A random spurt of smoke from a dry ice machine precedes Simon Amstell's appearance on the stage of the Reading Hexagon tonight. It's a mistake, of course. The wily charms of the 32 year old are not requiring of a pumped pomp, nor of any other obvious theatrics.

Paddington Bear is swapping darkest Peru for the bright lights of Hollywood after plans were announced to bring the character to the big screen.

Nearly three weeks after Cesar Vilca disappeared while fighting Shining Path rebels, his father has brought his body home after hiking into dense jungle to retrieve it.

Maritime scientists in Peru are trying to solve a mystery that has turned stretches of the country's beaches into a grim dolphin morgue.

Given that Ann Widdecombe spent her prime promoting Victorian attitudes to abortion and homosexuality, you could argue she has some atoning to do, and her self-reinvention certainly makes a start.

Scientists and Peruvian officials are investigating a mass die-off of hundreds of dolphins along the South American country's coast.

1. Lancashire towns: Stuart Lancaster; Billy Preston; Horatio Nelson; Eric Morecambe.

Shining Path terrorists have killed a police captain as she took part in an attempt to rescue dozens of hostages seized by the rebels earlier this week.

Terrorist group kidnaps 40 workers less than a week after Peru's President said it had been 'totally defeated'

Nine miners have been rescued after spending five days trapped in a collapsed gold and copper mine in Peru.

Efforts to rescue nine miners from a collapsed copper mine could take up to three more days, the Peruvian Prime Minister said last night.

Peruvian cuisine, it's probably fair to say, is something of an unknown quantity in Britain. In fact, before my visit to Ceviche, a new Peruvian restaurant in Soho, I would have struggled to name a single dish from that country – apart, perhaps, from Lima beans, which don't really count. Here, in the frenzied international zone that is the London dining scene, you'll find Mexican food a go-go, and a growing flirtation with Argentina. But Peru hasn't been invited to the party yet.

A deadly riot in Mexico and an inferno in Honduras have turned the searchlight on conditions in Latin America's overcrowded and anarchic prisons. Simeon Tegel spends a day behind bars in Peru