Riot police in Honduras scuffle with protesters

Riot police in Honduras scuffled Thursday with hunger-striking protesters trying to march on the president's palace in the latest of a series of rallies seeking his resignation for alleged massive corruption.

Demonstrators known as "indignados" -- the indignant ones -- have been living in tents about 80 meters (260 feet) from the palace, with police manning a metal and wire fence preventing them from getting close.

But on Thursday 22 protesters tried to get past the barrier, prompting shoving matches with police, who used shields to keep the demonstrators at bay.

Police also brandished truncheons but refrained from using them.

Hondurans in crowds as large as 100,000 have been marching and protesting since May against President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The protesters allege Hernandez received government money illegally in his campaign for the 2013 presidential election that he won.

Hernandez admitted his conservative ruling National Party had accepted $94,000 that had been misappropriated from social security funds.

The opposition charges more than $300 million was skimmed from dirt-poor Honduras's public health system.

At one point Thursday a police officer commanding his men protecting the presidential palace urged Wilfredo Mendez, a human rights lawyer spearheading the protest, to get his people to desist and stop trying to get into the residence.

"Please, counselor, help us," the police commander said.

"We are not going to stop. Now, later, tomorrow or the day after we are going to get in. This house is ours," Mendez answered.

He added that Hondurans have the right to be livid over the deaths of nearly 3,000 people under the care of the state-run health system.

Protesters blame the deaths on shoddy care stemming from alleged embezzlement from the system.

President Hernandez has promised to battle corruption and has held talks with sectors of civil society. But the "indignant" protesters have refused to take part.