03/03/2013 19:35 GMT

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 3, 2013 (AFP) - At least eight people were killed by flooding in southwestern Ecuador following several hours of torrential rains, officials said Sunday.

"Unfortunately, there have been eight victims so far as a result of the flooding," said Viviana Bonilla, governor of the coastal province of Guayas where the flooding occurred.

Bonilla told reporters that six people died by electrocution and one by drowning. The eighth victims was a child who was washed away by the floods and presumed dead.

09/25/2012 22:44 GMT

LIMA, Sept 25, 2012 (AFP) - Officials from countries along South America's Pacific coast met at a UNESCO-sponsored event in Peru's capital Tuesday to design a tsunami early-warning system.

Experts from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile -- all countries sitting on the seismically active Pacific ring of fire -- included oceanographers, seismologists, and natural disaster response officials.

They are ironing out a protocol expected to be named "Standard Operating Procedures for Tsunami Alert Communications in the Southeastern Pacific."

QUITO — Ecuador has deployed some 10,000 security forces to its border with Colombia to deal with a "most grave" security problem, President Rafael Correa said Saturday.

Correa said the troops and police forces were deployed to bolster security amid concerns about "organized crime, drug trafficking (and) irregular groups," including paramilitary groups and Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC.

UIVE GRANDE, Ecuador — Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed red-hot rock and ash Tuesday as officials upgraded their eruption warning level to orange and some at-risk communities began evacuations.

The 5,029-meter (16,500-foot) volcano in the country's central Andes, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of the capital Quito, has been active since 1999 but its thermal activity has steadily increased since Sunday, sending pyroclastic boulders into the air and cascading down from the summit.

QUITO — Ecuador has ordered locals to evacuate towns near the base of the rumbling Tungurahua volcano in the south, and issued an alert.

"We have an orange alert in the area near the Tungurahua volcano," said Maria Cornejo with the government's risk assessment office. The villages of Cusua, Bilbao and Chacauco were asked to evacuate, she said.

The volcano started experiencing increased activity on Wednesday. The government issued an alert Thursday for the provinces of Tungurahua and then Chimborazo and Pastaza.

GUATEMALA CITY - Thousands of people were evacuated and airports were closed as two volcanos erupted in Guatemala and Ecuador Friday, choking major cities with ash, and leaving two dead, officials said.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a 15-day state of emergency around the Pacaya volcano, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital.

The volcano erupted again Friday after first bursting back to life Wednesday, killing two people, including a television reporter covering the event.

In Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano exploded

Turf wars over vital coca crops in the Ecuador border region of Narino have intensified and more than 12,400 people have been displaced there since early 2009, the Geneva-based organization said.

"In most cases the displaced have received little or no help," an MSF statement said.

Local authorities have been "completely overwhelmed" and MSF is often left as the lone carer, the statement said.

"Roughly 13,500 people are currently housed in temporary shelters while another 100,000 victims need immediate aid in terms of food, shelter and access to potable water," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the Geneva-based Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Thirteen of Ecuador's 22 provinces are

"The eruption is going on right now and continues to generate pyroclastic flows" of red-hot gas, ash and rocks down the volcano's western flank, Geophysical Institute director Hugo Yepez told reporters.

The 5,029-meter (16,500-foot) mountain, 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of the capital Quito, began erupting with