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Japan protests N. Korea missile launches

TOKYO, July 4 (UPI) -- Tokyo complained to Pyongyang Saturday as North Korea test-fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, officials said.

The Japanese government filed an official diplomatic complaint with North Korea through Chinese channels in Beijing as the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spotted the seventh missile firing of the day, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement Saturday, "It is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N. Security Council."

The Japanese news service Kyodo reported that Prime Minister Taro Aso is set to urge leaders at Group of Eight Summit in Italy to keep working together to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile development issues.

Pyonyang also test-fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan on Thursday, the Chinese news agency Xinhua said.

U.N. barred from visiting Aung San Suu Kyi

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar, July 4 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Saturday he's been turned down in his bid to visit Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban told reporters traveling with him in Myanmar that the country's ruling military junta rebuffed his request to see Suu Kyi, who has been held under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, CNN reported.

Ban made the comments after meeting with junta leader Than Shwe. The U.N. leader was in Myanmar at the invitation of the government for talks with officials, the U.S. broadcaster said. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Suu Kyi has been on trial for subversion in connection with a May 3 incident in which an American man swam across a lake to her house and stayed for at least a night.

The secretary-general's trip to the country formerly known as Burma is intended to convince the generals to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners before the general election next year. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for much of the past two decades.

"This election should be a credible, fair, inclusive and legitimate one where all the Myanmar people can express their will in a free way," Ban said. "I was assured that Myanmar's authorities will make sure that this election will be held in fair and free and transparent manner."

Suu Kyi is being held in Insein Prison.

OAS: Honduras won't reinstate Zelaya

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 4 (UPI) -- The Organization of American States says there's little chance Honduran leaders will allow ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya to return to power.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters in Tegucigalpa Friday that his interviews with members of the country's Supreme Court and others turned up little willingness to heed international demands that Zelaya be reinstated to office, CNN reported.

"They have, for the moment, no intention of reversing the situation," Insulza said, rejecting assertions by the country's interim leaders that Zelaya's fate was not in fact a coup d'etat.

"I don't know what else you would call it when a group of military take a president out of power and sends him to another country," he said.

Honduras' deputy foreign minister Marta Lorena Alvarado said the country was willing to withdraw from the OAS, telling CNN, "If the Organization of American States doesn't deem Honduras worthy of membership of the Organization of American States, then Honduras would renounce, with immediate effect, the inter-American charter."

Obama: Happy Fourth of July

WASHINGTON, July 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to wish Americans a happy July Fourth and praise "the indomitable spirit of the first Americans."

"This weekend is a time to get together with family and friends, kick back, and enjoy a little time off," the president said. "And I hope that's exactly what all of you do. But I also want to take a moment today to reflect on what I believe is the meaning of this distinctly American holiday.

"Today, we are called to remember not only the day our country was born -- we are also called to remember the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made that day possible."

Obama said the "unyielding spirit" that allowed the American experiment to succeed, and that led to "a government of, by and for the people," is what defines Americans. He said that spirit "has always led us, as a people, not to wilt or cower at a difficult moment, but to face down any trial and rise to any challenge, understanding that each of us has a hand in writing America's destiny."

Noting that America is fighting two wars, battling a deep recession and facing rising healthcare costs, inadequate education and a dependence on foreign sources of oil, Obama said meeting the challenges "will require an extraordinary effort on the part of every American."

The president once again said the country can no longer delay healthcare reform and said "now is the time to meet our energy challenge."

"For the sake of our economy and our children, we must build on the historic bill passed by the House of Representatives, and make clean energy the profitable kind of energy so that we can end our dependence on foreign oil and reclaim America's future," he said.

"We are not a people who fear the future," he said. "We are a people who make it. And on this July Fourth, we need to summon that spirit once more."