elections: Best Practices and Cross-Sectoral Collaboration” will focus on Ghana’s 2008 elections, which were universally viewed as credible despite heated political tensions and a razor-thin margin between the candidates. “Participants hope to draw on lessons from the experience in Ghana, where for the second time in less than a decade, political power has changed hands from the ruling to an opposition party through the ballot box. Effective collaboration among all sectors of the electoral process helped ease tensions, enhanced transparency and built voter confidence in the election results.” The statement said participants will also explore the differences between the Ghanaian experience and elections in other countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, which experienced gross irregularities, fraud and conflict. They will identify the factors that contributed to different outcomes in each of these cases and discuss how to foster credible elections on the continent based on these case studies.“This is an opportunity for Africans to reflect on our own experiences and build upon our successes. As a regional initiative, this conference will bolster electoral reformers, and civic and political stakeholders on the continent,” said Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, chairman of the Electoral Commission in Ghana.