Bolivia asks U.S. ambassador to leave

Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, asked the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday to leave the country, blaming him for intensified opposition protests that shut down a natural gas pipeline to Brazil.

A State Department spokesman in Washington said Morales' accusations were "baseless" and said the U.S. Embassy in La Paz had not received any request for Ambassador Philip Goldberg to quit the South American nation.