The Agua para Lima group was awarded the technical studies contract for the US$400mn potable water concession in Peru's capital.

The group - Japan's Nippon Koei Latin America & Caribbean and Spain's Ingenier�a Civil Internacional (Incisa) - will have 140 days to complete the studies.

Informal sector employment in Peru has dropped by 10 percentage points over the last years, fueled by a rapid pace of the country's economic growth, the Andean nation's Production Ministry (Produce) has announced.

Piero Ghezzi, Produce's head, stressed the reported reduction is the result of Peru's booming economic expansion which allows more citizens to acquire formal jobs as well as tighter enforcement of labor and tax regulations. 

Agricultural exports from Peru to Nordic nations have increased their market share over the last two years with sought-after products such as avocado, grapes and mango, the Peruvian-Nordic Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday. 

Hundreds of women marched through Lima, Peru. They were shouting in Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara, dressed in bright-colored skirts and shawls, their long braids swinging across their backs, their arms extended with signs proclaiming "We seek recognition for our contribution to the national economy" and "We the female farmers respect Mother Earth." In the plaza where they gathered, a map of Peru was laid out and adorned with traditional food crops from all the regions: potatoes, purple corn, cacao and quinoa were proudly represented. At the bottom of the map it read in Spanish: "We fight for food sovereignty."

There are those people, childhood prodigies and the like, who are born knowing their purpose. From the get-go, they delve into their passion and devote their entire lives to it. Sometimes it takes a journey to make a discovery, and though it's slower-going, it's not a bad thing.

Such was the case for Northern California-based designer Sandra Jordan. She spent her childhood in Peru and traveled extensively with her family (her stepfather worked in the diplomatic corps) before studying international affairs, education, and business administration. For some 20 years, she worked as a teacher and ran a translation services firm-rewarding work but lacking a creative component, something that was planted in Jordan's psyche as a little girl in Peru, where she was exposed to the country's rich tradition of handcrafts. "There were no stores as we know them today," she says. "We went to dressmakers for our clothes, to embroiderers for embroidery, to silversmiths for silver items, and to carpenters for furniture." 

Peruvian national indigenous organizations decided to present a joint Indigenous Agenda on Climate Change. The resolution was adopted at a meeting held on Tuesday, May 6 with representatives of the Peruvian State for the COP 20, at the headquarters of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The gathering was organized by the Public Team, one of the five established by the Peruvian State for the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Lima in December this year.

Peru's Deputy Foreign Minister Fernando Rojas has arrived in Portugal on an official visit aimed at promoting economic and trade exchange as well as deepening the two countries' bilateral ties, it was reported Wednesday. 

The leader of Peru's main indigenous group and 52 others went on trial Wednesday in the killing of a dozen police officers after security forces fired on protesters opposed to plans to open the Amazon to widespread logging and oil drilling.

In all, 22 police officers and 10 civilians were killed in the 2009 bloodletting at a stretch of highway known as Devil's Curve near the city of Bagua when authorities tried to break up a road blockade.

At least 200 protesters were wounded by gunfire in the attack, and some of the police were killed with spears in the resulting clash.

More:

Peru's bloody Baguazo conflict back in the headlines as trial starts 

Most of Peru's oldest citizens are found in some of the country's rural sierra provinces.

Data from Peru's social security fund for senior citizens has revealed a rather surprising fact about Peruvians over the age of 100: most of them live in Ayacucho, Apur�mac, Huancavelica, and Puno. 

According to El Comercio, 3,050 communities in La Libertad have no access to internet or mobile phone service.

Luis Montes of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication said that his agency has an investment plan to improve the telecommunications infrastructure of the area.

"The project would bring 1,420 kilometers of optical fiber to the districts, and there, communities could be attended to through wireless systems," Montes explained.

An upcoming crime-fighting program in Huancayo is hoping to cut back on delinquency using technology straight out of a sci-fi movie  Pilot program will help cops stop crime by using drones and Google Glass.

El Comercio reports that Huancayo is planning on launching a pilot program that will utilize surveillance drones that broadcast high-resolution images to police wearing Google Glass. 

For years, Cesar Gutierrez waited on patrons at upscale Staten Island venues like Angelina's in Tottenville. Now, the 38-year-old hospitality veteran is the proud proprietor of his own place, Inca's Grill.

"Before I worked for someone else and was very happy," said Gutierrez, a Rosebank resident. "But working after so many years for other people I am very excited to own my own business."

Workers from around the world continue to travel to Peru to build their careers.

Year-on-year foreign worker arrivals are up by almost 20%.

According to data released by Peru's National Institute for Statistics and Information (INEI), March of 2014 saw the arrival of 4,181 foreign workers. This figure represents a 19.6% increase from the same month last year.