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Monday, November 30, 2009 TEGUCIGALPA: Conservative opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo easily won Honduras' presidential election on Sunday in a vote that has put the United States at odds with leftist governments in Latin America.Lobo, a rich landowner, had over 55 percent support with more than half the votes counted and his closest rival, Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal Party, then conceded defeat.The election could calm a five-month crisis which was sparked when the Honduran army overthrew leftist President Manuel Zelaya in June and flew him into exile.But while Washington commended Sunday's vote, leftist rulers of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other Latin American countries say the election is invalid because it was backed by the coup leaders and could end any hope of Zelaya returning to power and completing his term, which is due to end in January.The division puts in danger U.S. President Barack Obama's attempts to turn a new page with Latin America where memor...

Monday, November 30, 2009 TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo took a clear early lead in a presidential election on Sunday.Mr. Lobo with more than 55 per cent of Sunday’s vote, well ahead of main rival Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal party.U.S. hoped that the election could calm a five-month crisis, which the Central America country has suffered since the army overthrew leftist Manuel Zelaya in June and flew him into exile.Mr. Lobo is seen as more able than Mr. Santos to lead Honduras out of political gridlock and diplomatic isolation.Soldiers grabbed Mr. Zelaya from his home on June 28 and threw him out of the country, sparking Central America’s biggest political crisis since the end of the cold war.Mr Lobo vowed on Sunday to end Honduras’s isolation from countries such as Brazil and international organisations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), which have frozen Honduras out in retaliation for the coup.