In a statement Wednesday King said that after heightened curiosity in anticipation of Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony’s first budget presentation which was adopted by parliament last Friday, St Lucians have been left asking: “where is the Salaison?” (The French creole for the word “meat”).

He said that the first indication that the promised “better days” would instead be manifested as “bitter days” came during the throne speech by the island’s Governor General, Dame Pearlette Louisy, which began with the now famous words: “I would have liked to bring you some great news; some glad tiding which would set your world to right. Alas, this is not the case; the world is in turmoil, restless and uncertain”.

King said that St Lucians having experienced the disappointment of what is now referred to as a “stale food budget” are making demands for the salaison in the 2012/2013 budget.

He said instead of delivering on the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs and “better days”, Prime Minister Anthony is now informing citizens that the island’s economy is on a “slippery slope”.

King said that the government must now inform St. Lucians how it intends to deliver on a number of promises including the immediate injection of EC$100 million (US$37.03 million) into the local economy; the provision of a laptop computer to all secondary school students; the implementation of universal health care and a mini stadia in every town and village on the island.

The former prime minister said that given the recent announcement that the government is determined to introduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) on September 1, he is recalling Anthony’s earlier objection to the VAT as being “oppressive to the poor and  to workers”.

King said that given the challenging months ahead, he was calling on the government to reduce unnecessary expenditure including trimming the size of the Cabinet.

“This includes the unnecessary hiring of highly paid consultants and political advisors, at the expense of tax payers and the creation of the post of Executive Director for a former government minister at a salary of EC $12, 000 (US$4, 444) per month at the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation.

“The Kenny Anthony Government must cut back on its obsession in creating “jobs for the boys” and deliver on the wild promises which it flashed before St. Lucians ahead of the last general elections.

“It is now time that Kenny and his ministers stop their “mirror dancing” and provide St. Lucians with the salaison which they have come to expect based on the promise of “better days”, King said.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Anthony urged St. Lucians to find ways and means of rescuing the economy from its “very slippery slope” and rise to the challenge of getting the country back to work.

In a four hour presentation of the EC$1.4 billion (US$518 million) budget, Anthony who is also Finance Minister, painted a grim picture of the state of the country’s finances, even while expecting the economy to grow by just over two per cent with investment in construction and tourism.

“We are in the process of conferring with him regarding the next steps, which he may wish to take,” Allred said.

The original federal suit against Travolta is still pending, but it involves just one male therapist who says the actor groped him during a massage at an Atlanta hotel.

Attorney Okorie Okorocha, who filed the lawsuit last week, dropped John Doe #1, who made the Beverly Hills allegation, from the complaint Tuesday because of the Texas man’s confusion over the date of the alleged incident.

Travolta lawyer Martin Singer called the charges from both men “ridiculous” and said the dismissal of John Doe #1 “completely vindicated” the actor on that allegation.

“We fully expect that my client will similarly be vindicated with respect to Doe #2, as well as with respect to any other person who makes meritless claims against John Travolta,” Singer said.

That dismissal was “without prejudice, which means that he is still legally entitled to file a lawsuit against John Travolta if he chooses,” Allred said Wednesday.

Okorocha apologized last Friday for putting the wrong date of the John Doe #1 incident in the lawsuit, saying his first client initially told him it was January 16, 2012. Singer produced a restaurant receipt and a time-stamped photograph that showed the actor was in New York, not Los Angeles, on that date.

Instead of just changing the date on the filing to January 15 — the day John Doe #1 later decided was when it happened — Okorocha decided to withdraw the allegation from the lawsuit. Otherwise, it would have hampered the chances of John Doe #2′s case, he said.

Okorocha also said he had “personality conflicts” with John Doe #1 that contributed to his decision.

The lawyer insisted in a CNN interview Tuesday that he would “mop up” in the courtroom with the allegations made by John Doe #2.

“I can guarantee that John Doe #2 has a truckload of witnesses to back up what he’s saying,” he said.

His case is also bolstered by a series of e-mails in which the Atlanta plaintiff complains to his supervisor about Travolta’s advances, Okorocha said.

Singer attacked one e-mail published in some online reports that purportedly supports the Doe #2 claims.

“Various media outlets are reporting on an e-mail that Doe #2 allegedly sent to his bosses, which significantly does not refer to my client at all, nor does it make any mention whatsoever of any of the things outrageously alleged in Doe #2′s lawsuit,” Singer said. “Instead, Doe #2 voiced complaints about his co-workers gossiping and being insubordinate.”

The e-mail’s lack of Travolta’s name “says it all,” Singer said. “Nothing that is alleged in Doe #2′s lawsuit was mentioned in the e-mail he sent to his bosses, making his claims even more unbelievable.”

“The allegations in ‘Doe #2′s’ lawsuit are unraveling, just like ‘Doe #1′s’ ridiculous allegations, which were proven false and impossible,” he said.

Okorocha disagreed.

“I think I can show a custom, habit and practice,” Okorocha said, referring to his allegation that the actor has sexually assaulted dozens of other massage therapists over the years.

“If I bring in 100 people that don’t have an ax to grind, don’t want any money, they’re in 50 different states, they don’t know each other, they’re all massage therapists, they all have dates, they’re at different spa resorts and they say this exact same thing happened, it’s pretty hard to refute,” Okorocha said.

His client “ain’t going nowhere,” and is looking forward to a trial, he said.

“He means business, and he is absolutely determined and he’s as solid as they come as when it comes to character, history, reputation,” Okorocha said. “He’s everything you would want in a client.”

The second plaintiff was a staff massage therapist at the Atlanta hotel where he claims he was assaulted by Travolta on January 25, the amended lawsuit said.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston for 20 years. The oldest of their three children, Jett, was 16 when he died of a seizure while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas in January 2009.

“Solid economic growth during the past decade, along with the government’s efforts to institute prudent fiscal policies, have contributed to three successive upgrades since 2006,” said the Wall Street-based agency about Suriname’s BB-/Stable/B rating.

It said the upgrade, from B+ reflected Suriname’s “improving macroeconomic fundamentals” including a robust annual growth forecast of four to five per cent for the intermediate term and relatively low net general government debt, at less than 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of 2011.

In addition, Standard & Poor’s attributed the upgrade to Suriname’s “improving external indicators as a result of current account surpluses and rising international reserves.

“Legislative and institutional efforts to preserve these accomplishments were key factors in the upgrade. There is growing political consensus about the importance of adhering to prudent fiscal and monetary policies to maintain macroeconomic stability,” it added.

For example, the rating agency said, in January 2011, the government took “unpopular, but necessary, measures to correct economic imbalances that had built up during 2010 (an election year) through a fuel tax increase and devaluation of the Suriname dollar”.

It also said, in July 2011, the government reached an agreement with the United States to clear the last remaining arrears on its bilateral debt.

But Standard & Poor’s said Suriname’s “narrow economic base” which is strongly tied to commodities–alumina, gold, and oil, is “one of the sovereign’s key credit constraints”.

It said these commodities represented more than 80 per cent of current account receipts at the end of 2011.

Standard & Poor’s said Suriname’s fiscal accounts are also “highly dependent” on commodity revenues, which represent an estimated 30 per cent of total revenues in 2012.

Additionally, it said the central bank’s limited monetary flexibility and the country’s institutional weaknesses are also “ major constraints and hinder effective debt management, public investment, and a more rapid advancement of structural reform”.

Standard & Poor’s said it would consider raising its sovereign rating on Suriname if the government’s “ambitious reform agenda proves successful.

“Many of the proposed reforms would mitigate the sovereign’s key risks, primarily its high dependence on commodities and its institutional capacity constraints,” it said.

The Supreme Court Tuesday threw out a petition filed by Digicel opposing the suit filed by the FTC challenging the merger between the Digicel and the now defunct Claro.

Digicel had contended that the FTC did not have the jurisdiction or authority to challenge the merger.

However, High Court judge, Justice Almarie Sinclair-Haynes, dismissed the Irish-based telecommunication company’s argument and ruled that the FTC had the jurisdiction to challenge the merger.

The ruling now clears the way for the FTC to proceed with its challenge of the March merger in the Supreme Court. However, Digicel says it intends to appeal the ruling.

Attorneys for Digicel say they are now awaiting the written judgement expected on Wednesday.

The FTC filed the claim last year after it completed its investigation into the Digicel/Claro merger, and concluded that it would not be beneficial to consumers.

However, Digicel sought to put a swift end to the challenge by filing a claim questioning the jurisdiction of the FTC in the matter and asked the court to throw out the FTC’s motion.

In its argument, Digicel contended that the FTC does not have the authority to examine the Digicel/Claro deal.  It contends that the Office of Utilities Regulation, (OUR), is the regulatory body which oversees the telecommunication industry.

It said in the absence of the OUR inviting the FTC to examine the deal, the Commission’s challenge to the agreement should be dismissed.  However, the FTC contends that it is entitled to examine the agreement as it contains provisions which lessen competition in the market.

In March last year, Digicel, announced that it had signed an agreement with América Móvil to acquire its Claro business in Jamaica, and to sell to América Móvil its businesses in Honduras and El Salvador.

Then prime minister Bruce Golding approved of the deal in August in his capacity as the minister with responsibility for telecommunications.

The president will focus on his “to-do list” for Capitol Hill, a five-step plan of fiscal policies the White House says is aimed at building economic growth. Along with Boehner, Obama will sit down with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Asked about the meeting in a news conference Wednesday morning, Boehner said he’ll press the president on his “plan to tackle our looming debt crisis,” as well as scheduled cuts to the Defense Department — cuts to which Republicans strongly object — and tax votes slated for the end of the year.

“It’s time for us to deal with the big issues that are affecting our country and our society,” Boehner said. “We’ve spent enough time playing small ball.”

Congress is set to vote on a legislative dogpile — also known as the end-of-the-year “fiscal cliff” — of expiring tax policies, debt limit extensions and spending cuts by January 1.

On Tuesday, Boehner issued an ultimatum ahead of the coming budget deadlines, saying he’ll demand massive spending cuts in return for any debt ceiling hikes.

In his remarks, which came at a fiscal summit in New York, Boehner also charged Obama with putting political gain above policy.

“If the president continues to put politics before principle — or party before country, as he often accuses others of doing — our economy is going to suffer and we’ll miss our last chance to solve this crisis on our own terms,” he said.

His comments invoked memories of last year’s intense battle over a deficit-reduction plan that led to the brink of a government shutdown and the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor’s.

Hitting back, top Democrats blamed the speaker for stirring political drama in an election year.

“Speaker Boehner is threatening to take our nation into another manufactured crisis that will harm America’s families,” Pelosi said in a statement, adding that Boehner is making “partisan demands.”

On Wednesday, Obama will also push back and emphasize the legislative agenda he outlined last week in a New York speech.

The list includes steps to eliminate tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas, cut red tape so responsible homeowners can refinance, invest in affordable clean energy, and help military veterans find employment.

Prior to his meeting with the lawmakers, Obama stopped at a Washington deli to push his proposal of a 10% tax credit for small businesses that create new jobs or increase wages — another one of the items on the “to-do list.”

“It’s something that in the past has been an idea that garnered support from Democrats and Republicans,” Obama said at the deli. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t act on that right now.”

Discussing the planned White House meeting with congressional leaders, Obama pointed to a need to further what he called “momentum” in the economy.

“And one of the ways we can sustain momentum is for Congress to take some actions right now — even though it is election season, even thought  there is gridlock, even though there is partisanship — take some actions right now that would really make a difference,” he said.

Premier Reuben Meade and Ambassador Valeriano Diaz, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean signed the agreement, with Meade indication that part of the funds would be used on the development of the new port project at Little Bay, north of here.

He said the agreement stipulates that the contract to begin the works must be signed off by June 2013 or Montserrat will lose the amount allotted for that project.

Meade said that a company had already been awarded the contract for designing the port design as the government moves to meet the June 2013 deadline.

“The port development project is a major one for Montserrat and cannot be funded by one single funding agency,” Meade said, adding that utilising the grant support from the EU and the Department for International Development “will limit the amount of funds we need to borrow to complete the project”.

Ambassador Diaz said he was impressed with the rapid development on the BOT following the devastated caused by the Soufriere volcano and that the EU has been able to contribute to Montserrat’s reconstruction effort.

Over the last decade, the EU has contributed grant funding of approximately Euro 24.2 million (US$29.1 million) to Montserrat for a number of projects including the Montserrat Community College and the construction of 60 homes under the Montserrat Resettlement Programme.

Diaz said that the “funds under the 10th EDF are 100 per cent grant financing and are transferred directly to the budget of Montserrat upon demonstration of progress and results achieved in implementation of the SDP and the Sustainability Roadmap”.

He said that the specific performance benchmarks that the EU and the government have agreed to achieve include the construction of additional units of affordable housing for Montserratians; the establishment of a labour market survey and realignment of the labour market with the education curriculum”.

In addition, the two parties have also agreed to the definition of an energy regulation framework for proper development of the geothermal energy sector; a reduction of government tax arrears and the merging of the port and airport authorities for improved service delivery and efficiencies.

Athens, Greece (CNN)

News of the election date came as Greeks pulled hundreds of millions of euros out of the banking system amid fears that the country will not be able to stay in the European Union’s single currency.

Just 10 days ago, Greeks voters punished the major parties for harsh budget cuts, leaving no party able to form a government.

A caretaker administration led by a senior judge will run the country until the new vote.

Interim Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos and his Cabinet will take their oaths of office on Thursday morning, Greek state television reported.

The political deadlock is leading to fears that Greece will not have a government in place when it needs to make critical debt payments, which could in turn jeopardize its place in the eurozone.

And a Greek crisis could spread, one analyst warned.

“If Greece exits the euro it won’t be alone. Others will exit,” said Paul Donovan, a global economist with UBS bank.

“There would be bank runs across multiple countries,” he predicted. “Citigroup, for example, may not be exposed to Greece, but it may be exposed to Portugal, Spain, France. … It may be exposed to a company that’s exposed to France, or exposed to exports to EU.”

In a worst-case scenario, he said, “you’re talking about widespread defaults in the corporate sector as well as the sovereign sector. It becomes very problematic.”

Even so, most major European stock markets ended the day Wednesday virtually unchanged.

European leaders were united Wednesday in saying they want to help Greece stay in the euro.

As Greek politicians met Wednesday to set the new election date, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regrets the suffering of the Greek people in the face of harsh government budget cuts.

“It’s very bitter, obviously,” she said of the austerity measures that have left some Greeks struggling to pay for food or utilities.

But, she said, “Sacrifices had to be made. … I think these are necessary measures that had to be taken.”

Merkel, a champion of forcing governments to balance their budgets in order to promote stable economic growth in Europe, did offer an olive branch to Greece.

“Europe needs to show solidarity and help, particularly with growth, unemployment and development,” she said.

The head of the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, said Wednesday that Greece is “part of our family,” and that the EU will do what it can to keep Greece in the euro and the union.

But the final decision has to come from the Greek people, Jose Manuel Barroso said.

“We are fully aware that the present situation is asking a lot of the Greek people, with many sacrifices. But this is a result of policies made in the past,” he said.

“The program for Greece is the least difficult of all the difficult alternatives. The problems it addresses are real,” he warned.

Merkel and Barroso spoke after Greeks withdrew hundreds of millions of euros from banks, prompting the president of Greece’s central bank to warn that a panic is possible, but is not taking place.

Greeks pulled about 800 million euros out of the banking system on Monday, President Karolos Papoulias said.

He said he had spoken to Central Bank Governor George Provopoulos about it.

“There is, of course, no panic, but there is fear that could develop into panic,” Papoulias said, describing what the bank governor told him. “He also said that the strength of banks is very weak at the moment.”

The Greek debt crisis threatens the stability of the European Union’s single currency.

Europe is worried that Greece could fail to make debt payments as early as next month. And that could force the country out of the euro, the currency used by 17 European Union countries.

Merkel said she is working to keep Greece in the eurozone.

“I start with the assumption that Greece wants to stay in the eurozone, but part and parcel of that is that Greece fulfills its commitments,” she said.

She refused to be drawn into talk about what would happen if Greece did not meet its debt obligations.

The head of the European Central Bank echoed Merkel’s remarks.

“I want to state that our strong preference is that Greece will continue to stay in the euro area,” Mario Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have been pumping money into Greece to keep the country in the euro, but they have demanded that the Greek government slash spending to get the funds.

Radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party reaped the benefits of voter frustration with the austerity measures, urged Greeks on Tuesday to continue resisting “the parties of the bailout.”

“They asked us to leave the country without any hope,” he said, arguing that the May 6 election had made the terms of the bailout “null and void.”

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, meanwhile, said his party will “keep fighting for a developing Greece within Europe” and “against those who say they want to get Greece out of Europe.”

His party narrowly came in first in the May 6 elections, but opinion polls since then have suggested that Syriza would finish in first place in a new election.

The former general drew his hand across his neck as if cutting a throat while staring at victims of the war that introduced the phrase “ethnic cleansing.”

At other times, the man accused of being “the Butcher of Bosnia” stared at them, fire in his eyes, and he once growled at the survivors.

The 70-year-old former Bosnian Serb general has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1992-95 war.

His trial is taking place at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, a special court established to try those responsible for atrocities during the war.

Prosecutors say Mladic’s campaign included the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Dermot Groome laid out details of the case against Mladic, saying that ethnic cleansing was not a byproduct of the war, but a specific aim of the Bosnian Serb leadership.

He will set out to show that Mladic was directly responsible for atrocities carried out by his forces, who were fighting for control of land in ethnically mixed Bosnia.

Sexual violence was a weapon of war, Groome said, describing a woman who said she had been raped more than 50 times, and women who were forced by Bosnian Serb forces to perform sex acts on members of their own families.

Prosecutors will use survivor testimonies and video clips to make their case at a trial that is likely to last for months or years.

Among those in the courtroom were the families of Srebrenica victims.

“Victims have waited nearly two decades to see Ratko Mladic in the dock,” Param-Preet Singh, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said ahead of the trial. “His trial should lay to rest the notion that those accused of atrocity crimes can run out the clock on justice.”

Mladic’s trial begins after a landmark war crimes ruling last month, when another international tribunal found former Liberian President Charles Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone’s notoriously brutal civil war.

Taylor got a final chance to address his court Wednesday as Mladic’s trial opened, and he said he was “saddened” by a verdict that he portrayed as unfair.

“Both trials are evidence of the growing international trend to hold perpetrators of atrocities to account, no matter how senior their position,” Human Rights Watch said.

Mladic eluded authorities for nearly 16 years until his capture in May 2011, when police burst into the garden of a small house in northern Serbia.

Europe’s highest-ranking war crimes suspect was discovered standing against a wall in a utility room normally used for storing farm equipment, according to a government minister.

Though he was carrying two handguns, he surrendered without a fight. He was extradited for trial in the Netherlands.

But from day one in custody, he has exhibited defiance and appears not to have relinquished his visceral antagonism toward his enemies. Before the trial that started Wednesday, he also drew a finger across his throat in court, a gesture aimed at some of the Srebrenica widows. At other times, he disrupted proceedings by putting on a hat in the courtroom and refusing to enter a plea.

He has sought delays in his trial and said he is in failing health.

In July 1995, Mladic was in command of the Bosnian Serb army and led his soldiers into the town of Srebrenica. In the days that followed, the soldiers systematically slaughtered nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Bosnia peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke once described Mladic as “one of those lethal combinations that history thrusts up occasionally — a charismatic murderer.”

In the three decades leading up to the violent splintering of Yugoslavia, Mladic rose rapidly through the ranks of the Yugoslav army. In 1991, he served as a front-line commander spearheading Serb forces in a yearlong war with Croatia.

By the time he took to Bosnia’s battlefields, he had become a hero to many Serbs, seen as a defender of their dwindling fortunes.

In May 1992, Bosnia’s Serbian political leaders picked him to lead the assault on their Muslim enemies who clamored for independence.

Mladic wasted no time galvanizing his heavily armed forces in a siege of Sarajevo, cutting the city off from the outside world. Serb forces pounded the city every day from higher ground positions, trapping Sarajevo’s ill-prepared residents in the valley below. More than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, perished.

Some observers conjured images of Sarajevo in describing Syrian attacks on the besieged city of Homs earlier this year.

As the war ended in the fall of 1995, Mladic went on the run.

Shortly after Mladic was sent to The Hague last year, authorities nabbed former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic. He was the last Yugoslav war crimes suspect at large.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in 2008. And Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001 but died before his trial could be completed.

The police said one man is assisting their investigations into the seizure of the 300 kilos of marijuana and cocaine seized during an operation along one of the island’s beaches.

“This is our biggest drug bust ever,” said the head of the Police Community Relations Unit, Dunbar Belfon.

The police said that the operation on Wednesday followed a tip off.

The paperwork for Chen, his wife and their two children was completed and photos were taken at the Beijing hospital room in which he has been staying since he left the U.S. Embassy two weeks ago, awaiting his travel documents. Chen said local officials from his Shandong Province in eastern China visited him Wednesday, providing him with the forms.

“It’s the first concrete step forward,” Chen said.

The United States says it has taken all the necessary steps on its side to admit Chen.

“We are ready when he and his government are ready,” said Victoria Nuland, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, on Tuesday. “We have been for more than a week now in terms of his visa to come pursue his studies.”

China has said that Chen, who is blind, can apply to study abroad.

U.S. authorities have completed all the processing for Chen, his wife and two children to travel to the United States, where Chen has been invited to study by New York University, Nuland said at a regular briefing.

“He is continuing to work with his government,” she said. “Our information is that those conversations, contacts, and processing continue.”

Nuland’s comments came on the same day that U.S. lawmakers listened to Chen describing reprisals that he said his relatives continue to suffer at the hands of the authorities in Shandong.

“My elder brother was taken away by these thugs without any reasoning and then they came back and started beating up my nephew, and they used stakes and violently beat him up,” Chen told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a telephone call from his hospital room.

Chen added that his relatives’ homes had been broken into and they had been beaten by people working for the government.

Chen said his nephew Chen Kegui tried to defend himself and now faces a “totally trumped-up” charge of attempted homicide.

“After my nephew was beaten up, he actually was waiting to surrender himself and the police come back again and violently beat up my sister-in-law,” Chen said.

The authorities in Linyi, the city that oversees Chen’s village, had issued a statement accusing Chen Kegui of injuring government officials with a knife and saying he would be dealt with according to the law. They have declined to comment on the matter since.

Chen added that he is no longer able to talk with his relatives “because all their communication tools are confiscated.”

Nonetheless, CNN was able to contact Chen’s elder brother, Chen Guangfu, by phone on Wednesday.

He echoed his younger brother in describing what happened following the blind activist’s escape from more than 18 months of house arrest on April 22.

He said two to three dozen men scaled the wall and broke into his house after midnight, took him away and went back to beat his family, including his son Chen Kegui, who was forced to defend himself.

“If he didn’t act in self-defense, he would’ve been dead himself,” he said.

Chen Guangfu said his son surrendered himself to the police and was formally arrested on May 9. But the family hasn’t been allowed to see Chen Kegui in custody. he said, and the authorities are maintaining heavy security around the family’s village.

“Now we’re not allowed to leave the village,” he said. “It’s not convenient for us to call Guangcheng or others.”

Chen Guangfu said he hopes to see justice prevail in his son’s case.

“Our whole family still believes in the rule of law, otherwise Kegui wouldn’t have surrendered himself to the authorities,” he said.

Repeated phone calls seeking comment from the local authorities rang unanswered Wednesday.

During the call to U.S. lawmakers, Chen Guangcheng thanked them for their interest in his case, saying it “shows you care about the equality and the justice. Those are universal values, and I’m very grateful to all of you.”

After spending six days in the U.S. Embassy, the prominent human rights activist left for a hospital, but has since pleaded to be allowed to leave China.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey, described Chen’s confinement to his hospital room with his wife and their two children as “virtual house arrest.” Smith said Chen believes he made an oral application on Sunday to government officials for him and his family to leave the country, but he has not been notified of any action on it.

Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, told the committee members that the freedom of Chen, his wife and their two children “is not secure yet.” She urged the members “to compel China to honor its own laws.”

Chen said last Tuesday that he was having daily phone conversations with U.S. Embassy officials about his condition, though the Americans were still barred from regularly entering his heavily guarded hospital building.

He said representatives of China’s central government had pledged to help him obtain a passport and look into the allegations of brutal treatment that he and his family say they suffered at the hands of officials in their home in Shandong province.

Chen was sentenced in 2006 to four years and three months in prison for “damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic” — charges that his supporters maintain were trumped up by the authorities to punish his legal advocacy for victims of what he called abusive family-planning policies, including forced abortions and sterilization.