peru

Around the world, rates of teen pregnancy have been dropping for decades.But in Latin America, rates of teenage motherhood remain stubbornly high. Today…

Earlier this year, a 51-year-old Mexican man named Isidro Baldenegro López was shot to death in Mexico’s Chihuahua state.Mr. López was a well-known…

They survive by hunting and gathering in the forest or by cultivating gardens with handmade tools. In some cases, they don't wear clothing and speak…

They survive by hunting and gathering in the forest or by cultivating gardens with handmade tools. In some cases, they don't wear clothing and speak…

Missouri and Peru have agreed to trade $300 million worth of products over the next four years.Economic Development Director Mike Downing signed the pact…

For centuries people have lived and worked in a part of coastal Peru spotted with oddly shaped hills. Most knew that the mounds were man made, but were…

Updated 1:20 p.m. August 1 with reopening of smelter The Doe Run Peru smelter in La Oroya, which had been clsoed due to financial and environmental compliance issues since 2009, resumed zinc processing operations over the weekend. Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Merino Tafur, is reported to have said that lead smelting would also resume in the not too distant future. Restarting copper production would likely take longer, since that would require building a plant to control sulfuric acid emissions. Doe Run Peru is owned by the Renco Group, which also owns the St. Louis-based Doe Run Resources Corporation. The metal smelting companies in Missouri and Peru have operated independently since 2007. Updated 10:51 a.m. July 20 to clarify ownership of smelter. Original story posted July 19, 2012. Missouri lead producer Doe Run is back under scrutiny for pollution resulting from metal smelting operations by its former subsidiary in Peru. A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives heard testimony today about the environmental and health effects of pollution from the Peruvian smelter — and discussed the joint responsibility of Doe Run and the Peruvian government for cleaning it up. Saint Louis University environmental health expert Fernando Serrano has studied environmental pollution near the Doe Run Peru smelter — and its impacts on about 35,000 people in and around the small town of La Oroya. “And the results indicated that practically the entire population of La Oroya was exposed to elevated levels of toxic metals,” Serrano said. Serrano says residents’ blood levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic exceeded any acceptable health standards. He says the soils in the entire valley around the smelter are still highly contaminated. St. Louis-based Doe Run said it would not be appropriate for it to comment on this story because it no longer owns the Peru facility. The company owned the Peruvian smelter for about a decade starting in 1997. Both the St. Louis-based Doe Run Resources Corporation and Doe Run Peru are owned by The Renco Group, which is embroiled in litigation related to environmental contamination in La Oroya. The Renco Group also declined to comment. The smelter has operated in La Oroya since 1922 but has been closed since 2009.

MU professor emeritus of anthropology Robert Benfer has discovered rare animal-shaped mounds in Peru. The mounds are three to five thousand years old.MU’s…