Airline delays in 2007 were worse than ever, according to the Association of European Airlines.

The association concluded that 22.7% of all departures by the airlines studied were delayed by at least 15 minutes.

Heathrow was named Europe's worst airline for delays, followed closely by Gatwick, Rome, Dublin and Paris's Charles de Gaulle.

Austrian Airlines can boast a successful departure rate of 84%. Czech Airlines were also in the top 10.

Travellers are ignoring environmentalists' pleas to fly less and are taking longer flights for shorter holidays.

Last year, 3.7 million Britons spent less than a week in a far-flung destination after travelling thousands of miles by air.

A survey, by travel insurer Halifax, predicts these 'breakneck breaks' will increase by more than a third this year.

New York, Hong Kong and Rio are all high on travellers' wish lists and with the 'open skies' deal coming into force at the end of March, the trend is set to continue.

A small explosion in New York City's Times Square has been reported.

Police cordoned off a section of the square early on Thursday morning following the blast at a military recruitment office.

A second, unexploded device was also reportedly found.

All streets between 46th and 42nd and Sixth and Eighth Avenues were closed, as were all subways.

No deaths have been reported but a police officer is thought to have received minor burns.

More than 400 years ago, the Spanish conqueror ("conquistador") Francisco Pizarro named Lima the City of the Kings ("Ciudad de los Reyes"). Nowadays, that same city, which rose from the lands of the native chief Taulischusco, is a metropolis of over 7 million people who proudly preserve the colonial convents and mansions LIMA PICTURE LIMA which are symbols of their ancient and noble traditions.


Lima, capital of Peru, founded on January 18, 1535, is a LIMA PICTURE LIMA modern city which, while constantly expanding, has also managed to maintain the elegance of its Historic Center LIMA PICTURE LIMA. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Center, due to the large number of artistic monuments found there, Historic Lima is an enchanting haven of a period long gone.

Lima's Cathedral, which City Fathers began building on the very day of the city's foundation; the Church and Convent of San Francisco LIMA PICTURE LIMA, due to its harmony of volume and color, considered by some as the greatest architectural complex of its kind in Latin America, and Santo Domingo, with its beautiful main cloister, are but a few of the invaluable treasures which provide evidence of Lima's deep religious faith.

Similarly, mansions such as the House of Aliaga ("Casa Aliaga"), built upon the private temple of the chief Taulichusco; the House of Goyeneche or Rada ("Casa Goyeneche or Rada"), with its obvious French influences; and the Torre Tagle Palace ("Palacio de Torre Tagle"), the most beautiful of Lima's early 18th century mansions, all symbolize the splendor and ostentation of the Viceregal era.

Built on the banks of the River Rimac, and caressed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the city of Lima also preserves traces of its pre-Hispanic period; most notably the great sanctuary of Pachacamac, where a god of the same name was worshipped, and the 'huaca' Pucllana, in the district of Miraflores, an important administrative center of the Lima culture (400 AC).

Lima's name comes from the 'aymara' word lima-limac or limac-huayta, the name of a yellow flower; or from the quechua ´rimac´ meaning 'speaker'. Because of these links with the pre-Hispanic past, its colonial past and the strong religious faith it gave it; its modern outlook and its festive nature, which bathes its eternally gray sky in color, Lima, will always be the City of the Kings.