UNPOPULAR President Alejandro Toledo has declared a state of emergency across Peru, promising to send out the armed forces to help rein in a wave of violent strikes that has crippled transit and public services in a new challenge to a stormy presidency.

AT least 25 people died and 100 were injured in the early hours of yesterday morning in a blaze started by bartenders who were doing tricks with fire at an unlicensed Lima nightclub.

US President George W Bush has made the first visit by an American head of state to Peru three days after a car bombing near the US Embassy killed nine people.

Peru’s president has vowed to use a ‘‘heavy hand’’ to put down terrorism in his country after a car bomb blast outside the US Embassy killed nine people.

Peru's president says he will use a "heavy hand" to fight terrorism after a car bomb blast outside the US Embassy killed nine people.

At least six people were killed and 30 injured today by a car bomb outside the US embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital, officials said.

Exploding rockets and popping fireworks streaked through the Lima sky as Peruvians rang in the New Year - two days after a firecracker sparked the country’s deadliest fire on record.

Firefighters in Peru have retrieved 276 bodies from the rubble of a massive blaze sparked by a fireworks explosion.

Leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal have opened their annual Ibero-American summit in Peru.