■ CHILE
Police clash with protesters
Police clashed with demonstrators on Saturday night in several working-class neighborhoods that were the scene of violent protests to commemorate the killing of two brothers under the 1973 to 1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. One police officer was shot in the leg. Police said 27 demonstrators had been arrested by midnight. Six other officers were injured when their vehicle crashed as it rushed to one of the many intersections blocked by the protesters with blazing barricades. The demonstrators tossed firebombs at police vehicles and shots were heard at several points in the city. Similar protests occur every year on this date, which leftist groups call the "Day of the Young Combatant," remembering the police killings of leftist brothers Rafael and Eduardo Vergara on March 29, 1985.
■ PERU
Quake strikes near Lima
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake rattled the coast near Lima on Saturday, causing alarm and minor damage but no fatalities, officials said. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck under the Pacific Ocean at 7:51am, 15km west of Lima, shaking startled residents out of bed. Five houses collapsed in Lima, Civil Defense chief Luis Palomino said to reporters. No injuries were reported, but several people were being treated for emotional trauma. "You tend to sleep late on Saturdays. We all went running out of the house into the street," said Mirta Guzman, a 52-year-old mother of six in the Barranco district of Lima. She said her house, which was not damaged by the quake, is more than 100 years old and made of delicate adobe. Traffic was interrupted on Lima's primary coastal highway for more than an hour as police cleared rocks and sand that had spilled across several stretches of the roadway.
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