Brazil

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Brazil: 'Biggest Amazon Deforester' Arrested

Suspect blamed for 20% of forest loss

(Newser) - Brazil has detained a land-grabber thought to be the Amazon's single biggest deforester, the country's environmental protection agency says. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources says Ezequiel Antonio Castanha, who was detained Saturday in the state of Para, operated a network that illegally seized federal...

This Is Brazil's Dirtiest Carnival Party

These people are pretty disgusting, having a blast

(Newser) - Forget the sexy nurses, the pirates, and devils. At the Bloco da Lama Carnival street party, swamp creature is the costume of choice. Revelers in the seaside colonial town of Paraty yesterday threw themselves into deposits of black, mineral-rich slime, emerging covered head-to-toe in the sludge. Bikinis and trunks disappeared...

How a Drone Could Settle Debate Over the Ancient Amazon

Researchers will scan ground in search of geoglyphs

(Newser) - Experts are divided over how ancient people lived in what is now Brazil, and they're turning to a drone to help them learn the answers. "While some researchers think that Amazonia was inhabited by small bands of hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators who had a minimal impact on the...

Women Seduce Prison Guards, Free 26 Inmates

The alleged perps brought spiked whiskey, authorities say

(Newser) - The alleged perpetrators of this prison break needed no weapons—only lingerie and spiked bottles of whiskey, CNN reports. According to local media, two women showed up at a prison in Nova Mutum, a small city in central Brazil, and persuaded the guards to let them in for a chat...

6-Year-Old 'Devoured' by Piranhas

It's believed her actual cause of death was drowning

(Newser) - A tragic story out of Brazil, where a 6-year-old who was in a canoe that capsized was set upon by piranhas and partly "devoured." It's not clear if the creatures are what killed Adrila Muniz: Local media report she may have drowned. But the BBC cites "...

Star's Near-Death Kills Brazil's Plastic Surgery Buzz

Andressa Urach now preaching gospel of not being ruled by vanity

(Newser) - Andressa Urach went from being a single teenage mom nicknamed "Beanpole" to a reality TV bombshell in Brazil thanks to silicone implants, anabolic steroids, a nose job, and gel and botox injections, a fact she wasn't ashamed to share with fans. "There are plenty of ugly women,...

Huge Swastika Spotted in Swimming Pool

Brazilian police say they can't press charges

(Newser) - Brazilian police were flying in a helicopter on a drug raid when they made a startling find: a huge swastika at the bottom of a swimming pool, RT.com reports. After investigating, police say the Nazi symbol had been there for 13 years but they can't press charges because...

Woman May Have Gotten HIV From Manicure

22-year-old shared mani instruments with cousin 11 years ago

(Newser) - More than a decade ago, a young Brazilian girl did what many girls do: She got a manicure. Now 22, the unidentified woman recently found out she's HIV-positive when she went to donate blood—and a study of her situation points to the manicure instruments she used 11 years...

Brazil's Leftist Leader Scores Second Term

After tight race, Dilma Rousseff beats Aecio Neves

(Newser) - Brazil's left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected yesterday in the tightest race the nation has seen since its return to democracy three decades ago, batting down a pro-business candidate's strong showing in a bitterly fought campaign . With 99.5% of the ballots counted, Rousseff, the Workers' Party candidate,...

Easter Islanders Not as Isolated as Thought

Genetic data suggests travel to and from South America 20-plus generations ago

(Newser) - Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is such a remote speck of rock in the Pacific Ocean that it has been nicknamed "navel of the world." Yet a review of genetic data of 27 natives suggests the islanders made contact with outsiders hundreds of years before the first Europeans...

Huge Mountains Fed Ocean Life 600M Years Ago

Range stretched 1.5K miles from Africa to South America

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient mountain range that spread 1,550 miles from Africa to South America back when the two continents were one. And strange as it may sound, the massive mountain range on the supercontinent Gondwana, similar in size to the Himalayas, actually fed our oceans...

Confession Makes Man One of the Biggest Serial Killers

Brazilian 26-year-old killed due to 'fury against everything'

(Newser) - A 26-year-old man has confessed to killing at least 39 people in a three-year rampage that makes him one of the world's most prolific serial killers, police in Goiania, Brazil, say. Thiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha, a security guard who lives with his mother, cruised the streets and gunned...

Shock Result Sends Brazil Election to Runoff

Dilma Rousseff to face unexpected challenger

(Newser) - Brazil's unpredictable election took another twist yesterday, with left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff being forced into a runoff race as expected—but against a center-right challenger who only surged in the final week of the campaign. Rousseff will face Aecio Neves in the October 26 runoff vote, required as no...

Brazil Unleashes 10K 'Good' Mosquitoes

They're infected with a bacteria that acts as a vaccine against Dengue fever

(Newser) - On the heels of similar efforts in Asia, Brazil is releasing 10,000 mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria in the hopes of halting the spread of dengue fever. Found in 60% of insects, Wolbachia acts like a vaccine against the virus, preventing it from multiplying in the carrier's...

Skyscraper Rising in Middle of the Amazon

Observatory is far from human settlement

(Newser) - At 1,066 feet, a tower rising in Brazil will be taller than New York City's Chrysler Building—or any skyscraper in South America—but it won't have any neighbors in sight. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, around 100 miles from the city of Manuas, is designed to...

Brazil Woman Under Fire After Racial Chant at Soccer Game

She apologizes after being identified; team is banned for year

(Newser) - Some classy fans of the Brazilian soccer team Gremio got caught on video chanting "monkey" and making ape gestures at an opposing black goalie. Now a woman who was identified via social media as one of the participants has publicly apologized to the goalie, named Aranha, reports the BBC...

'Dead' Man Rescued When Family Sees Body Bag Move

The Brazilian man has terminal cancer

(Newser) - A 54-year-old Brazilian man may be suffering from terminal cancer, but the docs got it wrong when they told his family he'd died of respiratory failure and multiple organ failure Saturday night. Two hours later, when family members went to the morgue to dress Valdelucio de Oliveira Goncalves' body,...

Brazil Prison Riot: Inmates Thrown Off Roof, Beheaded

Negotiations reportedly continuing in Cascavel

(Newser) - Two prisoners were beheaded and at least another one died after being thrown off the roof in a riot that erupted yesterday in a prison in southern Brazil, authorities say. Inmates of the penitentiary in the city of Cascavel took at least two agents and several other inmates hostage in...

Flying Reptile Had Head Like a Butterfly

Researchers find odd-looking new species in Brazil

(Newser) - A flying reptile with a head shaped like a butterfly isn't the next Godzilla nemesis. Scientists in southern Brazil have discovered fossils from a species they say was related to pterodactyls and estimated to have lived about 80 million years ago, reports LiveScience . At least 47 individual dinos were...

Brazil Presidential Candidate Killed in Plane Crash

Eduardo Campos was aboard Cessna that went down in bad weather

(Newser) - A small private jet crashed today in a residential area in the Brazilian port city of Santos, killing a presidential candidate who was aboard the Cessna 560XL. Eduardo Campos, a Socialist who was running in third place, was confirmed dead in the crash by party members, reports the BBC . A...

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