New Bolivian president names new cabinet 
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa on Sunday swore in his transitional cabinet, most members of which have no connections to major political parties in the country, according to reports reaching here. 

As promised, the majority of the 15 cabinet members are economists and intellectuals, and one more minister is yet to be appointed to the newly created Ethnic Affairs Ministry. 

Mesa called on the new cabinet members to take their posts seriously as "the abyss is still close at hand." 

Mesa, who resigned as vice-president, took office on Friday as the new president of the country after the resignation of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada following four weeks of deadly protests over Sanchez de Lozada's economic policy in general and his highly unpopular plan to build a 5-billion-US dollar pipeline through Chile to deliver natural gas to the United States and Mexico. 

At least 80 people died in clashes between the demonstrators and the law-enforcement personnel sent to quell the protests. 

Calm has returned to the country with the opposition celebrating the resignation of Sanchez de Lozada, who left Bolivia and arrived on Saturday morning in Miami, the southeastern US state of Florida, on his way to Washington. 

But Mesa, a former television reporter, who will serve out the rest of Sanchez de Lozada's term due to end in August 2007, faces the task of reuniting the country where the gap between the rich and poor has widened due to Sanchez de Lozada's free-market policies. 

Bush proposes alternative to N. Korea standoff 
President Bush restated his opposition Sunday to a U.S. non aggression pact with North Korea, while proposing multilateral security assurances if Pyongyang pledges to abandon its nuclear weapons program, CNN reported. 

North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the United States and refused to consider giving up its nuclear program without a non aggression treaty with the United States. 

"We will not have a treaty," the president told reporters. "That's off the table. Perhaps there are other ways we can look at -- to say exactly what I said publicly on paper, with our partners' consent." 

Bush addressed the issue after a meeting with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- and pitched the idea later to Chinese President Hu Jintao, who will play a key role in the strategy for resuming dialogue with North Korea. 

"He told President Hu that he's very committed to the six-party talks in which we are engaged, in which Beijing has been such an important player," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on ABC's "This Week." 

"The president made clear to President Hu that he is prepared to explore ways within the six-party context to address the security concerns that the North Koreans have put on the table," Rice said. 

The other partners in the six-party dialogue are Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. 

North Korea would not have to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program before receiving the security assurances, a senior U.S. official said. 

The official said any security assurances or other measures that could be negotiated with North Korea would be "conditioned on verifiable progress" toward ending and dismantling its nuclear weapons program -- but not conditioned on finishing implementation of any agreement. 

U.S. officials said Bush hoped to reach agreement with the Chinese president on an approach under which, in exchange for a verifiable end to the North Korea weapons program, the United States and its partners in the talks would agree in writing that their shared goal was a peaceful, non-nuclear Korean peninsula and that no parties to the talks had any hostile intentions toward or plans to attack the North. 

Senior administration officials say their offer is not a formal treaty, but a less formal written agreement. 

"North Korea is not gaining anything by being possessors of nuclear weapons," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition." "It doesn't help an economy that's in need, it doesn't feed anyone, and it doesn't scare anyone." 

He said the United States is open to being a part of a broader agreement involving other Asian nations if North Korea abandons its nuclear ambitions and agrees to strict verification. 

Bush arrived in Bangkok on Saturday ahead of Monday's APEC summit, being held in the Thai capital amid tight security. 

Leaders from Russia, China, Australia and 17 other nations will join Bush at the meeting in Bangkok. 

New York cab drivers threaten to strike for fare hike 
A representative of yellow cab drivers in New York City has threatened to strike if fares do not go up and work conditions do not improve, local press reports said Sunday. 

Bhairavi Desai of the Taxi Workers Alliance told the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) that members of her group may strike if the regulatory commission does not approve the first fare hike since 1996. 

Desai, who organized a one-day strike in 1998, says higher gas prices and higher lease costs mean drivers make less than 2 dollars per hour. 

A taxi hike normally follows an increase in the subway fare, like the one adopted in March. The TLC has not scheduled a meeting yet to consider Desai's proposal, or a more modest rate change suggested by the city's largest group of taxi fleets. 

The TLC commissioner, Matthew W. Caus, would not comment on the strike threat, but he said the commission has a good relationship with the Taxi Workers Alliance. 

The alliance wants to charge an extra 50 cents per mile, meaning every click of the meter would jump from 30 cents to 40 cents. The group also wants to increase the flat rate from JFK Airport, the city's major airport for international flights, to Manhattan from 35 dollars to 45 dollars. 

But others in the industry, while acknowledging that drivers need higher rates, said Desai might have exaggerated the woes. 

Michael Higgins, editor of Taxi Talk newspaper and a driver for20 years, said on a slow night, a driver normally earns 60 dollars for a 12-hour shift, and emphasized he still believes in a fare hike. 

"I don't know what they based it on," added Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the city's largest group of taxi fleets, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which is also pressing for higher rates.