Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Rio’s Sambodromo parades are a fantasy of beautiful bodies and dreamlike costumes but the self-declared greatest show on Earth is prepared in a dirty street next to an open sewer. The contrast between what happens inside Rio de Janeiro’s specially built samba stadium …
Read More »Brazil’s economy puts damper on Rio carnival
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | The Rio carnival is a celebration of joyful excess but deep recession in Brazil means that samba schools are thinking about their budgets as much as their dance moves. “Here the key word is austerity,” says Luiz Carlos Magalhaes, president of the Portela …
Read More »Brazil Riot: 60 inmates killed, many beheaded
Manaus, Brazil | AFP | Rioting inmates in Brazil decapitated and brutally assaulted their rivals, killing at least 60, when fighting erupted between two gangs at a prison in the Amazon region, officials said Monday. The 17-hour riot broke out Sunday afternoon and lasted through the night at a prison …
Read More »Samba gets new rhythms 100 years after first recording
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Monday nights feel like Saturdays in Rio’s Little Africa neighborhood when the sun sets and the samba starts to play. Surrounded by a mostly young crowd, seven musicians sit around a table with the small four-string guitar called a cavaquinho, the cuica drum …
Read More »Amina Mohammed, two other women named to top UN posts
United Nations, United States | AFP | Incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday announced the appointment of Nigeria’s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed to be the UN’s number two official and tapped two other women for key leadership posts. Guterres has made gender parity a priority of his tenure which …
Read More »Sudamericana title given to Chapecoense plane crash team
Asuncion, Paraguay | AFP | South American football confederation CONMEBOL agreed Monday to award the Copa Sudamericana to Brazilian club Chapecoense, whose team was wiped out in a plane crash while heading to the final. “CONMEBOL awards the title for the 2016 Copa Sudamericana championship to Chapecoense,” including the $2.0 …
Read More »Colombia plane crash: What we know
The same plane was used two weeks ago to fly the Argentine national football team — with Messi on board La Unión, Colombia | AFP | Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about flight LMI 2933, which crashed into the Colombian mountains Monday night with a Brazilian …
Read More »Football mourns as plane crash kills Brazilian players
La Unión, Colombia | AFP | The football world was plunged into mourning Tuesday after a plane carrying a Brazilian team crashed in the mountains in Colombia, killing 75 people with six survivors, officials said. Football legends Pele and Maradona as well as current superstar Lionel Messi led tributes to …
Read More »Plane carrying Brazilian football players crashes in Colombia
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | A charter plane carrying a Brazilian football team crashed in the mountains in Colombia late Monday, killing 76 people, officials said. They said five survived the disaster. The LAMIA airlines charter declared an emergency at around 10 pm local time” 0300 GMT Tuesday, reporting it …
Read More »F1: I’m hunting you down, victorious Hamilton warns Rosberg
Sao Paulo, Brazil | AFP | Lewis Hamilton warned Nico Rosberg he was “hunting” a fourth world title after describing his stunning triumph in Sunday’s wet and chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix as one of the easiest of his 52 career victories. The 31-year-old Briton won in Brazil for the first …
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