Ecuador suspends interest payment to mull default

QUITO (AP): Ecuador won't pay bondholders $135 million in interest while it decides whether to default on 27 percent of its foreign debt, deemed "illegitimate" by in audit, a top official said Saturday.

The cash-strapped country will take advantage of a 30-day grace period that allows it to defer payment on $2.7 billion in so-called Global 2030 bonds while it works to find "an integral solution to the issue of the debt," Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said.