World Briefs

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales announced he was starting a hunger strike on Thursday to pressure Bolivia's congress to set a firm date for general elections that are likely to return him to power.

Bolivia's opposition-led Senate has failed to approve a law to handle the elections, which are mandated by a Morales-backed constitutional reform approved by voters in January.

The socialist president has suggested opposition leaders are trying to block the planned December elections with delaying tactics.

ISLAMABAD – The hard-line cleric who has mediated peace talks between Pakistan and the Taliban in the Swat Valley packed up and left the northwestern district Thursday, angrily denouncing the president for failing to sign off on imposing Islamic law in the area.

Sufi Muhammad's departure imperils a fragile cease-fire between militants and security forces that brought a tense calm to the valley after months of bloodletting but also alarmed Western leaders who want Pakistan to eradicate al-Qaida and Taliban havens.

LONDON – Britain's top counterterrorism officer resigned Thursday after appearing in front of photographers with clearly visible secret documents about an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a "very big terrorist plot."

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bob Quick's blunder forced police to launch raids faster than planned against a 12 suspects in northern England.

HAVANA – THE MILLIONS THE U. S. government spends to promote political change in communist Cuba should go directly to those on the island working to foment democracy or not be spent at all.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, eight members of the Cuban political opposition wrote "if the government of the United States cannot guarantee that aid for the promotion of democracy in Cuba really arrives.. inside our country, then it would be better to cancel those funds and use them for other objectives."

BAGHDAD – Business, not bombs, is booming at Baghdad car dealerships, as well-heeled Iraqis are indulging in a passion long out of reach — spiffy, new cars.

BMWs, Nissans, Hyundais and even military-style Hummers are now weaving around the shabby, smoke-belching wrecks and donkey carts that have clogged the streets over two decades of sanctions and war. That may make Baghdad one of the few cities worldwide where the auto industry is doing relatively well — at least compared to the worst of the war, when sales were stagnant.