The minibus plunged down a 15-meter deep chasm, when the vehicle was negotiating a curve on the road Motupe-Cruz de Chapon and the brakes failed.

The passengers had attended a religious celebration and were returning to Ilimo, a town in the Lambayeque department and 750 km northeast of the capital Lima.

The wounded had been sent to different hospitals in the region, police said.

Panama to hold G-77 chairmanship in second half of 2004
Panama was unanimously elected chairman of the Group of 77 (G-77) in the second half of 2004 by the bloc's members, the Panamanian Foreign Minister said in a statement Wednesday.

As the G-77 chairman, Panama will lead the bloc in promoting multilateral economic and social cooperation, the statement said. 　

G-77 was established in 1964 by 77 developing countries to boost their unity and cooperation and push for the establishment of a new international economic order. It now has 132 members. This year coincides with the bloc's 40th anniversary.
 

Paramilitary group frees former senator in Colombia
A former Colombian senator, kidnapped with his family Sunday by a faction of the paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), was freed Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Jose Gnecco was handed over to a commission of the Colombian army between two towns in Sierra Nevada, near the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, said police commander Col. Oscar Gamboa of the northern Magdalena department.

"He has already been freed and delivered to a commission formed by the army, who is with him," the police chief added.

Gnecco was kidnapped with his wife and five children, along with his driver and a niece, in a road that links Santa Marta and Riohacha in northern Colombia.

All of them except Gnecco were released Tuesday morning.

AUC, which claimed responsibility for the abduction, said the former senator was released in Santa Marta so as not to hamper the peace negotiations that will begin Thursday between the paramilitary organization and the Colombian government.

The organization, mainly funded by landowners and drug dealers, was founded in April 1997 to fight left-wing guerrillas who also try to control plantations and sales of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine.
 

Paraguay's coup plotter jailed after returning from exile
Former Paraguayan army chief Lino Oviedo was arrested Tuesday at Paraguay's capital airport on charges of plotting a coup and murder after five years in exile.

Gen. Oviedo, 61, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a failed coup in 1996, was ferried away by helicopter to a military jail upon his arrival at Asuncion airport, reports reaching here from the Paraguayan capital said.

"I return to my homeland to prove my innocence," said the former strongman, who fled to Brazil in 1999 and had since lived there.

Hundreds of Oviedo supporters were kept two km away from the airport, which was surrounded by police and security forces.

The former army chief was accused of plotting a coup attempt against the then President Juan Carlos Wasmosy in 1996. He also faced charges of masterminding the 1999 assassination of Vice President Luis Argana, a crime that triggered mass demonstrations and bloodshed in the country of 5.6 million people.

Oviedo has said he wanted to clear his name to stand in the 2008 presidential election and he would use a Brazilian Supreme Court's ruling to defend himself. The court refused an extradition request by the Paraguayan government in 2001, saying there was insufficient evidence.

Paraguay, a poor South American country, suffered several political crises after a civilian regime was restored in 1989.