Lima  - For a Peruvian, an Asian face has few connotations of something foreign: it is frequently the face of a schoolmate, the corner shopkeeper or the neighbourhood buddy.

This is the setting that is greeting delegates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, as they tackle their annual Leaders' Meeting this weekend.

And although there are representatives of other world regions among the 21 delegations at the summit, it is Asians - with economic powerhouses like Japan, China and South Korea - that play a key role in APEC.

Lima  - Outgoing US President George W Bush stressed ahead of his trip to Peru to attend the annual APEC Leaders' Meeting that he has not neglected relations with Latin America, as many critics have claimed.

"I care about our Latin American neighbours," he noted in an exclusive interview that the Peruvian daily El Comercio published in Spanish on Friday.

Lima  - Foreign and trade ministers from the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum held their first meeting in Lima Wednesday ahead of the weekend summit.

The ministers were to give the final touches to the agenda as well as drafts of two declarations that leaders are set to sign Sunday.

Twelve issues are to be discussed at the summit, including the state of the global economy, support for the World Trade Organization, regional economic integration, corporate social responsibility, trade liberalization and the fight against corruption.

Lima - There are many photographs of US President George W Bush and former Russian president Vladimir Putin talking, and even smiling. But only a few show them in traditional Vietnamese clothes.

Such is the original contribution that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has made to the so often dull-looking world of diplomacy: a bit of colour, and the chance to see world leaders in a more self-conscious light.

Lima - Peruvian Police colonel Oswaldo Alfaro, who was to be in charge of security at the 16th summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, was removed from the job a week before the gathering that is set to be held in Lima, Peruvian media reported Friday.

New Interior Minister Remigio Hernani was said to have removed Alfaro along with all other officials with ties to former head of police Octavio Salazar, a personal rival whom he has already dismissed.

Washington, Oct 30: Archaeologists have discovered a 3,000-year-old temple featuring an image of a spider god in Peru, which may hold clues to little-known cultures in the ancient past of the country.

People of the Cupisnique culture, which thrived from roughly 1500 to 1000 B. C., built the temple in the Lambayeque valley on Peru''s north coast.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the adobe temple, found this summer and called Collud, is the third discovered in the area in recent years.

"The finds suggest that the three valley sites may have been part of a large capital for divine worship," said archaeologist Walter Alva, director of the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum.