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New satellite photos show Amazon deforestation exploding

Brazil's DETER real-time monitoring system found that more than 430 square miles of forest, an area a bit smaller than the city of Los Angeles, vanished in the month of April, while about 2,300 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware, were destroyed between last August and April.

BRAZIL: Controversial Bill to Sterilise Younger Women

BRAZIL: Controversial Bill to Sterilise Younger Women RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 22 (IPS) - A draft law to reduce the minimum age for women to undergo voluntary sterilisation in Brazil s public hospitals from 25 to 18 is vigorously opposed by the government.

The long road to ruin for the Amazon forest

It is also the most controversial road in Brazil, built in the 1970s to open up the jungle to colonisation - forgetting, of course, that many indigenous Indians lived there already. It has become a frontier of deforestation. Now President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has announced that one of the major projects of his second term, at a cost of $350m, will be to pave the 600 miles of the road that is still a dirt track.

Brazilian Judge Detains Pilots in Midair Collision

A Brazilian judge ordered the police late Monday to confiscate the passports of the two American pilots who were flying the business jet that apparently collided Friday with an airliner. The airliner crashed, killing all 155 people aboard, but the business jet was able to land safely.

Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living

A harrowing, first-person account of the collision over the Amazon rain forest in Brazil between a Boeing 737 and a corporate jet that cost 155 people their lives.

Brazil votes in election defined by sleaze

The past few days have seen a dramatic turn-around as opposition candidates flayed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the champion of Brazil's poor, over corruption scandals surrounding his Workers' Party. revelations that his campaign staff tried to buy information for a smear campaign against his main challenger Geraldo Alckmin gave a lackluster opposition new ammunition. It also reminded voters of a string of bribery and vote-buying scandals which have cost Lula's chief of staff, his finance minister and other aides their jobs.

Crash site of Brazil jet found

Airborne searchers found the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane on Saturday that crashed a day earlier in Amazon jungle with 155 people on board and the chances of anyone surviving were slight, officials said. The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol probably plunged into the ground nose first after colliding with a smaller plane, the head of Brazil's airport authority Infraero said.

Brazilian jet carrying 155 vanishes - Americas

Brazilian airliner, small plane reportedly collide. Gol airlines reports domestic flight carrying 155 missing

Lula Under Pressure from Internal Radical Left towards Popular economics

Just over two months into the new presidency, there are signs that the image of President Luiz In cio Lula da Silva (Lula) and his administration is beginning to lose its luster.

Gunfire, bombs used in wave of urban terror in Brazil

Suspected gang members sprayed gunfire at police, set off bombs outside government buildings and torched buses and banks Monday in a new wave of attacks across South America's largest city -- the third in four months. Criminals believed to be part of a gang run by jailed leaders attacked 78 symbols of government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, Brazil's most populous, said the state police commander, Col. Elizeu Eclair Teixeira Borges.

Brazil creates three new protected areas in Amazon rainforest

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decreed three new protected areas in the Amazon basin Wednesday, placing 4.55 million acres of rainforest off-limits for development. Since taking office in 2002 Silva has created 57 protected areas in the Amazon preserving some 47.6 million acres of rainforest. But in truth, many of these protected areas exist only on paper.

70 Die in 4 Days of Violence in Brazil

Prison riots and attacks on police by a criminal gang extended into Monday, raising the reported death toll to 70 in four days of violence that has started to choke normal life in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. Most of those killed in overnight attacks were reported to be police officers targeted by a powerful criminal gang protesting the prison transfer of some of its leaders.

Clashes in Brazil kill 52

Heavily-armed gangsters attacked police posts in Brazil's Sao Paulo state for a second night in the worst spate of crime-related violence in the country's industrial and business heartland in memory. Prisoners have also rioted in about 20 penitentiaries.

Brazil's roofless reclaim the cities

Support grows for urban coalition that takes over disused buildings for homeless and poor

Raids across Brazil free 4,000 slaves

Although slavery was officially abolished in Brazil in 1889, Brazil's modern-day slave trade began to boom again during the 1964 military dictatorship. Father Rezende said the official estimate of just 25,000 slaves in Brazil could be way off the mark: "The real figure could be 250,000."