Panama flooding kills nine people
At least nine people - seven of them children - have died in flooding in and near the capital of Panama.

The authorities say at least 13 people are still missing after heavy rainfall caused rivers to break their banks.

More than 2,500 inhabitants of Panama City were evacuated; flooding and mudslides damaged more than 600 houses.

President Martin Torrijos declared a state of emergency and announced the creation of a fund to help victims of the disaster.


He said it was too early to decide whether to appeal for international help as the full extent of the damage was not yet apparent.

Many of those killed or made homeless by the floods lived in poor housing close to the banks of the Rio Cabra, authorities said.

Among the dead were three brothers reportedly buried in a mudslide in the crowded San Miguelito district.

President Torrijos, who is due to travel to a UN General Assembly session in New York on Sunday, described the floods as a "human tragedy".
 

Leader of Colombia's paramilitary group shot dead
Miguel Arroyave, chief of a faction of the paramilitary Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC),has been killed in an ambush in the country's central-south province of Meta, authorities said Monday.

Bodies of Arroyave and his four bodyguards were found near the rural town of Puerto Lleras, some 170 km south of Bogota, the authorities said, adding that they might be killed by fellow members of the AUC.

Arroyave, who commanded AUC's largest faction with 5,000 members, was one of the 10 AUC leaders participating in the peace talks with the government before the ambush and he had announced the demobilization of his members based in the provinces of Meta, Arauca and Cundinamarca.

The peace talks are central to President Alvaro Uribe's plans to disband the 20,000- member paramilitary group by 2005, as a step to end the 40-year-old civil war in which leftist rebels, far-right paramilitaries and governmental troops have fought one another, with an average of 3,500 people killed every year.

The peace talks were held in a protected zone in northern Colombia and Arroyave returned to Meta Sunday to discuss with his men on peace-related matters.
 

At least 20 die in shipwreck in Brazilian Amazon
At least 20 people died during the shipwreck of Princess Laura, occurred on the Black River, 60 km from Manaos, capital city of the Brazilian state, Amazon, local press said Monday.

The three-floor ship left on Saturday from Barcellos district, 400 km from Manaos, and wrecked on Sunday afternoon near to Buiucu, the world's biggest bay of freshwater.

The ship did not sink completely because it carried a lot of piacava, a natural fiber used to make brooms, which kept the ship floating.

Until this moment 93 survivors were rescued, but there is no information about how many people were in the ship. The search are still underway on Monday.

"It was so fast that we can not explain how it happened. Did you see the Titanic movie with the people falling? It was exactly like that", said one survivor to the press.

According to witnesses, a heavy rainfall and wind turned the ship and the strength of the current took the boat for almost 500 meters.

Many people could not leave because in this kind of regional boats, the cargo, the baggage and the passengers go all together. The rescue team still could not reach the cabins that were plunged.

"It is possible that we have a much bigger number of casualties", the Harbor Captaincy admitted.