Brazil

The Rolling Stones on Saturday rocked the night away on fabled Copacabana beach with more than 1,2-million fans in one of the biggest concerts the world has ever seen. Sir Mick Jagger, shouted ”Hello Brazil” in Portuguese to a huge roar, and the supergroup worked up a sweat delivering more than 20 of their biggest hits.

Environmentalists were caught off guard when South American leaders announced plans to build a massive natural-gas pipeline through the Amazon rainforest. Proponents say the -billion project, still in early planning stages, would help satisfy the growing regional demand for gas.

Thirty-two people were killed and another 21 were injured when two buses collided head-on in south-western Brazil, police said on Monday. The crash occurred shortly before midnight on Sunday on the Raposo Tavares highway in Regente Feijo, about 840km west of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo state police Major Claudemir Alcarria said.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected on Sunday a measure to ban gun sales in Brazil, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates. The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, human rights groups and the Roman Catholic Church all backed the ban. But the public had swung dramatically against the proposal in recent weeks.

Argentine striker Carlos Tevez’s complaints about bad soccer refereeing in Brazil were taken personally by some women who are threatening to sue him for discrimination. Tevez said in a televised interview last week that Brazilian league referees often persecuted Argentine players, and criticised the female line judges in Corinthians’ 3-2 loss to Sao Paulo in the Brazilian national championship.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a former union boss elected in a landslide with pledges to make Brazil a ”decent country”, is back on the campaign trail. But this time it’s to save his presidency from corruption charges, regain the trust of voters — and avoid possible impeachment.

Brazilian football legend Pele (64) broke into tears during a press conference in Sao Paolo as he spoke about his son’s arrest and now-established drug habit. ”It’s regrettable because I’ve always fought intensely against drugs, and I didn’t notice this in my own house,” the football great said.

It’s a choice any coach would welcome: When Ronaldo returns, which of Brazil’s soccer stars should he replace? It’s the decision Carlos Alberto Parreira will have to make — and it got tougher on Sunday when Brazil’s improvised front line led a steamroller offence that routed Paraguay 4-1 in a World Cup qualifier.

Brazil’s 1994 World Cup winning footballer Romario said on Tuesday that the birth of his sixth child with Down’s syndrome had made him ”a happier and more tolerant” person. Ivy, born a month ago, was the 39-year-old footballer’s second daughter from his fourth wife Isabelle Bittencourt, who is in her 20s.

Rescuers have failed to free a humpback whale that washed up on a beach over the weekend, and biologists said on Tuesday its chances of survival are slim. More than 100 people still struggled to get the 10-ton whale off Jurujuba beach just across Rio de Janeiro at the entrance to Guanabara Bay and back into the ocean.

A child died in a collapsed house and seven fishermen were missing and feared dead early on Sunday as a large spiralling storm lashed the coast of southern Brazil, civil defence officials said. Meanwhile, meteorologists disagreed over whether the storm was a hurricane — the first on record in the South Atlantic.

While economic growth had been unprecedented since the last World Summit in Rio, economic inequality had deepened and environmental degradation accelerated, said President Thabo Mbeki in Brazil.