Mudslides smash 5 villages in Peru; death toll lowered to 12

SECOCHA, Peru (AP) — Residents of five small gold-mining villages in southern Peru’s Arequipa region are struggling to salvage their belongings after landslides caused by strong rains killed at least 12 people and dragged mud, water and rocks that turned precarious homes and other buildings into rubble. In the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality, on the edges of a depleted mining extraction area residents desperately searched Tuesday for anything they could save amid the mud.  A local Civil Defense official said Monday that at least 36 people had died in the landslides, but on Tuesday a prosecutor told The Associated Press they had confirmed only 12 deaths, as well as three people who were still missing.