News In Brief

President of Bolivia breaks deadlock, calling early vote

Bolivia's left-wing President, Hernan Siles Zuazo, has offered to cut short his four-year term by a year and call an early election Aug. 6, Interior Minister Federico Alvarez Plata told reporters. Mr. Alvarez Plata said the President's decision had broken a deadlock in a national dialogue between political parties called by the Roman Catholic Church to resolve impoverished Bolivia's economic and political crisis. The opposition, which dominates the parliament, has called for Siles Zuazo to resign over accusations that he authorized a senior narcotics official to have contacts with a major drug trafficker.