THE US yesterday called for new ways to support “fragile” democracies in the Western Hemisphere but was immediately accused by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez of seeking to impose a “global dictatorship.”

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.

Bolivian police officers carry an injured officer from Bolivia’s Congress after a disgruntled miner detonated explosives strapped to his body inside the building, killing himself and two police officers.

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.