News In Brief

Thousands heed strike call by Bolivian labor unions

Thousands of miners, teachers, and office workers stayed away from their jobs Thursday, obeying the call for a nationwide general strike by Bolivia's powerful organized labor unions.

The workers launched the strike against high prices and low wages. The strike came just five days after the kidnapping of President Hernan Siles Zuazo in an attempted military coup. Mr. Siles Zuazo was released unharmed. The labor unions are also calling for a unilateral moratorium on payments to foreign commerical creditors.

The government had attempted to avert the strike Wednesday by announcing it would temporarily suspend service payments on its debt to international commercial banks as a first step to renegotiating the total debt - an estimated