LA PAZ, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of outraged prostitutes are ready to fight a morality campaign targeting their trade by marching nude in the streets of Bolivia's capital, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The threat comes after angry mob on Wednesday destroyed bars and brothels in El Alto, a suburb near La Paz.

After the violence, authorities decided to close more than a thousand houses of prostitution in El Alto.

LA PAZ, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Iran's top Latin America diplomat denied that his country was forming an anti-US bloc with Venezuela and Bolivia, two countries that support Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

'Neither Bolivia nor Iran or Venezuela are forming blocs against anyone,' Safar Ali Eslamian, director of the Iranian foreign ministry's Latin America Department, was quoted as saying Saturday in La Razon newspaper.

'We have decided to have a different way of life, we are not against them,' he said, referring to the United States.

CARACAS, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Caracas Thursday for talks with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, following a brief trip to Bolivia, another anti-US ally in South America.

Chavez and fellow leftist President Evo Morales, of Bolivia, both support Iran's controversial nuclear program and, like Ahmadinejad, are virulent critics of the US administration.

The two South American nations have reached a number of trade and aid agreements with Iran, particularly in the energy sector.

LA PAZ, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad headed to Caracas Thursday for talks with firebrand Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in a mini-tour of Iran's anti-US allies that also took him to Bolivia.

He boarded a plane for Venezuela after talks in La Paz with Bolivian President Evo Morales during a five-hour visit to the South American country.

Chavez and fellow leftist Morales both support Iran's controversial nuclear program and, like Ahmadinejad, are virulent critics of the US administration.

LA PAZ, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here Thursday for an official visit to Bolivia and a planned stop in Venezuela, shoring up his support in the backyard of his bitter rival the United States.

The Iranian leader arrived just two days after he insisted on his country's right to develop nuclear energy -- a position staunchly opposed by Washington and much of the West -- during a speech at the United Nations.

LA PAZ, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here Thursday for meetings with Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales, ahead of a stop in Venezuela.

The meeting between Ahmadinejad and Morales takes place just months after Bolivia and Iran re-established diplomatic ties, and finds the two firebrand leaders united in their tense relations with Washington.

Morales, along with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, is among few world leaders who support Iran's nuclear program.

LA PAZ, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales greets Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday for a visit criticized by the opposition and question by the US, which is concerned over growing Iranian-Bolivian ties.

The right-of-center Bolivian opposition, citing international fears that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, has warned that it would block any energy deals signed during the visit if they include the mining of Bolivian uranium.

The Morales administration denied that the energy deals would include Bolivian uranium.

CARACAS, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuela announced on Tuesday Hugo Chavez will skip the UN General Assembly, one year after the leftist president caused a stir by calling US President George W. Bush 'the devil' in his address to the world body.

As authorities made the last-minute announcement, Chavez came out in support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, deploring the way the Iranian president was 'insulted' during a appearance at New York's Columbia University ahead of his UN speech.

The two controversial allies are due to hold talks in Caracas this week.

LA PAZ, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Beginning December 1, Bolivia will require US visitors to obtain visas to enter the Andean country, Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca announced Tuesday.

'US nationals who come to our country as tourists cannot set foot on Bolivian soil without visa beginning December 1,' he told reporters.

Choquehuanca said his own ministry as well as the Interior Ministry approved the measure in compliance with a decree President Evo Morales signed early this year.

LA PAZ, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - Right-wing protesters clashed with store owners in six major cities Tuesday during a strike called by anti-government groups to demand that Bolivia's capital be moved to Sucre.

The strike was organized by business and civic groups in six eastern and relatively wealthy departments, whose administrations fiercely oppose President Evo Morales' reform program to distribute the country's wealth more evenly.

LIMA, Aug 25, 2007 (AFP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales on Saturday toured the ruins of Pisco, the coastal town hardest-hit by the powerful mid-August earthquake that struck Peru, where thousands of survivors are still sleeping under the stars.

The quake killed some 540 people, injured 1,100 and left tens of thousands homeless in the southern cities of Pisco, Ica, Chincha and Canete.

The leftist Morales, a supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Peru's centrist President Alan Garcia have had a testy relationship.

LA PAZ, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Bolivian parliamentarians woke up with huge bruises Thursday after a vicious fist fight on the floor of Bolivia's Congress that reflected a deep political crisis in the impoverished South American country.

For months, there had been virtually no dialogue between supporters of leftist President Evo Morales and opposition members who reject his proposed constitutional reforms.

The two sides finally came to blows on Wednesday, punching and kicking each other across the floor of the national Congress in La Paz.

COHANA, Bolivia, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Nestled high in the Bolivian Andes, the famed Lake Titicaca is being strangled by city-fed pollution that is driving away local people who draw sustenance from its mythical waters.

At a breathtaking 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) above sea level, at Titicaca's Cohana Bay, the Katari, Seco, Seque, Pallina and Jalaqueri rivers deposit the garbage and contaminants they pick up from cities along their banks.