Briefly

MEXICO

Families, strikers remember miners

PASTA DE CONCHOS — Dozens of poor Mexicans mourned their dead and striking miners closed one of the world’s biggest silver mines yesterday to mark the first anniversary of a coal-pit blast that killed 65 men.

One year later, only two bodies have been recovered from the Pasta de Conchos mine about 80 miles south of the Texas border, and relatives are angry that no one has been prosecuted for the disaster. “I won’t rest until I have my boy back, until I can bury my child,” Rosa Maria Ramos said as she lay flowers for her son, Jose, at a shrine to the dead.

Families, state officials and miners attended an open-air Roman Catholic Mass at the mine.

Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest mining company, owns Pasta de Conchos. Across the country, thousands of unionized miners held a one-day strike to press the government to punish the company.

PERU

Chefs raise culinary profile

LIMA — Peruvians have been proud of their elaborate, spicy food throughout their history of poverty and political turmoil, and now superstar chefs are magnets for culinary tourists.

Lima used to be no more than a one-night stopover for foreign tourists in Peru — many of them backpackers and budget travelers — to visit the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu and the neighboring city of Cuzco.

But the fame of young Peruvian chefs abroad has helped ignite a culinary explosion and made the Pacific coast capital city more attractive to visitors, especially after a leftist insurgency ended in the 1990s and was followed by economic growth and greater political stability.

CANADA

Ban proposed on flame retardant

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