THE commander of Bolivia's armed forces pledged yesterday to safeguard the country's democracy, urging politicians poised to elect a successor to President Carlos Mesa to act "serenely" to end Bolivia's growing political crisis.

LAWMAKERS planned an emergency session to fill a power vacuum after the president's resignation, hoping to quell violent street protests by a poor Indian majority intent on wresting power from the wealthy white ruling class.

BOLIVIAN President Carlos Mesa has offered to resign, his 19-month-old government unravelling amid weeks of protests that have paralysed the capital.

An offer by President Carlos Mesa to resign did little today to halt a crippling blockade of the Bolivian capital.

BESIEGED by protests over his gas policy, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to Congress yesterday, leaving opposition lawmakers to decide his political future.

Bolivians have gone to the polls for a referendum that the president hopes will give the impoverished nation guidance on what to do with its £45bn (€67.7bn)-plus natural gas reserves – South America’s second-richest after Venezuela.

An angry miner killed himself and two policemen when detonated dynamite strapped to his chest inside Bolivia’s congress, authorities said.

New Bolivian President Carlos Mesa proposed holding early elections after he was sworn in, hours after his predecessor was forced out by weeks of bloody street protests set off by a plan to export natural gas to the US.

The cause of the plane crash in North Carolina – the first fatal airliner accident in the US for more than a year – is not immediately clear but investigators are examining the windy conditions as the plane sped down the runway .