World IN BRIEF : MONGOLIA : New Party Boss Calls for 1st Free Elections

Mongolia’s new Communist Party leader criticized his predecessors for stifling democracy and promised to hold the country’s first free elections after 69 years of Communist dominance. Reformist Gombojavyn Ochirbat, chosen Wednesday as general secretary of the ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, said the failures of former leaders had caused economic crises and fomented public indignation. “All I can say now is that Mongolian society must be entirely renewed,” the 61-year-old Ochirbat told his first news conference as party leader. He did not say when elections would be held.