02/26/2012
Structure part of construction boom intended to improve infrastructure ahead of 2014 World Cup and 2016 OlympicsThey call it the Bridge of Knowledge – a spectacular £22m cable-stayed bridge at the entrance to the 2016 Olympic city, not far from Rio’s international airport.
Designed by one of Brazil‘s leading architects and erected by the construction conglomerate Queiroz Galvão, the bridge was inaugurated on the eve of this year’s Rio carnival, a monument to the rebirth of the seaside city, which is at the centre of a major economic boom after decades of stagnation.
“Is it a harp, a guitar or a bird?” cooed one local newspaper in an article about Rio’s first ever cable-stayed bridge.
It is designed by Alexandre Chan, the architect who was also behind Brasilia’s Juscelino Kubitschek bridge. The 780 metre structure links the Federal University to one of Rio’s most important motorways, the Red Line, and is a major part of a construction boom intended to improve infrastructure before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. more…
02/24/2012
The crew escapes with minor injuries when a rescue helicopter disintegrates upon landing in Para, northern Brazil more…
02/21/2012
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series more…
02/20/2012
Criolo, aka Kleber Gomes, the megastar of the megacities, lends voice to millions struggling in the favela and beyond. Kleber Gomes was 10 when he penned his first song about São Paulo. The year: 1985. more…
02/20/2012
Carnival is the grandest holiday in Brazil, annually drawing millions in celebrations culminating on Fat Tuesday before the start of the Catholic season of Lent more…
02/20/2012
I cannot write about every Fleet Street veteran’s death on this blog, even of the people I knew let alone the many I didn’t, because it would end up becoming a sort of media obituaries slot.However, I more…
02/17/2012
The annual Brazilian Carnival, an intense week of celebrations that culminate in a Mardi Gras parade, begins more…
02/16/2012
Overcrowding and abysmal living conditions: the fire underlines the urgency of prison reform in Latin America. The horrific fire in a prison in Honduras that killed more than 350 people was a tragedy wa more…
02/16/2012
A Brazilian journalist was shot to death on Sunday (12 February) in what police believe was a contract killing. Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues, known as Paulo Rocaro, was the second journalist to die more…
02/14/2012
Reserve Aguia midfielder Alexandre Carioca is captured on film hitting Remo defender Aldivan with a photographer’s camera stand more…
02/13/2012
The animal carnival parade at Copacabana beach in Brazil rivals its human counterpart for colour more…
02/12/2012
Brazilian activists who inform on illegal loggers laying waste to the rainforests can expect a visit from the gunmen.A single shot to the temple was Mouth Organ John’s reward for spilling the beans. His friend, Junior José Guerra, fared only marginally better.
Guerra’s prize for speaking out against the illegal loggers laying waste to the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth? A broken home, two petrified children and an uncertain exile from a life he had spent years building in the Brazilian Amazon.
“I can’t go back,” said Guerra, one of the Amazon’s newest environmental refugees, three months after his friend’s brutal murder forced him, his wife and his two children into hiding. “We’ve been told that they are trying to find out where I am. The situation is very complicated.” more…
02/12/2012
Police strike raises fears for security in Rio days before start of carnival celebrations. Police have ended their strike in a north-eastern Brazilian state, though a similar action in Rio de Janeiro co more…
02/11/2012
The body of a Brazilian journalist who wrote about corruption and had survived one attempt on his life was found the day after he was abducted. Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes had been shot dead along wit more…
02/10/2012
Authorities fear a crime wave and cancelled parades after military and civil police and firefighters vote to go on strikeIt’s billed as the greatest street party on earth – a raucous four-day celebr more…
02/10/2012
Brazil, faced with a police strike that apparently contributed to a spike in killings in the northeast, is bracing for similar strikes in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. more…
02/08/2012
Brazil restricted Haitian visas in January after about 4,000 Haitians arrived in its Amazon frontier, setting off a discussion about what kind of immigrants the country should try to attract. more…
01/29/2012
The São Paulo authorities have tried for years to stop pichação, graffiti that reflects urban decay and deep class divisions. more…
01/28/2012
After years of hearing lectures on fiscal prudence from the West, many in Latin America are left with bewilderment, and even a little schadenfreude, at the West’s problems. more…
01/25/2012
Since Dilma Rousseff was elected president, the government has shifted its stance on the Amazon to side more with agricultural interests. more…
01/24/2012
An adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Brazil’s new president was undoing the work of her predecessor, but it was unclear whether he spoke for the Iranian leadership. more…
01/22/2012
Since the founding of their family production company 50 years ago, the Barretos of Brazil have helped make more than 80 films. more…
01/21/2012
Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest man, wants to teach his country to look up to its entrepreneurs the way Americans do. more…
01/20/2012
The popular neighborhood is benefiting from Brazil’s booming economy. more…
01/19/2012
The International Monetary Fund estimated that countries will need about $1 trillion in loans in coming years. more…
01/15/2012
Huge geometric shapes in Brazil suggest that contrary to conventional understanding, parts of the rain forest may have been home to large populations. more…
01/12/2012
The imports have been stopped after a banned fungicide was used on trees by growers for the Coca-Cola Company, which owns the Minute Maid brand. more…
01/11/2012
Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo said that Brazil would grant visas to thousands of Haitians who have arrived recently in remote areas of the Amazon seeking work. more…
01/10/2012
In parts of Brazil, militias extort money, punish those who cross them and carry out extrajudicial killings. more…
01/07/2012
Gambling everything, thousands of Haitians have made their way to small towns in the Brazilian Amazon over the past year in a desperate search for work. more…
