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.

Lima

Lima- Two soldiers were killed and another five injured in an attack by militants of the Maoist Shining Path group in southern Peru, local media reported Wednesday, citing the country's military.

The attack in the central mountain area of Vizcatan in the Ayacucho region was the second in less than a week. On October 9, thirteen soldiers and two civilians were killed in an attack in the same area.

Lima - Peruvian President Alan Garcia accepted the resignations of his entire cabinet Friday in the face of a brewing corruption scandal over petroleum concessions.

"This cabinet will leave with their heads high, and Peru will reflect on the good work that they have contributed," Garcia said. "The road ahead of us is wide open."

Lima - An ambush by alleged remnants of the leftist armed group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) claimed the lives of 12 soldiers and seven civilians in Peru's central mountains, the Peruvian Armed Forces said Friday.

The ambush happened Thursday in the Tayacaja province, in the Huancavelica region, some 445 kilometres east of Lima, as the soldiers were returning in four trucks along with some local civilians from an event in the town of Tintaypuncu.

Lima - The entire Peruvian cabinet handed in their resignations en masse to President Alan Garcia on Thursday over corruption allegations.

Jorge del Castillo, head of the Peruvian Council of Ministers, and all the cabinet members offered to resign at a time when Congress is making progress on a vote of no-confidence against them.

A rare union of opposition legislators is likely to allow the no- confidence vote to pass with 70 votes in favour, when only 61 are required, analysts said.