A student leader of China’s 1989 pro-democracy movement who has long lived in the United States went on trial in China on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama finished a visit that raised human rights. Zhou Yongjun faced fraud charges at the trial in Shehong County in southwest Sichuan province, his long-time girlfriend and a friend at the courthouse told Reuters. Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students’ Autonomous Union in the 1989 protests that ended in a bloody army-led crackdown in the streets around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. He later obtained a green card from the United States, giving him residential rights, but not full citizenship. “I know from the lawyers that he’s on trial today, but the whole process has been kept secret. This came out of the blue,” Zhang Yuewei, Zhou’s girlfriend, said from Los Angeles where she lives. She said Zhou’s immediate family had also told her of the trial.“Holding the trial at this time was to show the U.S. President,” Zhang said in a separate email. “The Chinese government maybe believes that it has the power and cash to go up against the United States and international society.” A friend of Zhou’s said she was refused entry to the courthouse, which appeared to be crowded with officials. “They don’t want any publicity about this case,” said the friend, who gave her surname as Lei but asked that her full name not be reported. Because Zhou is not a U.S. citizen, Washington has scant formal power to intervene, and Chinese authorities have no obligations to tell the United States of any developments. An alliance between Iran and Venezuela is a necessity at this point in time according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan officials stated yesterday. The Iranian leader made the comment during a visit to Tehran by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, the foreign ministry said. “Collaboration between revolutionary nations like Iran and Venezuela is necessary during this period of time,” Ahmadinejad in a statement, calling for bilateral ties to be expanded. Maduro left for Tehran on Monday to prepare Ahmadinejad’s upcoming to Venezuela, Iran’s main ally in Latin America. The exact date has not been announced yet, but the Iranian leader is due to visit Brazil on November 23. A previous trip in May was cancelled due to the June 12 disputed Iranian presidential elections, won by Ahmadinejad. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Iran in September and voiced support for Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel and Western nations fear is a covert grab to build a nuclear weapon, charges Tehran hotly denies. Venezuela and Iran have signed several cooperation accords in recent years, including in politics, finance, defense and technology. Jewelers of America (JA) is calling on the Kimberley Process (KP) to fully and quickly implement a work plan to address the serious concerns surrounding Zimbabwe’s non-compliance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), the system designed to keep conflict diamonds out of the international trade, and the reported human rights abuses in the Marange diamond fields. The work plan would be one that is agreed on between the KP and the government of Zimbabwe. According to the media release issued on Wednesday, JA has kept a close eye on the recent KP plenary meeting that took place in Namibia, noting that the KP review mission that visited the country over the summer indicated significant non-compliance with even the most basic requirements of the KP. On Nov. 5, after great debate, the KP decided against suspending Zimbabwe from the KP and instead decided to implement a 12-month work plan that specifically targets exports of rough diamonds from the Marange fields. “Jewelers of America continues to support the Kimberley Process, which has been vital to maintaining consumer confidence in diamonds since it was first implemented in 2003,” JA President and Chief Executive Officer Matthew A. Runci said in the release. “However, we are disappointed with how the KP has handled the situation in Zimbabwe, believing more decisive action was widely expected at the plenary meeting.” That being said, JA believes the work plan, if implemented fully and quickly, is a step in the right direction. The organization also fully supports the U.S. Department of State, which has called for the “full and expeditious implementation of the stringent controls” that were agreed upon at the plenary. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya affirmed yesterday that the Honduran Congress does not have the intention to reinstate him as president. Zelaya then stated he would wait for the outcome of the Nov. 29 elections to find out which political party would be in the lead and could tip the balance in his favor. “The National Congress can discuss what it considers necessary, and they did not do it now because the intention of the National Congress is not to support the restitution — at least a large part of the deputies, not all of them,” Zelaya told local media. The Honduran Congress on Tuesday summoned the deputies to meet on Dec. 2, three days after the elections, to decide whether Zelaya would be restored to the presidency. “Nobody has the right to remove the right of voting from the Honduran people and their right to choose their leaders,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Craig Kelly said while wrapping up his two-day visit to Honduras on Wednesday.