LOCAL NEWS

The archaelogical site of Bandurria dating back 3200 BC (located in the province of Huaura, Lima) is considered the origin of ancient American civilization, said archaeologist Alejandro Chu Barrera, director of the Archaeological Project of Bandurria.

"Several radiocarbon datings done in the United states confirmed that Bandurria dates back from 3200 B.C., while Caral dates from 2900", said the archaeologist.

The expert mentioned that the main reason for the development of highly organized cultures along the Peruvian coast is explained in the availavility of marine resources which allowed to improve the population’s diet of the place.

Bandurria is located 140 kilometres from Lima and received this peculiar name because of a bird which inhabit this area. It was discovered by late 1973 but first excavations took place in 1977. It wasn't until July 2005 that the site begun to be excavated by a team of archeologists and students from San Marcos National University, led by archeologist Alejandro Chu.

A mission from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will be in Peru from April 20 to May 1, to assess the state of conservation at the Historical Center of Arequipa, one of its World Heritage sites.

The mayor of Arequipa, Simón Balbuena, announced that a UNESCO mission will be monitoring the condition of cultural-historical monuments at the Main Square and its surroundings in Arequipa

"This visit is not to ratify or reconsider the World Heritage Site status of Arequipa’s Historical Center", added Balbuena.

The UNESCO mission, which will include the participation of experts such as Spanish Nuria Sanz, Venezuelan Felipe Delmont and Mexican Luis Guerrero Baca, will visit Arequipa and meet local community representatives and government officials to evaluate an existing conservation plan that is well into the implementation stage.

500 million soles have been invested in improvement works of Arequipa’s tourist attractions as part of preparations for the APEC Working Groups meetings to be held in May.

Handicrafts in Peru generate annual sales of 200 million dollars, resources associated with tourism, the Handicraft Director of Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Madeleine Burns stated today.

"Each tourist who visits the country spends in average 100 dollars in handicrafts", she said after holding a meeting with the representatives of the sector in the Andean area.

All of them work to implement the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)’s recognition of excellence to crafts products.

"Tourists spend in average 100 dollars in handicrafts, but some of them even spend almost three million dollars. Handicrafts exports total 44 million dollars", she said.

Handicrafts products not only show off Peruvian motifs, but also inspirations of each one of the countries in which they are sold.

That is why some months ago, an investigation to determinate the route that these handicrafts followed was carried out, determining that the handicrafts were sold even in the lakes of Southern Chile.

"Craftsmen have to recognize its value, the importance of their culture and revalue their work", she pointed out.

Promotora de Cafe Colombia (Procafecol) which owns Juan Valdez coffee shops will enter Peru this year as part of its expansion plan in the region.

The Colombian chain pointed out that it reached an alliance in Peru to be presnet in some supermarkets with some tasting products an advertising material.

Procafecol also plans to open some coffee shops in Chile through an agreement with the Falabella Group, besides Argentina and Spain, the Colombian newspaper "El Espectador" reported today.

In the first quarter of 2008, Juan Valdez coffee shops duplicated its stores in Colombia, from 49 to 100 shops.

Besides entering to the Peruvian markets, this company also hopes to open seven coffees shops in Chile, four in Spain and 60 selling points in Argentina.

Around 53,000 domestic and foreign tourists will visit Cajamarca, La Libertad, Ayacucho and Huancayo, which will be promoted as tourist destinations during May long holidays, the Commission of the Peruvian Export and Tourism Promotion Agency (PromPerú), stated today.

There are two long holidays in May: May 1 to celebrate Labor Day and May 16 and 17, when the V Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) will take place.

Tourism campaign promoted by Promperu lies in promoting these touristic destinations in the media.

The tourism director in La Libertad Elina Barturén said to Andina news agency that these cities will host around 14 thousand domestic and foreign tourists during the long holidays in May.

Huanchaco’s beaches, located at 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) from Trujillio, will be one of the most visited places. There, tourists can see the Totora Horses, which are boats for fishing used by the Mochicas and Chimus since ancient times.

The archeological place of The Sun and The Moon Huacas, Chan Chan Citadel, the historical center of Trujillo and others tourist attractiveness can also be visited by tourists.

Recent excavations and studies conducted by Cusco's National Institute of Culture (INC) in the Archaelogical Park of Sacsayhuamán allowed to discover structures and compounds helping to disclose Inca's religion aspects such as the worship to their ancestral mummies.

The works were done in the Huaca Inkil Tambo, an Inca historical center registered by the INC, which after several decades of being discovered has been the focus of meticulous archaeological excavations and studies during the last months.

The temple, known as "Inca Jail" (main part is composed by a conglomerate of carved big stones), was used as residency of mummies, sui generis figure, because it was neither a cementery or a mausoleum.

According to Washington Camacho, head of the Archeological Park of Sacsayhuamán, “the place is an important complex and its main function could have been to accommodate mummies of elite members or monarchs of the Tahuantinsuyo, because the main stone has carvings, among them five niches where human remains were possibly placed.

A group of scientists of the Geology, Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Peru (Ingement) will be specifically studying the impact of underground water flowing under the Chan Chan archaeological complex, the largest mud-brick citadel located in the northern region of La Libertad.

The Geoscience Director of Ingement, Víctor Carlotto, explained that the study aims at establishing the relation between the underground water channel and its possible impact on the infrastructure of the Chan Chan citadel.

The research is headed by Manuel Vilchez who is also in charge of the geophysical activities in the zone.

The decision to launch this study is mainly to preserve the vast mud city of Chan Chan, considered a cultural heritage and one of the main tourist attractions in La Libertad, northen Peru.

Chan Chan was declared a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1986 and is the largest mud-brick citadel in the Americas.

With more than 700 thousand votes, the Lake Junin, also known as the Lake of the Kings or Chinchaycocha, was chosen the first natural wonder of Junin - an Andean central region in Peru - in an online contest organized by the regional government.

The extraordinary beauty and invaluable flora richness of Lake Junin amazed a great number of Peruvian cybernauts who casted their votes during several weeks to chose the Seven Natural Wonders of Junin Region.

The Lake Junin or Chichaycocha is located at approximately 4,082 m (13,393 ft) above sea level. The lake is an important bird watching destination in the country and is also considered the second largest lake of Peru after Lake Titicaca in Puno.

The Alejandro Velasco Astete internacional airport, in the city of Cusco, now has a modern and comfortable VIP waiting room which offers a range of services and facilities including Internet access, a café-bar, shops and a tourist information office.

Jorge Carrillo Salas, general manager of VIP Lounge Cusco, bid winner company, said this section offers the highest standards of comfort and service in a contemporary design atmosphere ideal for the business and leisure travellers.

The new VIP section has been installed to welcome eight percent of the passengers passing through the airport of Cusco, especially travelers with high purchasing power who look for world-class facilities.

It has a capacity of 64 people and further facilities include smoking and non-smoking zones, a food court, and a nice variety of shops.

“Tourist operators and diverse companies are interested in participating in the project, which aim is to offer more comfort to passengers”, Carrillo pointed out.

The quality of Peruvian alpaca will be appreciated by the leaders of the V Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) that will be held in our country in May.

The announcement was made after the agreement signed between the Summit's organizing committee and Wayra, which is a manufacturer of alpaca textiles.

The Chairman of the Sponsorship Committee of the V Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean (V EU-LAC Summit), Fortunato Quesada, emphasized the quality of the products made by Wayra, a company that in the last two years has significantly increased its exports.

Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (INGEMMET) announced that Japanese businessmen have planned to build a space museum in Carancas, Puno (795 miles southeast of Lima), the region where a meteorite landed in September 2007.

Construction is to begin in April and $90 thousand are to be invested in the state of the art museum that will be able to withstand Puno's extreme weather conditions, said Hernando Núñez del Prado, director of institute affairs for the INGEMMET.

Aside from exhibiting pieces of the chondrite, the museum will give visitors information on aerospace science and astrophysics related to cosmic phenomenon.

Núñez del Prado explained the crater where the meteorite had landed would remain covered by a 20x20 meter piece of canvas to keep it from being affected by the heavy rainfall in Puno.

He also stated a law was being proposed to protect the country from "meteorite hunters".

Furthermore, National Geographic has announced it will present a documentary in four languages this year on the meteorite that landed in Puno, said Rocío Gómez Paredes, a natural resources manager fro the regional government of Puno.

On Sunday, Edwards Vizcarra, the mayor of Huari (a province in Ancash) will start a trip around different countries in Europe where he will show a video with the main tourist attractions of the town, aiming to increase the number of visitors and attract more private investment.

He told Andina news agency that the trip would include Italy (Rome, Torino, Bologña, Milano), Spain (Barcelona, Salamanca, Madrid) and France (Paris).

Vizcarra pointed out that the 18-minute video shows the Jacabamba waterfall, located nine kilometers northeast of Huari.

It also shows the Chavin de Huantar archaeological complex, the big and beautiful lakes of Conchucos - such as Purhuay and Reparin, and the Pre-Inca city of Marcajirca, among other attractions.

"This video has been recorded with the town’s own resources and was directed by the well-known Peruvian filmmaker, Jose Rios", said Vizcarra. "This is an invaluable audiovisual documentary which aims to promote our touristic richness".

The mayor stated the video would be shown in museums, through the media, and exhibited at different places. “We signed an agreement with a consortium of Italian museums, so the film can be shown in many cultural centers”, said the mayor.

Vizcarra said that during the trip, which will last until February 28, the new publication “Conchucos, Gold of the Andes” will be also presented, showing pictures of tourist attractions in the area.

The mayor pointed out that his trip was possible thanks to the support of the Antonio Raimondi Institute. The video was presented this morning at Universidad Católica's Cultural Center.

The broken skeletons were scattered like random pottery shards, rediscovered where they had fallen centuries ago.

Were these ancient people cut down in some long-forgotten battle? Did European-introduced diseases cause their demise? Were they casualties of some apocalyptic reckoning at this great walled citadel?

The "cloud warriors" of ancient Peru are slowly offering up their secrets -- and more questions.

Recent digs at this majestic site, once a stronghold of the Chachapoya civilization, have turned up scores of skeletons and thousands of artifacts, shedding new light on these myth-shrouded early Americans and one of the most remarkable, if least understood, of Peru's pre-Columbian cultures.

Among the arresting findings: the practice of incorporating the dead into defensive walls; the use of stone missiles to repel invaders; the discovery of gargoyle-like stone carvings; and the civilization's sudden collapse, possibly in a final, purifying conflagration.

Though almost everyone knows about the Inca and Machu Picchu, relatively few have heard of the Chachapoya or visited their domain, a vast swath of Amazon headlands and breathtaking cloud forests on the slopes of the Andes. This walled settlement, among the largest monuments of the ancient Americas, rivals the Incas' Machu Picchu in scale and grandeur.

Getting here requires a lengthy, bone-crunching journey on roads less traveled, near-vertical jeep tracks featuring better-not-to-look drops of 1,000 yards or more. Kuelap is in the middle of nowhere, and there is no midday buffet, five-star hotel or luxury locomotive -- amenities found at Machu Picchu, 600 miles to the southeast.

"You have to have an adventurous spirit to come to Kuelap," said Alice Cook, 25, a schoolteacher from Alaska who was hiking down after a day's visit. "It's not like just getting on the train and you're here."

The Chachapoya civilization is believed to have thrived from around 800 to about 1540, the last 70 years or so under the domination of their empire-minded neighbors, the Inca, and then the Spanish. The Chachapoya, historians say, were a loose confederation with settlements spread across a 25,000-square-mile swath of north-central Peru -- an area about the size of West Virginia -- and may have numbered 300,000 people or more at their height.

In preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum and the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (EU - LAC) Summit, the main streets in Peru's capital will be renovated and improved, announced the Mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio.

The mayor stated that among the avenues to be repaired are La Marina, Javier Prado, Angamos and Primavera.

He explained that several sections of each of the avenues would be repaved to make sure traffic flowed freely and that motorists did not have to deal with potholes.

He assured that effective detour routes would be placed into effect to avoid traffic jams and chaos during the construction period.

When asked about the avenues that would be repaired, the mayor stated that an extra lane would be added to Primavera Avenue.

According to Lima's mayor, plans for the renovation of the avenues have been completed and construction will begin shortly.

He also stated that the new highway, which is to join the district of Comas to Chorrillos will be operational by 2009.

MADRID, Spain-Peru's President Alan Garcia landed at Madrid's international airport Sunday for a three-day visit aimed at improving business and diplomatic links with Europe.

The Peruvian leader is due to meet with King Juan Carlos, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and business leaders.

Garcia was re-elected in April 2006 on a promise to improve his Andean country's economic fortunes.

Garcia's first 1985-90 term was plagued by hyperinflation and food shortages at the height of a brutal war against Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.

Peru's economy grew 8 percent in 2006, the eighth consecutive year of expansion for the Andean nation of 27 million people, and Garcia has forged ahead with a market-friendly agenda.

Last week Garcia told journalists that Spanish-Argentine oil giant Repsol YPF SA had found 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Peru's Amazon jungle, enough to guarantee the country's needs for 40 years, he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush signed a U.S.-Peru free trade agreement with Garcia in December, paving the way for stronger bilateral economic ties.

Garcia is also likely to seek Spain's diplomatic support for his government's claim to draw Peru's sea boundary in waters claimed by southern neighbor Chile.

Peru asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday to adjudicate on the boundary, inflaming poor relations with its southern neighbor and angering Chile's President Michelle Bachelet.

Peru contends its maritime border with Chile has not been legally defined, while Chile says the border was set by treaties with Peru in 1952 and 1954. Peru argues the agreements dealt with fishing rights, not borders.

There is strong anti-Chilean sentiment in Peru because the country lost a large chunk of its southern territory to Chile in a war in 1879.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The broken skeletons were scattered like random pottery shards, rediscovered where they had fallen centuries ago.

Were these ancient people cut down in some long-forgotten battle? Did European-introduced diseases cause their demise? Were they casualties of some apocalyptic reckoning at this great walled citadel?

The "cloud warriors" of ancient Peru are slowly offering up their secrets - and more questions. Recent digs at this majestic site, once a stronghold of the Chachapoya civilization, have turned up scores of skeletons and thousands of artifacts, shedding new light on these myth-shrouded early Americans and one of the most remarkable, if least understood, of Peru's pre-Columbian cultures.

Among the arresting findings: the practice of incorporating the dead into defensive walls; the use of stone missiles to repel invaders; the discovery of gargoyle-like stone carvings; and the civilization's sudden collapse, possibly in a final, purifying conflagration.

Though almost everyone knows about the Inca and Machu Picchu, relatively few have heard of the Chachapoya or visited their domain, a vast swath of Amazon headlands and breathtaking cloud forests on the slopes of the Andes. This walled settlement, among the largest monuments of the ancient Americas, rivals the Incas' Machu Picchu in scale and grandeur.

To continue the tradition of promoting the Marinera, one of Peru's most elegant dances, the 48th National Northern Marinera contest is to take place in Trujillo from January 22 to 27.

As a representative of the contest, a young woman is chosen from among the daughters of the members of the "La Libertad” Club and is named the contest's queen. After having been prepared to be the contest's queen for one year, the young lady represents the organization during the contest.

This year's queen of the Festival is Trujillo’s María José Vélez Ganoza, a 20 year old that decided to participate in this contest to represent not only the organization, but also her hometown.

“I am in this contest for my hometown, because it is not only about representing the organizers, but also Trujillo, which has a lot of tradition and a rich culture”, Vélez told Andina news agency.

"Marinera is a faithful expression of Peru's northern culture", said Vélez as she invited everyone to visit Trujillo and attend this event. The festival's queen explained she would not participate in beauty pageants because she did not want to be part of that world. On the other hand, she acknowledged the importance of what Peru's María Julia Mantilla, Miss World 2004, has done so far for the country and Trujillo.

The Mansiche Arena in Trujillo is to be the stage for this National Marinera Contest, the most elegant couples dance in Peru. Different categories and choreographic styles are judged. Both dancers swirl while waving a white handkerchief and executing a number of characteristic steps.

The male dancer wears a poncho and a hat, and if riding horseback, he does so on a Peruvian Paso horse. The female dancer wears a beautiful typical regional dress.

A Peruvian journalist described on Friday the horror he felt being kidnapped by President Alberto Fujimori's security squad in 1992, hours after the former leader shut down Congress during a war against leftists.

Gustavo Gorriti, testifying at Fujimori's trial on human rights crimes, said 10 men with machine guns snatched him from his house in the middle of the night. He said he became terrified when he realized he had been taken to the offices of the Peruvian army's intelligence agency for interrogation.

"It was a place where very few people who went in came out alive," said Gorriti, who had criticized the former president's government prior to the kidnapping. "He had all the power of the state concentrated in his hands." Gorriti said of Fujimori, 69.

He said he was targeted because he had published stories tying Fujimori's spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, to corruption and drug traffickers.

Montesinos, now in prison, was widely known as Fujimori's most important aide. Fujimori used the threat of terrorism to consolidate power, closing Congress in April 1992 to pass tough laws targeting armed leftist groups.

Fujimori on Friday denied ordering the kidnapping of Gorriti. He has denied other charges that he violated human rights by instructing a government death squad to kill 25 people in two massacres during the 1990s, when Peru was battling the Maoist guerrilla group known as the Shining Path.

While in power from 1990 to 2000, Fujimori defeated the guerrillas and brought order to a chaotic economy. But critics said he violated human rights to end a 20-year war in which nearly 70,000 people died or disappeared.

In 1992, security forces seized 10 people from La Cantuta University, killed them and dumped their bodies in a shallow grave. In 1991, they gunned down 15 people at a barbecue in the Barrios Altos neighbourhood, among them an 8-year-old boy.

Fujimori could get up to 30 years in prison if found guilty of human rights crimes. Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced him to six years in prison for sending an aide to steal incriminating documents from Montesinos' house. Chile extradited Fujimori to Peru in September after seven years in exile, five of them in Japan, the country of his parents' birth.

Cusco’s Committee of Tourist Integrated Services (COSITUC) announced today that the cost of tourist tickets would be increased by 85 percent in July 2008.

The head of Cusco’s Tourist Ticket Office (OFEC), Fermín Díaz Angulo, specified that a normal ticket, which currently costs 70 soles, will now cost 130 soles and that student tickets, which cost 35 soles, would increase to 70.

It was reported that the money raised with the increased ticket prices would be invested in better conditions for the comfort of tourists as well as the establishment of other services such as medical insurance for accidents, permanent security during tours, emergency vehicles and medical centers.

The funds are to also be invested in rest areas for tourists, bathrooms, adequate security, promotion campaigns to encourage national tourism and funding for schools that wish to bring their students to the Inca Citadel.

According to Peru's COSITUC, forty percent of the money collected will be granted to district municipalities while twenty percent will be given to the communities where archaeological monuments and tourist attractions are located.

Thirty percent will be granted to Cusco’s National Institute of Culture (INC) and the remaining ten percent will be given to the Regional Directorate of Foreign Trade and Tourism (DIRCETUR).

While Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori has admitted to having staged a coup on April 5, 1992, he has denied knowing of the existence of the Colina Group, a paramilitary death squad, as well as having any knowledge of kidnappings or torture.

During his trial, which continues to take place in a special courtroom at the DIROES facility in Lima, testimonies have been given that Alberto Fujimori knew exactly what was happening during his administration. One of these testimonies has come from his ex-wife Susana Higuchi.

After government prosecutor José Peláez Bardales read Higuchi's testimony, Peru’s former president denied the accusations made by his ex-wife, in which she assured that Fujimori had ordered that opponents be stopped "dead or alive" during the 1992 coup.

Fujimori also denied having ordered Vladimiro Montesinos to arrest businessman Samuel Dyer and journalist Samuel Gorriti, stating he had not seen or heard Dyer asking him for help as the businessman was held in the basement of a government building.

During proceedings, the court rejected Cesar Nakazaki's request to provide Alberto Fujimori with a laptop for the trial, stating, "it is not necessary or determinative for the defense".

The Grand Canyon, Mount Fuji and the Amazon rain forest are likely contenders in a global poll of millions of people to select the seven natural wonders of the world, organizers say.
Around 300 suggestions from six continents have come in so far. Starting in January 2009 people will be able to vote for their favorite sites by Internet, mobile phone or telephone, according to the non-profit foundation New7Wonders.
The organizers have turned to highlighting the most impressive natural wonders after their success earlier this year in the selection of the seven structural wonders, including India's Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and Rome's Colosseum.
More than 100 million people participated in the first contest, which concluded in July. Also chosen as man-made wonders were Peru's Machu Picchu, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer, the rock city of Petra in Jordan and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid.
Swiss-Canadian adventurer Bernard Weber, who started the foundation in 1999, said his aim is to "create respect and enthusiasm ... for the beauty of our planet."
The new wonders should be places with striking natural beauty, Weber said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"The closer we bring the beauty of our planet ... to the people, the more likely they will say, 'Oh, we have to do something to conserve it," Weber said.
It will take several years to complete the selection of natural wonders. The multistep process was launched in July with the public invited to make suggestions for sites to be considered. Suggestions are posted by continent on the Web site.
Internet users who nominate a site to be among the finalists must fill in a form with contact details for the authority responsible for the site, such as the park service in charge. New7Wonders organizers will then contact the authority to ask that an official committee be created to support the contest process.

Once the committee is created, the public can vote -- by Internet only -- to include the site among contest finalists. That voting will continue through the end of 2008.
In early 2009, the 77 sites that have received the most votes will go before a panel of experts, which will choose the 21 finalists.
People will then be able to vote via the Web, text message or phone on the final seven.
The seven winners will be announced in late 2010, Weber said.
The campaign is meant to be a popular campaign rather than a scientific exercise, he said.
"We're not telling people what to do, but we're trying to create a positive feeling and enthusiasm for these things so that eventually [people] will react," he said.

The Zurich, Switzerland-based foundation is run by about 20 people and is funded through income from broadcasting rights.
Among the suggestions for natural wonders already received are places like Mount Everest, Ireland's Cliffs of Moher, Russia's Lake Baikal, Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, Egypt's Mount Sinai, Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, Tanzania's Serengeti National Park and Australia's Ayers Rock.
Weber said the massive interest in the first campaign for the seven wonders showed that people can be fascinated and motivated by more than just sports.
"There are ... parts in this world where culture is very alive and important for the society," he said.

Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez will star in "La Cenerentola", a new production by Gioacchino Rossini which is to start next Sunday at Liceo Opera House in Barcelona, Spain.

Joan Font, artistic director for Els Comediants Theater Company, stated today in a press conference that the show would only be presented until January 20, 2008.

The last time Rossini’s "La Cenerentola" was played at the Liceo Opera House was in 1992. This time, Peru’s Juan Diego Florez has the main role as Don Ramiro, prince of Salem.

Florez, who could not attend the press conference in Barcelona, is the main character of a show that has seven singers, eight dancers and is accompanied by the Liceo Opera Chorus and Orchestra.

David Menéndez is to be Dandini, the prince's servant, Don Magnífico (Angelina's step-father) is played by Bruno de Simone, the step-sisters Clorinda and Tisbe are played by Cristina Obregón and Itxaro Menxaca and the role of Alidoro, philosopher and former tutor of the prince, will be sung by Simón Orfila.

In preparation for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum Peru is to host next year, the region of Piura will expand its hotels by 30 percent within the first semester of 2008, said César Trelles Lara, the region's president.

Trelles specified that over a dozen of Piura's biggest hotels, along with 50 other establishments, between three and four stars, have all joined to prepare expansion projects and improve the services they offer so the region's accommodations are up to par for APEC.

The regional expansion project has been organized to provide more accommodations for the national and foreign tourists that will come because of the international conference. Tourists will visit the different sites the city has to offer and benefit Piura's citizens.

"Piura has a lot of things to offer. For now we are preparing to be able to provide accommodations for the visitors. Hotels are being expanded thanks to private investments because this important event will allow Piura to open its doors to the world," said Trelles.

In preparation for APEC 2008, Peru's central government is to provide the region with 20 million soles to improve roads, buildings and other public areas.

The US Senate will vote next week on a free trade agreement the Bush administration negotiated with Peru, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader said on Friday.

“Sen. Reid intends to (begin debate) on Monday,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said in an email. However, a vote on the pact is not expected before Wednesday, he said.

The House voted 285-132 earlier this month to approve the agreement, which locks in Peru’s duty-free access to the US market while phasing out Peru’s tariffs on US agricultural and manufactured goods. The Senate vote is the last step in the congressional approval process, setting the stage for President George W. Bush to sign the agreement into law by the end of the year.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, has told reporters he expects the Senate to approve the pact, giving the White House its first trade victory since Democrats took control of Congress this year.

Reid — who voted against Bush administration free trade agreements with Chile and Central American countries — is currently leading a bipartisan group of senators on a trip to Guatemala, Paraguay, Colombia and Mexico.

The purpose is to show the United States’ commitment to strengthening ties with the region, Manley said.

The strong House vote for Peru came after the Bush administration renegotiated the agreement to include stronger labor and environmental provisions demanded by Democrats.

Reid “acknowledges the important advancements acheived in protecting internationally recognized workers rights in the Peru FTA but still has concerns about FTAs in general, particularly with countries that have poor records in protecting worker rights,” Manley said.

The White House would like Congress to vote on a free trade agreement with Colombia after it finishes its work on the Peru pact. However, that agreement is much more controversial because many Democrats feel Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has not taken strong enough measures to stop murders of trade unionists and bring their killers to justice.

The Bush administration argues Uribe has already done much to improve the situation in Colombia and approving the free trade agreement would help consolidate those gains.

With a skillful display of surfing, Peru's Sofia Mulanovich came out on top once again in the ASP Women's World Tour Championship yesterday.

Sofia Mulanovich won the Roxy Pro in Hawaii, the seventh event of this 8-event World Championship and the second event in Vans Triple Crown of Surfing for women.

Although Mulanovich did not win the Mancora Peru Classic, the sixth event in the championship, she demonstrated that that she is still in the race to be the 2007 Women's World Champion for the second time by defeating the tough competition and winning the event at Sunset Beach.

Facing waves 10-20 feet high, some of the biggest ever for a women's contest, Mulanovich managed to take the event, receiving scores of 6.9 and 6.83 for her two best waves.

The Women's World Title is still up for grabs between the top three ranked women in the championship, Sofia Mulanovich, Brazilian Silvana Lima and Australian Stephanie Gilmore, who has a total of 5,868 points.

Now ranked number 2 in the World, Sofia's win at Sunset Beach, giving her a total of 5,767 points, has brought her closer to the world championship, which is to be disputed in the final event on December 8 at Honolua Bay, Maui.

One month after the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) charity went into mass production with its $188 laptop, the Peruvian government has signed a contract to purchase 260,000 units.

Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and founder of the project, announced the deal on Saturday. He also revealed Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, had ordered 50,000 units for distribution in Mexico.

In November, the OLPC charity contracted Taiwan's Quanta Computer to start producing the green-and-white computer in its new Changshu manufacturing centre, which is located northwest of Shanghai.

The first countries to place mass orders for the rugged green and white laptops were Uruguay and Mongolia.

Ivan Krsti?, the director of security architecture for the OLPC project, said Uruguayan water and mobile phone utility companies have allowed the organisation to plant wireless access points on existing towers to facilitate the laptop's use.

For the first time in Peru's history, the media will not be allowed to be present at a judicial trial.

Peru's television reporters, radio commentators and newspaper journalists will not be in the same room as Alberto Fujimori during his trial and will not see the judiciary proceedings for Peru's former president live.

Reporters will have to cover this event by watching it on a television in a room that is near the courtroom where Alberto Fujimori will be tried. This will not allow reporters to appreciate everything that is happening in the courtroom, reported Peru's La Republica daily.

Peru's Supreme Court has established that the small room where Fujimori is to be tried will only be for family members, national and international observers, authorities and a few people from the general public. The room where the trial is to be held has a capacity of forty-eight people.

According to Peru's La Republica daily, not one journalist or reporter will be allowed in the room where the Justices and Fujimori will be. Furthermore, the news service reported that it was unknown who distributed the seating and under what criteria.

Twenty-eight seats were distributed in the following manner yesterday: nine for family members from the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta case, six to eight for Fujimori's family, five for congressional representatives from Fujimori's party, five for Human Rights NGOs and twelve for the general public.

Seating arrangements change on a daily basis and a different number of seats is allotted to each group every day.

The press has not been included in the seating arrangements. Photographers have been placed behind the forty-eight first seats while all other media watch the trial on closed-circuit television.

The sophisticated design and colorful artwork found in a 4,000-year-old temple unearthed near Peru's northern desert coast suggests that early civilization here was more complex than originally thought, archaeologists said.

Ventarron, a 7,000-square-foot site _ a bit larger than a basketball court _ with painted walls and a white-and-red mural of a deer hunt, points to an "advanced civilization," said the lead archaeologist who excavated the site last week.

"We have the use of a construction material that is not primitive," Walter Alva, a prominent Peruvian archaeologist who headed the government-funded dig, said of the temple's mud bricks, which were made from local river sediments instead of rocks.

The pre-Incan structure's "harmonious" design is typical of later temples and demonstrates remarkable precision: it points due north, Alva said told The Associated Press by telephone.Alva, who led one of Peru's most famous archaeological digs uncovering the Moche Lords of Sipan tombs in the late 1980s, said results from carbon dating conducted in the U.S. show that the Ventarron temple was constructed 4,000 years ago.

Fragments of paint found on the walls and an almost completely intact inner mural show the civilization had "the concept of decoration," Alva said. "This discovery once again supports the rising of complexity early in Peru," said Kit Nelson, a Tulane University archaeology professor who specializes in early desert-dwelling cultures. The find "provides new early dates for the decorating of public architecture and the use of adobe bricks."

Robert Benfer, an archaeologist based at the University of Missouri-Columbia who has studied early Peruvian civilization for more than 30 years, said that many early temples were painted and had murals, but that most were not preserved.

"We're beginning to think they're more common than we used to think. It's all the luck of preservation," Benfer said in a telephone interview with the AP.

Alva said bones of Amazonian parrots and monkeys were found on the site, 405 miles north of the capital, Lima, indicating that Ventarron's society traded with counterparts in Peru's distant jungle. The oldest known city in the Americas is Caral, also near the Peruvian coast, which researchers date to 2627 B.C.

Less than two weeks before Peru's former president, Alberto Fujimori is to begin trial for human rights violations, his wife Satomi Kataoka has broken her silence and affirmed that her husband is not guilty and that she would fight for Fujimori's innocence.

In a television interview, an emotional Kataoka stated she would give her life and fight to prove Alberto Fujimori's innocence.

Despite her emotional affirmations, the Japanese businesswoman has not set foot on Peruvian soil since the former president was extradited to Peru. She has told her husband to continue fighting for his rights and freedom.

"He is a man with strong principles, he's kind and modest, he's so sensitive that he couldn't be described as a man that committed fraud or organized crime," said Fujimori's wife. "I think that's why a great deal of poor people in Peru support him, because he isn't lying."

Despite the fact that Fujimori's lawyer, Cesar Nakasaki has claimed that he requested the trial be postponed, Peru's former president's trial for human rights violations has been set to begin on November 26.

His former adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos has been called as a witness in the trial. The Supreme Court has established that Montesinos does not have the right to remain silent and must testify.

The Mejia Lakes National Sanctuary and Irrigation Iberia, in Arequipa, receive enthusiastic support and technical assistance from the government of Holland.

This article examines natural resource conservation and environmental protection activities funded by the Dutch Embassy in Peru. Our interest is to educate people and institutions so that we can cooperate on improving the quality of life and the quality of place where we live.

The predominant methods of production and patterns of consumption are in no way sustainable. Every day the conflict between economic progress and environmental protection seems to grow more acute. We are destroying the natural environment, using it as if it were an inexhaustible resource, in spite of scientific evidence proving the irreparable damage we are causing. Spreading the word regarding the importance of the environment and the country's resources is a to humanize the processes of development and growth. As the processes of globalization continue, international concern over the environment, cultural diversity and civil society has grown steadily.

The main objective of Holland's policy of cooperation in development is to aid in the fight against poverty. To invest in people means to raise their productive capacities, to improve their ability to meet their basic needs and to help them play a more participatory role in political decision-making.

Starting this year, the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation has decided to reorient its assistance strategy, as well as the focus of its cooperation policies and activities. In the case of Peru, the cooperation program will concentrate on environmental protection over the next few years, while current projects and other commitments run their course. The central objective of the Embassy's environmental program is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the country's natural resources. The specific objectives of the program will be directed toward forest conservation, support for the management of protected areas, the promotion of renewable energy, respect for the identity and territory of the indigenous communities and, finally, capacity-building for Peruvian institutions working on environmental issues.

Princess Beatrice, one of the daughters of Andrew Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York arrived to Alejandro Velasco Astete airport in Cusco, Peru today at 11 a.m. She was accompanied by 4 people, believed to be bodyguards and friends.

A tourist bus picked up Princess Beatrice and took her to a hotel located in the center of the historic city that was anciently the capital of the Inca empire. It was reported that the Princess was visiting Cusco to see the ancient Inca citadel, Machu Picchu.

Princess Beatrice's mother, Sarah Ferguson visited Machu Picchu in 2005. This year the the ancient fortress has received visitors such as Olivia Newton John, Cameron Díaz and Bill Gates.

After a spectacular performance and display of skilled surfing, Peruvian surfer Anali Gomez won the chance to take part in the main event of the ASP Women's World Tour which is to be held in Mancora, Peru this week.

All day yesterday, 12 local Peruvian girls intensely fought for the spot which would allow them the chance to take part in an ASP World Tour event and go up against the best surfers in the world. "We started the day with 12 girls vying for a spot in the event, and although the conditions were somewhat inconsistent, we saw some great surfing," ASP Head Judge Richard Porta said.

Upstart Anali Gomez is the second Peruvian in history in an ASP Women's World Tour event and will face off against Silvana Lima from Brazil and Claire Bevilacqua from Australia in Heat 3 of the first round of the Mancora Peru Classic.

Unfortunately, Anali and former ASP Women’s World Champ Sofia Mulanovich will have to wait at least until tomorrow to kick off the event. The competition had been scheduled to begin today but event organizers at the Mancora Peru Classic called competition off because of small waves and inconsistent conditions.

"The surf has dropped a bit in size and we’re looking at some fairly lengthy lulls between sets so we’ll be calling competition off for today," ASP Head Judge Richard Porta said. "It’s the first day of the waiting period and we’re looking at a possible bump in size over the course of the week so we’ll be back tomorrow to make the call at 7am."

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has not decided whether to vote for a free trade agreement with Peru, a spokesman for the New York senator said on Tuesday.

"Senator Clinton is still reviewing the agreement," Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said in an e-mail.

Congress is nearing final action on the agreement, which the Bush administration concluded nearly two years ago.

The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee will vote on Wednesday on the Peru agreement, setting the stage for votes in the House and the Senate in coming weeks.

U.S. business groups have hoped a big vote in favor of the Peru agreement would help clear the way for more controversial trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

As her party's front-runner, Clinton's decision could influence how many other Democrats view the Peru pact.

Clinton has called for the South Korean agreement to be renegotiated because of its auto provisions, which many Democrats believe are tilted in favor of Seoul.

She has also called for all U.S. trade agreements to be reviewed every five years.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is carrying out a project to help some 80,000 people in Peru affected by an earthquake which caused widespread death and destruction there in August.

The quake affected some 370,000 residents in the central coast of the country, exacerbating conditions caused by months of low temperatures which had resulted in loss of crops, cattle and other means of subsistence.

The $7 million, nine-month operation aims to prevent a deterioration of the nutritional status of the victims, especially children up to two years of age, women and the elderly. It also has a food-for-work component that will help affected residents reconstruct their homes and productive infrastructure, WFP said in a news release.

“Although many people continue to face precarious living and working conditions, food assistance is arriving for those who need it most,” said Guy Gauvreau, WFP's Representative in Peru.

In the first hours after the earthquake, WFP began an immediate response operation which provided some $500,000 worth of assistance in the first two months to 25,000 people.

The new effort is funded by donors as well as the UN's own Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which was set up to close the resource gap that can hamper emergency relief efforts in their early stages.

Two Japanese mining firms will invest up to 1.7 billion dollars in jointly developing copper production bases in Peru and Chile to secure supplies amid growing demand worldwide, a report said Saturday.

Nippon Mining and Metals Co. and Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. plan to build the facilities by 2011 to produce up to 250,000 tonnes of copper ore a year, the leading business newspaper Nikkei reported.

The project will be undertaken by Pan Pacific Copper Co., a joint copper smelting venture set up by the two firms last year.

It will be the biggest nonferrous metal mining endeavor by Japanese companies, the report said.

Copper is a main raw material for electrical wires, cellular phones, personal computers and automotive electronics.

Pan Pacific Copper will develop mines wholly owned by the two firms -- one in Quechua in the Peruvian province of Cusco and the other in Caserones in northern Chile.

In Quechua, production facilities will be built as early as 2010 to produce 70,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year. The entire output will be shipped to Japan to be smelted into copper bullion, which will be mostly supplied to domestic users, the report said.

It added that copper ore production at the Caserones mine would begin in 2011. The annual ore output of 110,000 to 150,000 tonnes will be processed into bullion at a smelting plant to be set up there for sales worldwide.

Pan Pacific Copper, which also produces copper ore at other mines, would boost its annual procurement to 350,000 tonnes when the new mines go into full swing, the daily said.

Japan's copper bullion consumption stands at roughly 1.25 million tonnes a year, Nikkei said.

Worldwide consumption of copper amounted to about 17 million tonnes in 2006, up two percent from 2005, it added.

Pan Pacific Copper shares 40 percent of the domestic market worth one trillion yen (8.5 billion dollars).

Eight hospitals belonging to the Murciano Health Service in Spain, announced that they were to donate two tons of medical supplies and medicine to the victims of Peru's magnitude-8 earthquake on August 15.

This effort was begun by the Health Care General Directorate, when a shipment of supplies was donated by Santa María del Rosell de Cartagena Hospital last September. It was reported that the shipment was brought to Peru with the help of Iberia airlines.

Several other hospitals have joined in the effort to help those affected by the earthquake. Hospitals such as; Virgen de la Arrixaca, Reina Sofía and Morales Meseguer de Murcia, as well as Virgen del Castillo de Yecla, Rafael Méndez de Lorca, Comarcal del Noroeste and Los Arcos de San Javier have gotten supplies together to send to Peru before October 23.

Medication being sent includes flu shots, vaccines for rotavirus and hepatitis B as well as immune serums and pain killers. Among the medical supplies being sent are eyedroppers, catheters, syringes, gauze pads, bandages and other first aid equipment.

Donations are being sent to Peru through José Luis González, a delegate of Peru's embassy in Madrid and the Iberia "Mano a Mano" aid department.

In this era of global interdependence, the international response to the recent devastating earthquake in Peru provides a good example of a coordinated effort to deal with a disaster.

That coordination can be seen between U.S. agencies and departments responding to the crisis, among governments around the world that responded with quick aid, and between governments and nongovernmental groups focused on disaster assistance.

Relief efforts kicked into gear immediately after an 8.0-magnitude quake struck the coast of Peru on August 15, killing more than 500 people, injuring more than 1,800 and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

The quake and several powerful aftershocks destroyed more than 58,000 homes, according to the Peruvian government, forcing many of the survivors in a vast disaster area surrounding the cities of Pisco and Ica to live in the streets.

Officials said the quake had damaged 103 hospitals and destroyed 14 of them. Damage to roads and other infrastructure left remote mountain communities all but inaccessible.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) quickly sprang into action.

A day after the quake, U.S. Ambassador to Peru P. Michael McKinley declared a disaster based on its effects. That prompted USAID to fund the local purchase and transport of emergency relief supplies to the most seriously affected areas. (See related article.)

The agency also deployed a six-person assessment team that, acting jointly with State Department personnel, began monitoring conditions and providing regular updates.

Between September 11 and 13, USAID airlifted from Miami 800 rolls of plastic sheeting to help meet shelter needs. The sheeting was used in a program, funded through USAID and carried out by private relief agencies including CARE, Caritas Internationalis and World Vision, to provide temporary shelter to as many as 4,500 families in four seriously affected provinces.

Those groups also set out to provide water, sanitation and hygiene support where such facilities had been crippled. The Peruvian Corps of Voluntary Firefighters, long a party to a technical assistance and training relationship with USAID, assisted with program implementation.

By September 14, the humanitarian funding provided by USAID had risen to more than $2.5 million.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense contributed another $600,000 in assistance, bringing the total U.S. effort to nearly $3.2 million. Defense Department medical teams provided critical health services in the affected areas, as well as supplies and air support.

On the international front, the U.N. Development Program took charge of a U.N. emergency team, following departure of the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination team initially on the scene. The International Organization for Migration distributed 5,000 winterized tents for the homeless.

Many individual nations and groups of nations played their role in the coordinated relief effort as well.

The European Commission, for example, provided an early 2 million euros (about 2.8 million dollars) in aid, then earmarked another 6 million euros (8.4 million dollars) on September 20.

"There are still more than 250,000 people who … remain displaced without appropriate shelter, or are relocated in temporary shelters with limited access to basic water and sanitation facilities. And they need our aid," said Louis Michel, the European Commissioner in charge of humanitarian aid and development.

The United Kingdom announced on August 30 that it would contribute 750,000 pounds (about 1.5 million dollars), beyond its shares of a fund assembled by the United Nations and of the EC donation.

A range of nongovernmental organizations, many religion-based, also helped.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints provided needed supplies to the stricken area. An air shipment from the church's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, included approximately 80 tons of food, medicine, surgical supplies, hygiene kits and other items.

Aid will continue, said church official Russell Nelson, "because the hearts of the members want to help."

More than a month after the quake, Rick Miller, who coordinates Southern Baptist relief efforts in the area, reported that the Peruvians still "need help with debris removal before they can even begin to rebuild their homes." He deemed continued private relief efforts critical.

Miller noted that his denomination’s help included a contribution from its World Hunger Fund that established community kitchens in 50 locations. Food kits of rice, noodles, lentils and oil are being supplemented locally with potatoes and chicken or fish -- enough to feed 5,000 people for up to two months.

Besides agencies like Oxfam International, an umbrella group for 13 nongovernmental organizations providing traditional assistance, other groups filled their own specialized niches. The Richmond Fellowship Peru, for example, set up a program to provide psychological aid to survivors suffering from post traumatic stress. The Canadian Animal Assistance Team and Amazon Cares joined forces to provide veterinarians and technicians for animals affected by the earthquake.

Congress moved a step closer Tuesday to making Peru the first country to join in a free trade agreement with the U.S. since Democrats took over Congress at the beginning of the year.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a hearing of his committee, hailed the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement as the first to include "meaningful, and fully enforceable, labor and environmental stan-dards." Farming and manufacturing representatives also praised the agreement, and the AFL-CIO’s chief international economist, while not endorsing the deal, said it was an improvement over past trade agreements.

The United States currently buys about $5.9 billion worth of Peruvian products a year, and sells about $2.9 billion worth in Peru. When the agreement is implemented, about 80 percent of U.S. consumer and industrial products and two-thirds of farm exports would immediately enter Peru duty-free.

A majority of Democrats and their key labor and environmental group allies have long been wary of free trade deals, saying they lead to the flight of U.S. jobs abroad, exploitation of foreign workers and depravation of foreign environ-ments.

But the equation changed last May when House Democrats, led by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., negotiated a deal with the administration guaranteeing that labor rights and the environment would be core elements in future trade accords.

Baucus said that as a result, Peruvian workers would be assured the right to organize and bargain collectively and Peruvian children would stay in school rather than work in sweatshops.

Thea Mei Lee, the AFL-CIO economist, said that while the agreement does not address all its worker rights’ con-cerns, it was “an enormous improvement” over past Bush administration agreements with Chile, Singapore, Morocco and others.

She said that AFL-CIO unions were on both sides on the Peru agreement, and it was putting its priorities into oppos-ing two other pending free trade agreements, with Colombia and South Korea.

Senate Democratic leaders have indicated that the Peru agreement could reach the Senate floor by mid to late Octo-ber. Another agreement with Panama could be dealt with this year as well, while the Colombia and South Korea deals are more problematic — Colombia because of human rights issues and South Korea because of its restrictions on U.S. auto and other imports.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, top Republican on the Finance Committee, cited estimates that the Peru agreement would result in a 25 percent boost in U.S. exports and 8 percent growth in Peruvian exports.

David Winkles, member of the American Farm Bureau Federation trade advisory committee, told the panel that U.S. agriculture exports to Peru, currently around $223 million a year, could jump by more than $700 million.

But Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, said in an interview that it would also “displace millions of peasant farmers in Peru.” She said many labor and environmental groups with ties to Democrats are “basi-cally infuriated that Democrats are going to consider passing more Bush NAFTA deals,” referring to the North Ameri-can Free Trade Agreement. “They are putting a new roof on a condemned building.”

Several at the hearing, including Lee and former Clinton administration trade chief Mickey Kantor, stressed that Americans will only support free trade if there is clear evidence that the administration is enforcing promised labor and environmental standards.

"What we have right now are the right words on paper,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. “That’s not enough."

Ecologists have photographed a little-known nomadic tribe deep in Peru's Amazon, a sighting that could intensify debate about the presence of isolated Indians as oil firms line up to explore the jungle.

Carrying arrows and living in palm-leaf huts on the banks of the Las Piedras river, the tribe was glimpsed last week by researchers flying over the Alto Purus national park near the Brazilian border to look for illegal loggers.


"We saw them by chance. There were three huts and about 21 Indians -- children, women and young people," said Ricardo Hon, a forest scientist at the National Institute of Natural Resources.

Hon said an indigenous group using the same kind of huts was seen in the region in the 1980s, and advocacy groups said they appeared to be part of the Mascho Piro tribe.

The sighting of the indigenous group comes as Peru's government is encouraging foreign companies to look for oil in the rainforest.
Environmental and Indian rights groups firmly oppose the exploration in the remote jungle area about 550 miles east of Lima, the South American country's coastal capital.

Indigenous people who have shunned contact with the rest of society are believed to live within some of the dozens of parcels being auctioned across the country for petroleum prospecting, some of them in the Amazon.

"The Peruvian government is actively promoting oil and gas exploration in areas where uncontacted tribes live," said David Hill, a researcher with London-based advocacy group Survival International.

The organization estimates that up to 15 isolated tribes live in Peru, the most after Brazil and Papua in Indonesia.

Peru's state oil company PetroPeru says it considers tribes that shy away from outsiders to be safe as they live in protected reserve areas, which are excluded from petroleum auctions. But its president, Daniel Saba, was criticized earlier this year for saying the notion of hidden tribes was "absurd."

Rights groups say nomadic tribes travel in and out of national parks depending on the season, and encroaching loggers or oil company workers could expose them to deadly diseases. In the past, disease halved many Amazon tribal populations.

Documenting how many isolated groups exist is notoriously difficult because some tribes have hidden deeper in the forest or moved to new locations after brief encounters with outsiders.

"Quite a few groups have probably made a conscious choice to retreat and not build long-term relations with newcomers," said Suzanne Oakdale, an anthropology professor at the University of New Mexico.

"Often, 'uncontacted tribes' means uncontacted by a government institution, but the groups have long and complicated histories with other people," she said.

Canadian volunteers are going to Peru to help survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake that devastated the central coast of the South American country. But these medical specialists will tend to often-overlooked survivors: pets.

More than 500 people were killed and 1,000 injured when the quake levelled buildings, highways and 34,000 homes on Aug. 15.

The Canadian Animal Assistance Team (CAAT) is sending 31 volunteer veterinarians and technicians to the country next week to treat Peruvians' wounded animal companions.

Vancouver technician Donna Lasser founded CAAT in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and sent 82 volunteers to Louisiana to provide pet care in the fall of 2005.

Two teams are now headed to the Peruvian communities of Ica and Pisca for a week each.

"We're not involved in retrieval or rescue, but once the pets have been rescued we're there for triage, we put them back together," said Dr. Bill Ignacio of Granville Island Veterinary Hospital. "What we are hoping to do is get these animals back to their families."

For advocates of free trade, Peru offers a glimmer of hope.

Negotiators are ironing out a few kinks, but Bush administration officials and congressional staffers expect a free-trade agreement with Peru to go before Congress later this month. It could become the first bilateral agreement to be approved by a Democratic-controlled Congress since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993.

"I'm all in favor of momentum," said Bill Reinsch of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business group that promotes open trade. "I'm going to take as many as I can get."

An agreement with Panama is expected to go to Congress soon after the Peru pact, but higher-stakes deals are still stuck, as Democrats block agreements with Colombia and South Korea.

The Doha round of world trade talks shows few signs of life. The once-promising Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative is a fading memory, and Democrats have refused to renew a special presidential trade-promotion authority, TPA, making it hard to sign more pacts.

This has prompted administration officials to issue dire warnings.

"Members of Congress need to understand that a `no' vote on any one of these (free-trade agreements) will not create a single job in the United States or sell a single pound of meat or a single piece of medical equipment or software," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told an "FTA rally" last Monday (Sept. 10) on Capitol Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was less diplomatic.

"You switch the control of Congress and what do you get?" he asked an audience last week at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Expiration of TPA, no Peru, no Panama, no Colombia, no Korea. Elections have consequences."

A decade ago, the Americas were supposed to be a showcase for trade liberalization. But differences over agricultural subsidies and rifts between liberal and conservative currents have stalled trade talks, experts say.

Trade negotiations between the European Union and Latin American nations have made little progress. Grand schemes of South American integration have produced lofty declarations but few tangible results. On top of all this, Asian countries are busy eliminating barriers to commerce among one another, which experts warn will put the Americas at a further disadvantage on the world stage.

A few years ago, the Bush administration was forging ahead on free trade, signing deals with such countries as Chile, Australia, Singapore and much of Central America, plus the Dominican Republic.

U.S. officials forecast that more than 90 percent of the production of the Americas would come under a free-trade umbrella once deals with Peru, Panama and Colombia were finished.

But Democrats said the Bush administration had ignored their concerns about labor and environmental issues. So when Democrats took over Congress last January, Schwab negotiated with key members such as Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a new framework that included tougher labor and environment language and fewer protections for patented medicines.

Still, Congress took no action before its summer recess. Colombia, the closest U.S. ally in South America and the recipient of more than $5 billion in U.S. aid, was criticized for the killings of labor activists by armed groups.

To satisfy the Democrats, Peru agreed to change its labor and environmental regulations. Violations can be subject to punitive tariffs.

"This mechanism will ensure that the labor and environmental provisions are not merely paper tigers," Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said at a hearing where he stated his support for the deal. "I intend to make sure that the administration enforces them vigorously."

Eyeing tougher deals down the road, the Bush administration is pushing the Peru deal hard, casting it as a way to reward moderate leftist President Alan Garcia.

"This is a time to step it up," said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who took a delegation of nine lawmakers to Peru, Colombia and Panama last week. "It's good for exports, good for the economy and good for leaving a solid record for the future as to how we treat our friends and how we treat our allies."

Gutierrez argues that U.S. exports have risen faster to countries that have signed free-trade agreements with the United States. He points out that the United States is running a trade surplus with five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic after enacting CAFTA, as the free-trade agreement with those nations is called.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, warned that failure to pass the Peru deal would "empower leaders like (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez who are antagonistic to the United States."

Still, many Democrats aren't impressed. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said "the Peru FTA continues our nation's failed trade policy" and criticized the deals as "job killing."

So far, Democrats aren't giving any sign that they're proceeding on pacts with Colombia, the second most populous nation in South America, or South Korea, a trillion-dollar economy. The AFL-CIO, which has strong lobbying clout among Democrats, is neutral on the Peru deal but "very much opposed" to Colombia and South Korea, said Thea Lee, the labor organization's policy director.

Colombia isn't doing enough on the human rights front, Lee said, with only 37 convictions in 2,200 union deaths since 1991. Korea, she said, places too many non-market barriers to U.S. manufactured goods, especially autos.

Douglas Eugene "Gene" Savoy, an explorer who discovered more than 40 lost cities in Peru and led long-distance sailing adventures to learn more about ancient cultures, has died. He was 80.

Savoy died of natural causes Tuesday at his Reno home, his family said Saturday.

Dubbed the "real Indiana Jones" by People magazine, Savoy was credited with finding four of Peru's most important archaeological sites, including Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas from the Spanish Conquistadors.

Hiram Bingham considered Machu Picchu to be the site of Vilcabamba after he discovered it in 1911 in the Peruvian Andes. But scientific consensus now points toward Espiritu Pampa as the Incas' last stronghold; Bingham also discovered that site but Savoy's excavation work in the mid-1960s found it to be a much larger settlement than originally realized.

In the next 40 years in the jungles of Peru, Savoy discovered more than 40 stone cities of a mysterious pre-Inca civilization known as the Chachapoyas. Among them were Gran Pajaten, Gran Vilaya and Gran Saposoa.

"Scientists thought the existence of these cities and settlements in the Peruvian rainforest was all a myth until my father found them," his son Sean Savoy said. "His discoveries opened up a whole new area of jungle archaeology that didn't exist before."

He said his father suffered hepatitis, was bitten by snakes and chased by guerrilla soldiers during his explorations.

Savoy also took to the sea to test his theories that the Incas, Aztecs and other ancient civilizations had contact with each other. From 1977 to 1982, he used a 60-foot schooner to research possible trade routes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Savoy wrote dozens of books, including 1970's "Antisuyo: The Search for the Lost Cities of the Amazon" about his early discoveries in Peru, and 1974's "On the Trail of the Feathered Serpent" about some of his sea journeys.

But the bulk of his books and articles concerned another consuming passion: religion.

As founder of a new theology known as "Cosolargy," he established the International Community of Christ, Church of the Second Advent. He taught that the Second Coming of Christ had already become a living reality through a miraculous celestial event.

Savoy was born in Bellingham, Wash., and served as a Navy gunner during World War II. He later was a journalist and newspaper editor in Portland, Ore.

He moved to Reno in 1971 and founded the Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club based in that city. The nonprofit organization sponsored many of his explorations.

Among other awards, he was honored with medals from the Peruvian Senate and the Peruvian Ministry of Industry and Tourism in the late 1980s. The city of Reno proclaimed "Gene Savoy Day" in October 1996.

Survivors include his children, Gene Jr., Sean and Sylvia Jamila Savoy, and three granddaughters.

The 7th Latin American Travel Trade Mart – BIT Peru 2007 – will be held in the JW Marriott Hotel Lima, on September 17 and 18. This year, the event will launch the Luxury Collection & Incentives business area, thus becoming the first South American event aimed at promoting this kind of tourism to and within the region. BIT Peru 2007 has already over 60 main buyers from Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, the United States, Canada and Europe, as well as from Peru, and the participation of around 50 sellers from Argentina (Les Amis, Luxury Turismo); Chile (Sky Airline, CL Mundo, Park Travel, Villarrica Park Lake Hotel, Imperio Suites Hotel, Euro Rent a Car, Programa Patagonia); Brasil (EMBRATUR/Comité Descubra Brasil, Gipsy Tours, Casa Grande Hotel Resort Spa, Guarujá CVB,) Bolivia (CANOTUR, Eba Transtur, Queen Travel, Turisbus, Millenarian Tourism Travel, Gloria Tours, Cade Tours, Todo Turismo), Colombia (Hotel Santa Mónica) and Perú (Orient-Express, JW Marriott Hotel Lima, Inkaterra Machu Picchhu Hotel, Hatuchay Tower Machu Picchu Hotel, Picoaga Hotel; Thunderbird Hoteles Las Américas, Lima Tours, Inbound Peru, Amazon Rainforest Lodge, Inkari Tours, Mountain Lodges of Peru, Globos de los Andes).

Peru's economy expanded for a 24th straight quarter in the April-through-June period on increased government and consumer spending.

Gross domestic product grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, in line with the 7.5 percent median forecast from eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey. In the first half of the year, Peru's GDP rose 7.7 percent, the National Statistics Institute said today in an e-mailed statement.

As Peru heads toward a six straight year of growth averaging 5.6 percent, revenue from a surge in metals prices has prompted the government to expand building projects for roads, bridges and public housing. Job creation and rising wages are also spurring demand for homes and cars.

``The economy is dynamic and stands out regionally,'' Andres Milla, head of SAB Credibolsa, Peru's largest brokerage, said in an interview. ``We're growing faster than 7 percent due to not only high metals prices but also rapidly rising consumer demand, with industry and construction posting double-digit growth.''

Construction rose by one-fifth, while electricity rose 11 percent, manufacturing grew 10.5 percent and retail sales rose 7.5 percent, the institute said. Copper rose 15 percent, zinc rose by one-quarter, and natural gas jumped by one-half.
``The Peruvian strong growth story has carried on unscathed,'' Luis Arcentales, an economist in New York at Morgan Stanley, wrote in an Aug. 27 report. ``The impact in terms of growth from the tragic earthquake that hit Peru's Ica region is likely to be limited.''

Earthquake Reconstruction
Companies could speed up construction and energy projects to help rebuild the south coast after the country's deadliest earthquake in 30 years killed 519 and left 80,000 homeless on Aug. 15, Jaime Caceres, president of Peru's biggest business association, Confiep, told state news agency Andina.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia yesterday urged businesses to bring forward investment plans in a bid to match last year's 8 percent economic growth.

Endesa SA, Spain's largest power company, will expand installed capacity in Peru, chairman Manuel Pizarro told reporters in Lima after meeting with Garcia.

The Peruvian sol was unchanged at 3.1655 soles to the dollar. The sol has gained 0.9 percent this year.

Peru's National Statistics Institute (INEI) reported that visits to Machu Picchu increased by 13.1 percent during the month of May.

47,192 tourists, foreign and native, visited "The Lost City of the Incas" in Peru. When compared to the number of visitors Machu Picchu had in May 2006, a 13.1 percent increase can be seen.

Peru's INEI reported that this is the sixth consecutive month in which tourism to the Inca Citadel has increased. INEI informed that this growth can be attributed to the mass amount of publicity and campaigns, national and international, that have been organized encouraging tourists to visit Machu Picchu.

The ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are considered by some, to be the most beautiful ancient sites in the Americas. Machu Picchu, meaning Old Peak in Quechua, is an Inca city located about 70 km northwest of Cusco.

Machu Picchu is 2,430 m.a.s.l (7,970 f.a.s.l), atop a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru.

Congress will give priority treatment to approval of a trade pact with Peru when it reconvenes in September, the head of the House Ways and Means Committee said Monday.

"It is a priority when we return to the Congress in September," Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, told reporters after meeting with President Alan Garcia.

Rangel was accompanied on his visit to Lima, Peru by Democratic Reps. Sander Levin from Michigan and Allyson Schwartz from Pennsylvania.

Rangel said he was bringing "the total support" of the leaders of both parties in the House and the Senate for "for moving this free trade agreement forward."

Peru and U.S. trade negotiators agreed on a trade pact in April 2006 and it was ratified by Peru's Congress two months later. But its approval has been held up in the Democrat-controlled Congress, where some lawmakers worry that pending trade deals with Peru and other countries could jeopardize American jobs.

Peru has been working to appease Democratic congressmen about their doubts over what they see as a lack of protection for Peruvian workers.

Rangel said he had been favorably impressed with Garcia's commitment to labor rights.

Yale has agreed to turn over to Peru an inventory of artifacts that explorer Hiram Bingham III carted back with him to New Haven after excavating Machu Picchu, the "lost" city of the Incas, in the Andean mountains nearly a century ago.

The breakthrough, which may ultimately help decide who gets to keep the ancient Incan artifacts, was reached this summer under Peru's new president, who appears willing to settle the dispute without resorting to the lawsuit threatened by his predecessor.

Peru's housing minister is expected to lead a delegation of Peruvians to New Haven next month to continue talks with Yale.

"Why should we pursue a lawsuit?" said Vladimír Kocerha, a spokesman for the Peruvian Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Things are progressing. We are talking to them. They are talking to us."

At stake are about 300 museum-quality pieces - skeletons, ceramic