Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Vilmar Mendonca used to be a human resources director for several companies in Brazil. Now he is homeless, sleeping outdoors along with thousands of other victims of the country’s economic crisis. Mendonca lost his job in 2015 and for a while, he lived off …
Read More »Four reasons why Brazil’s president could survive
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Michel Temer is the first Brazilian president to face criminal charges while still in office. Yet here are four reasons why — for now — he may save his job. – Scandals the new normal – Temer is charged with receiving bribes from …
Read More »Brazil’s Temer: 5 key chapters in a troubled reign
Brasília, Brazil | AFP | Brazilian president Michel Temer rode to power last year by helping get his ex-ally Dilma Rousseff impeached, but now he could be forced from office himself. Here are five key chapters from a tumultuous 14 months culminating with Monday’s filing of bribery charges against him …
Read More »91 prisoners escape Brazilian jail, flee through tunnel
Sao Paulo, Brazil | AFP | A group of 91 prisoners escaped a jail in northeastern Brazil on Thursday by fleeing through a 30-meter (100-foot) tunnel, Brazilian media said. Nine of the inmates have been found, while police are attempting to catch the remaining 82 who disappeared from the prison …
Read More »What might come of Brazil’s latest political crisis?
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Brazil is bubbling over the release of a recording that purports to show President Michel Temer approving payment of hush money to a politician jailed for corruption. In a matter of days, eight lawmakers have called for impeachment proceedings against the president, the …
Read More »World Cup, Olympic stadiums in Brazil corruption scandal
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Brazil was proud of its football World Cup and Olympics stadiums, but the shame of the country’s corruption saga has engulfed even these monuments to fair play. A bribery scandal linked to construction firm Odebrecht that has swept up scores of politicians has …
Read More »Brazil top FIFA rankings for first time since 2010, Uganda moves to 72nd
Zurich, Switzerland | AFP | Brazil surged to the top of the FIFA world rankings for the first time in seven years on Thursday, made all the sweeter as it usurped great rivals Argentina. It caps a terrific week for forward Neymar and Brazil — last week they became …
Read More »‘Ghosts’ drive Brazil’s president from residency
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Brazil’s President Michel Temer blames bad vibes and even ghosts for driving him from his sumptuous official residence in the capital Brasilia, a Brazilian news weekly reported Saturday. Temer surprised Brazilian politics watchers this week with the revelation that he has decamped from the …
Read More »Rio carnival fantasy hides dirty reality
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 …
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