Lima, Feb 4 - The Oscar nomination of Peru's "La Teta Asustada" (Milk of Sorrow) has generated a lot of excitement in the Andean nation, media reports said.

Claudia Llosa's "La Teta Asustada" became Peru's first film to be nominated at the Oscars in the foreign language category. The film was one of the five nominees in that category.

"Peru in the Oscars", "Peru on Display" and "Nominated to Make History", were some of the headlines splashed on Lima dailies Wednesday.

Lima, Dec 8 :Five people were killed Monday in an explosion and subsequent fire at their home in Lima that was apparently caused by fireworks, police said.

The home in a slum of Lima's San Juan de Miraflores district was apparently being used to store gunpowder set to be sold over Christmas and New Year's.

Fireworks are typically used in Latin America, as in other parts of the world, during year-end celebrations.

The victims, who included a three-year-old girl, were reportedly part of the same family.(DPA)

Lima - Peru was in shock over allegations that a criminal gang killed people - perhaps as many as 60 - with the motive of rendering the fat from their bodies for sale to companies that make cosmetics.

Some experts have cast doubts on the horror story.

Human fat, once prized for cosmetics and medicinal uses, was collected in past centuries from the bodies of executed prisoners, a dark piece of history that may have inspired the gang.

Lima - A Peruvian criminal gang is suspected of killing dozens of peasants in order to sell their tissue for use in beauty products, local media reported overnight.

Four suspected members of a gang known as Los Pishtacos - a word referring to a devil who kills to take the fat of his victims - have been detained, while seven remain at large.

Police earlier seized a package containing human fat at the premises of a Lima transport company operating between several provinces.

Trujillo, Peru - "Life will punish those who react too late" is a quote by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that could easily apply to archaeologists in Peru. Grave robbers, or Huaqueros as they are known here, often plunder ancient tombs before archaeologists have a chance to protect them. But despite the damage caused to the country's ancient heritage, visitors will still find plenty to discover in this South American nation.

Lima (Peru), November 9 : An archaeological excavation has uncovered the mummy of a young priestess, a member of the elite, with several precious items dating from the period of 300-450 AD in Cahuachi, Peru.

According to a report in Travel Culture History News, the mummy was found inside a series of rooms between the Great Pyramid and what is known as the Orange Pyramid.

The building would have formed a small temple that had 4 columns holding up its roof.

Giuseppe Orefici, director of the Nasca Project, said that the archaeologists had to remove a layer or reeds and ropes that covered the burial.

The body appeared to have been painted and found with an additional vertebra added.

Lima (Peru), November 9 : An archaeological excavation has uncovered the mummy of a young priestess, a member of the elite, with several precious items dating from the period of 300-450 AD in Cahuachi, Peru.

According to a report in Travel Culture History News, the mummy was found inside a series of rooms between the Great Pyramid and what is known as the Orange Pyramid.

The building would have formed a small temple that had 4 columns holding up its roof.

Giuseppe Orefici, director of the Nasca Project, said that the archaeologists had to remove a layer or reeds and ropes that covered the burial.

The body appeared to have been painted and found with an additional vertebra added.

Lima  - Peru beat Bolivia 1-0 Wednesday in Lima in a clash between the two weakest teams in the South American World Cup qualifiers.

Both Bolivia and Peru had long been out of the race for a place in South Africa 2010.

Johan Fano scored the lone goal in the 53rd minute of a very poor-quality match.

Brazil, Paraguay and Chile have already qualified for the World Cup. Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador were playing later Wednesday, with one last berth and the chance to take part in a play-off still at stake.  dpa

Lima  - Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison for illegal wiretapping and embezzlement during his 2000 re-election campaign.

Fujimori, 71, had pled guilty Monday on all charges related to the embezzlement, the attempted bribery of politicians and journalists and illegal wiretapping during the campaign. The move prevented further details of the crimes from coming out during testimony.

Lima - Two Peruvian soldiers were killed when members of the Maoist Shining Path rebel group shot down down an air force helicopter, the Ministry of Defence in Lima said Thursday.

The incident happened over a densely forested area on Wednesday, some 400 kilometres east of the capital, as the aircraft was engaged on a mission to rescue soldiers injured in an earlier firefight.

One further soldier was injured, the ministry said.

Washington  - In the coming decades, population growth in less-developed countries will continue to exceed growth in the developed world, a trend linked to the differing challenges and opportunities facing young women, a population expert said Wednesday.

Using Peru, Zambia and Mali as examples, James Gribble of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based non-governmental research organization, highlighted the varied situations young women face in countries at different stages of development and their effect on populations.

Buenos Aires  - The first cases of swine flu have been confirmed in an Amazonian indigenous community, the London-based Survival International said Wednesday.

Experts fear that the new flu may have particularly devastating consequences for indigenous communities as they have "no immunity to outside diseases."

Lima - An assault on a police station Sunday in Peru left at least five people dead.

Peruvian police blamed the attack on members of the Maoist guerilla group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, acting in the employ of narcotics traffickers.

The one-hour firefight occurred in a forested part of the southern province of Huanta, a hotbed of drug activity.

Lima - At least 16 people were killed in a bus accident Friday in Peru, police said.

The bus, carrying 56 passengers, plunged down a ravine in Cusco Province. A number of other passengers were injured.

Police said they could not rule out finding more bodies in the ravine. It was not known why the driver lost control of the bus.

Frequent bus accidents in Peru are often blamed on technical deficiencies in the vehicles.(dpa)

Lima - The Peruvian capital Lima, where it almost never rains, was struggling Tuesday on the third day of downpour that has sent cars sliding and pedestrians tumbling.

The rains started on Sunday, and show no signs of letting up until Friday, challenging the 8 million people living in the Pacific coastal city to deal with slippery streets and sidewalks.

The last time the city saw so much rain was in the 1970s, the Peruvian weather service reported.

Lima - Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was on Monday sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on corruption charges.

Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, was found guilty of using government funds to pay his intelligence advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos, 15 million dollars.

At the trial, Fujimori admitted to having given Montesinos the money. However, the former president - who holds both Peruvian and Japanese citizenship - refused to acknowledge his conduct as criminal.

Lima - Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was in hospital to undergo cardiological and oncological tests, Peru's National Institute for Neoplastic Illnesses
(INEN) said Tuesday in Lima.

Doctors were trying to bring under control Fujimori's apparent hypertension.

Lima (Peru), July 13 : A team of archaeologists has discovered an Inca road in Peru, which was unknown until now and apparently held sacred, leading to the citadel of Machu Picchu.

According to a report in Today's News, the discovery was made by archaeologists from the Peru National Culture Institute and technicians from Jaume I University in Castellon, Spain.

The Inca road is made of stone masonry approximately 1 meter (3 1/4 feet) wide, with sustaining walls along the way rising some 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) high, according to a communique from the Project Ukhupacha.

Several stretches of the road have collapsed that began at what is now the Wuarqtambo archaeological premises.

Lima - Peruvian President Alan Garcia was on Thursday looking to appoint a new Cabinet chief, after Prime Minister Yehude Simon resigned hours earlier.

Education Minister Jose Antonio Chang, a 51-year-old industrial engineer of Chinese descent, was being mentioned as Simon's most likely successor, although Garcia refused to confirm it.

"I don't know anything. That is what newspapers are saying, but I still haven't heard anything," Garcia laughed and said, when reporters asked him about Simon's replacement.

Lima  - A head-on collision between two buses in Peru killed at least 23 people on Thursday, the police said.

A further 30 passengers were injured in the crash in the Lampa region of southern Peru.

One of the buses entered the opposite lane at high speed and hit a bus coming from the other direction.

The force of the collision ripped one of the buses in half. (dpa)