A Rio de Janeiro tour company could be in trouble for giving tourists too intimate a view of life in the city's notorious slums, including photo opportunities with drug gang leaders. The Brazilian city's tourism chief said on Monday that the company, Private Tours, could be stripped of its licence.
Old habits die hard and that's certainly the case for former triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet, who has lost his driving licence for repeated speeding offences. As punishment the 54-year-old Brazilian has had to suffer the indignity of being sent back to school to brush up on the rules of the road.
Army troops have been moved in to control access to one of Brazil's top tourist attractions, Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer monument, after police broke up a huge embezzling scam. Federal police arrested 20 people on Thursday for allegedly embezzling $150 000 to $250 000 a month from funds tourists paid to visit the fabled landmark.
The Amazonian rainforest and the Andes mountains could replace the African desert as South America vies to stage the Dakar Rally. Argentina, Brazil and Chile are looking into the possibility of hosting the race later this year and there are also talks about a race through several South American countries and climate zones.
Lack of infrastructure in the Pan American Games venues upset fans in the first two days of competition. Traffic jams and difficulties buying food and finding bathrooms inside the venues prompted about 100 fans to protest to organisers on Friday. "We want to eat! We want to eat!" they chanted at the Riocentro complex.
Brazilian star striker Ronaldo revealed on Monday that he was "incredibly ashamed" over last week's encounter with a trio of transvestites, which he believes will mark him for life. "I've cried a lot. I was incredibly ashamed," Ronaldo (31) said in an interview with TV Globo published in the press on Monday.
Ronaldo went into hiding on Tuesday after an encounter with cross-dressing sex-workers that prompted police to investigate whether to charge one with trying to extort money from the three-time Fifa player of the year. The AC Milan striker, in Brazil recovering from a knee surgery, cancelled two TV appearances, and local media said he will continue physiotherapy at his home.
A stadium collapse that killed seven people highlighted the crumbling state of Brazil's soccer arenas less than a month after the country was chosen to host the 2014 World Cup, architects said on Monday. The victims fell 15m through a 3m wide hole that opened in the concrete stands of the Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador.
At least eight people were killed in Brazil when a section of the stand at a football stadium collapsed as fans were celebrating minutes after a match ended. Dozens of people were also injured, some of them seriously, in the accident late on Sunday in Salvador, the capital of the north-western state of Bahia, media reports said, citing authorities.
Brazil came from behind to beat Uruguay 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday but were upstaged by Paraguay and Ecuador, who both went on scoring sprees. Luis Fabiano scored both goals as Brazil overcame their smaller neighbours in São Paulo on a night when they were heavily indebted to goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
Brazil's march to the final of the Women's Soccer World Cup final in China is doing far more than just helping the growth of the sport in the South American country where it was once banned by law. A stellar performance by Marta saw Brazil demolish tournament favourites the United States 4-0 in the semifinal on Thursday.
The Brazilian and Mexican governments have tentatively approved the use of genetically modified corn seed, according to a report on the Science and Development Network website. However, environmental activists are already accusing Brazil's technical commission on biosecurity of ignoring public safety concerns.
Gargantuan animal effigies and honed dancers wearing nothing but a bit of glitter between their legs turned Rio into a fantasy land overnight as the city's world-famous carnival parades got under way. The processions are the high point of Brazil's five-day pre-Lent celebrations.
Brazil's Carnival parades got off to a majestic start on Sunday night as dancers dressed as monarchs, courtiers and even roast pheasants at a royal feast shimmied their way through Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome. Beauty queens wearing little more than plumed headdresses gyrated on top of giant floats as singers chanted "The kingdom has moved, my Rio has bloomed".
A Carnival float with a pile of model dead bodies commemorating the Holocaust is causing unease before the lavish parades in Rio de Janeiro this weekend. The Viradouro samba organisation plans to feature the display when it marches in the Sambadrome parade strip on Sunday, despite objections from a local Jewish group.
Brazilian and Argentinian palaeontologists have discovered the largely complete fossil of a new species of giant dinosaur that roamed what is now northern Patagonia about 80-million years ago. The herbivorous Futalognkosaurus dukei measured between 32m and 34m from head to tail.
At least eight people were killed and more than 100 injured when a packed passenger train ploughed into a slow-moving train on Thursday in a northern suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Officials said the death toll could go higher. "It is a tragedy," said fire department chief Pedro Marcos.
