The Sun makes love to the Moon

DARKNESS fell at noon yesterday across a slim arc of South America, with astronomers and tourists marvelling at the last total solar eclipse in the Western hemisphere this century.

Pregnant women avoided looking at the sky or donned protective shawls as the Moon blocked out the Sun for about four minutes, casting a 93-mile wide shadow from the Galapagos Islands, over parts of northern Colombia and Venezuela and to the Caribbean Sea.

Members of Venezuela's Wayuu indigenous community said the Sun and the Moon were making love and should not be disturbed.

- Reuters, Caracas