Students end occupation:

A sixweek student occupation of Honduras’ public university came to an end Monday after authorities dropped charges against 75 activists and promised to hold talks on demanded reforms.

The students left Honduras National Autonomous University buildings they had seized in order to push for changes in regulations governing relations between officials, professors and themselves.

The occupation had disrupted classes and some university administrative functions. Julieta Castellanos, the rector of the institution, said that, as a result of the lengthy disruption, two-thirds of the 90,000 students in the university’s halfdozen campuses would skip a trimester’s worth of studies.

“We are likely to bring forward by five or six weeks the start of the next academic cycle” that was meant to begin in September, she said. (AFP)