12 self-immolate in bizarre ritual in Peru

September 24th, 2009 Peru grants cleanup extension to US-owned smelterLIMA, Peru — Peru's congress has granted the financially troubled U.S.-owned Doe Run Peru smelter a two-and-a-half year extension to reduce toxic emissions, allowing the company to miss a second deadline to clean up the Andean town of La Oroya. Doe Run closed the plant in June after lenders cut credit lines amid sagging metals prices.

September 10th, 2009 LIMA - Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva has confirmed that a pre-Inca citadel has been found in Zana river's upper basin, between the departments of Lambayeque and Cajamarca in Peru. According to a report in 'Living in Peru', it would be an archaeological complex belonging to the Cajamarca culture, from the early Christian era.

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - More and more discarded US computers are enjoying a lease of life in developing countries, says a comprehensive study. The findings may heighten growing concerns about environmental pollution with toxic metals that can result from dismantling and recycling computer components in developing countries.

August 23rd, 2009 LIMA - Nineteen people, including three women, were killed Sunday when the bus in which they were travelling veered off the road and fell into a ravine in southern Peru, media reports said. The accident occurred near the Quichuas town in southern Huancavelica province.

July 15th, 2009 Pa. man to be extradited to Peru in wife's slayingHARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man is being extradited to Peru to stand trial for the murder of a 21-year-old woman he married there.

July 12th, 2009 Magnitude 5.3 earthquake hits southern PeruLIMA, Peru — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 has struck southern Peru. The country's seismic institute says there are no immediate reports of damage or injury.

July 12th, 2009 Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hits southern PeruMEXICO CITY — The U.S. Geological Service is reporting that an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 has struck southern Peru.

July 3rd, 2009 Peru bus collision kills 23 near Lake TiticacaLIMA, Peru — Two buses crashed head-on Thursday on a mountain road near Lake Titicaca in Peru, killing at least 23 people and injuring 50 more, police said. The morning crash occurred in the Santa Lucia district, about an hour's drive from Lake Titicaca high in the Andes, a Puno state highway police officer told The Associated Press by phone.

July 1st, 2009 LIMA - At least 20 people, including several children, were killed in eastern Peru when two passenger boats crashed on the Ucayali River Tuesday, authorities said. The accident occurred close to San Jose de Pacache, a small town in Peru's Amazon rainforest, the port captain in departmental capital Pucallpa told media.

June 22nd, 2009 Clash with Indians sends Peru leader's rating downLIMA, Peru — A poll in Peru says President Alan Garcia's approval rating has fallen to its lowest level in 18 months, hurt by a June 5 clash between security forces and Amazonian Indian protesters that killed at least 33 people. The firm Ipsos Support says only 21 percent of Peruvians surveyed approve of Garcia's management, a drop of nine points since a poll in mid-May.

June 19th, 2009 Correction: Peru-BoliviaLIMA, Peru — In stories May 11 and May 12 about Peru granting asylum to two Bolivian officials, The Associated Press erroneously reported that genocide charges were not filed against former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and members of his cabinet until after Evo Morales became president in 2006. Bolivia's congress ratified charges against Sanchez de Lozada and the cabinet members in 2004, and prosecutors added five former senior military officials as defendants after Morales' inauguration.

May 14th, 2009 LIMA - Twenty-six people have been killed and 18 others injured when the bus in which they were travelling fell into a ravine in northern Peru, representatives of a travel company said. There were 50 people on board the bus at the time of the accident in the northern Peruvian province of Lambayeque Wednesday.

May 6th, 2009 US citizen Berenson, imprisoned in Peru, has sonLIMA, Peru — The parents of New Yorker Lori Berenson say she has given birth to a baby boy while serving a 20-year sentence in Peru for collaborating with leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The 39-year-old is married to ex-Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement member Anibal Apari, whom she met in jail.

April 30th, 2009 LIMA - Peru suspended from Thursday all flights to and from Mexico over the ongoing flu epidemic, in a decision that Prime Minister Yehude Simon described as 'painful but necessary'. 'We have the right to protect the country,' Simon noted.

February 2nd, 2009 LIMA - An earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale hit southern Peru Monday, authorities said. The Geophysics Institute of Peru (IGP) said that the earthquake occurred at 12.53 p.m.