HANOI, Vietnam - One mistake by a clumsy crane operator caused a 10-hour blackout over about a third of Vietnam, exposing the fragility of the nation's power grid. State electricity company EVN said in a statement Thursday that the blackout occurred Wednesday after the crane operator knocked a tree down onto the main north-south high voltage power transmission line.

Bolivia has passed a law allowing leftist President Evo Morales to seek a third term in elections next year, after the country's highest court had earlier approved the move in a binding decision. The tribunal determined last month that Morales, the first indigenous president of South America's poorest nation, could run for a third straight term. The law passed by Congress on Monday reaffirms the verdict. Morales was found able to seek immediate re-election because his first term did not take place under the current constitution, which only allows two terms.

President Evo Morales planned to meet ex-US president Jimmy Carter in the US state of Georgia on Monday to discuss Bolivia's longstanding territorial dispute with Chile, officials said. Last month landlocked Bolivia sued neighboring Chile in the Hague, in the latest maneuver in its attempt to recover land lost in a 19th century war and thus regain access to the Pacific.

HANOI, Vietnam - A Russian-financed search engine seeking to challenge Google's dominance in Vietnam is redirecting queries for some politically sensitive terms to the American company's search engine, apparently as a way of avoiding government anger or legal liability for sending surfers to sites containing criticism of the ruling party.