Brazil News

Playstation 3 rocks - or rock

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:32:00 +0000

This happened to a guy in Brazil who ordered a Playstation 3 from a popular online retailer in the country - Submarino -, similar to Amazon. After trying to get his product delivered and failing for few weeks, he gave up when he was finally mailed a Playstation 3 box, with a rock inside. Fortunately he managed to get his money back, but he'll certainly think twice before ordering from them again. Check some of the pictures on his blog.

Alagoas health in chaos

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:02:00 +0000

The state of Alagoas, in Northeastern Brazil, has decreed a State of Emergency in its public health system, after a strike by doctors entered its third month. The local authorities are now authorized to hire nearly 250 people to replace some members of the health staff on strike that resigned en masse. The decision takes place after the population started feeling the effect of the long strike. An 18-month-old child died after receiving no treatment, and the main emergency room in the state has started registering several deaths caused by infection due to overcrowding.

Five-star cell treatment for businessman

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:23:00 +0000

A businessman jailed for kidnapping and witness cohersion has a better treatment in jail than the overwhelming majority of honest citizens living in Brazil. Alfeu Mozaquatro not only has access to cable TV in his own cell, but also may receive up to five visits a week from family and friends, and can order food from restaurants to be delivered to the prison where he's spending his five-year sentence.

His 'benefits' are even registered in an official document signed by the prison's director. In an interview to a Brazilian news outlet, the director admits that the businessman is given privileges, but says he sees no harm in allowing him to watch DVDs and the news. However, he can't explain why the 39 other people incarcerated at the same prison do not have access to the same treatment.

Brazilian authorities are investigating the case, and may soon put an end to the businessman's five-star dream retreat.

Politicians will have fewer chances to change parties

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:17:00 +0000

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (Lower House of Congress) approved the law for party fidelity on Tuesday. According to the bill submitted for approval, politicians will be allowed to change parties only within a 30-day period, which will take place 2 years and 11 months after starting the mandate. Those who choose to change parties outside of this allowed period could be prevented from participating in elections for up to four years. The bill, which was approved by 292 votes against 34, still needs to be approved by the Senate to become law. In recent years, it has become common for politicians to change parties frequently in the country, in order to achieve certain political favors.

Company is sued for not allowing employee to use the toilet

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:29:00 +0000

A telemarketer has successfully sued the company where she worked for R$ 6,800 (roughly US$3,500) for not being allowed to go to the toilet during working hours. The only time she was allowed to go to the restroom was during her five-minute break, which happened once a day. Because of this limitation, the woman developed a urinary infection, and not even after a medical professional recommended that she be allowed to go to the restroom more often she was allowed to do so by the company.

The company rejected the accusations, but the judge in charge of the lawsuit argued the signs of the abuse were clear. In her sentence, judge Ivone Queiroz pointed out that "employees are not machines but human beings, and they should be treated as such."

Amazon deforestation rate down, still high

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:19:00 +0000

Brazilian authorities announced that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon dropped nearly 25 percent between 2005 and 2006. However, this number cannot be taken separately from the data for the other years of Brazilian president Lula's administration. According WWF-Brazil - part of the World Wide Fund for Nature network -, nearly 85,000 square kilometers were deforested in the Amazon between 2002 and 2006, the first term of Lula's mandate, a record when compared to previous administrations.

The CEO for WWF-Brazil, Denise Hamu, admits that the decline in the deforestation rate from 2005 to 2006 is positive, but complains that the country still lacks a longer-term project for the Amazon to include protection and development at the same time.

In 2007, the number of forest fires in the Amazon has already increased 39 percent in comparison to the same timeframe last year. To make matters worse, no new conservation unit was created by the Federal Government this year, although several are ready and need only a signature to be officially implemented.

Cigarette companies are also sued in Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:00:00 +0000

The two largest manufacturers of cigarettes in Brazil - Souza Cruz and Phillip Morris - are being sued by the Sao Paulo State Public Attorney's Consumer Department Office. According to an article on the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper this Monday, the companies are being sued for the damage caused to millions of people by the consumption of tobacco products.

The final value of the indemnization, if any, should be set by a judge, but if similar cases in the US are taken into account, it could end up resulting in more than a billion dollars. According to the article, the lawsuit asks the companies should repay the government - at the Federal and State levels - for the treatment of diseases caused or made worse by the consumption of cigarettes.

Can this man really see the future?

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:05:00 +0000

A Brazilian man who says he predicted the two latest airplane crashes in the country is being questioned by experts, according to the Folha News website (in Portuguese). Jucelino Nobrega Luz has achieved notoriety in certain Web circles in Brazil with his predictions, but lost many would-be believers when he wrongly predicted that Pope Benedict XVI would suffer an attack - he didn't -, or when he said Brazilian president would not be reelected last year - he was. Mr. Luz says the Vatican took protective measures after receiving his letter alerting to the possible attack, and argues that some of his predictions may not become true, this being the reason for Mr. Lula's election win - alongside an alleged fraud in the voting process, according to him.

This same man had already claimed he sent a letter to the White House years before the Iraq War saying where Saddam Hussein would be hiding years later, after a US invasion to the country. For that prediction he tried, unsuccessfully, to demand the reward from the US authorities for information leading to the former dictator's arrest. He also said he predicted the Gol Airlines crash last September over the Amazon, and last month's crash in Sao Paulo with a TAM Airlines aircraft. He shows letters that were supposedly sent to the airlines, but the companies have not commented whether they received them before the accidents or not, as Mr. Luz claims. He says he registers all letters with a notary public before sending them, but experts that have seen the letters say the text in some of them appear to have been changed, which could indicate that Mr. Luz registered one letter prior to the accident and showed another after confirmation of what has happened.

The fortune-teller is at it again, saying that another air crash will take place on October 29, killing about 600 people. All we can do is wait to see if he's right, or see what kind of excuse he'll give for the tragedy not taking place.

Car is stolen twice on same day

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:59:00 +0000

Consultant Avelino Cunha hopes to forget this day. His car was stolen twice on the same day in the city of Vitoria, in the State of Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit). According to the news portal G1, When he woke up last Thursday to leave for work he noticed his car was not in the spot he usually left it, in front of his home.

Fortunately, the vehicle, a pickup truck, was found shortly afterwards, abandoned at a nearby gas station. Cunha recovered the car and went to work. At the end of the day, he couldn't find the car at the place he had left it, outside of his workplace. This time, the vehicle could no longer be recovered.

More than 2,000 cars were stolen in the Vitoria Metropolitan area in July alone.

Man survives helicopter crash in Brasilia

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:00:00 +0000

A helicopter from the Federal District Fire Department crashed this afternoon in the sattelite-city of Ceilandia, near the federal capital Brasilia, killing three of its four passengers. According to the fire department, the aircraft fell in an isolated area, near a landfill, while it was trying to remove a body that had been found on the spot. The survivor had just left the aircraft, since he was on the ground helping to make sure the body was lifted into the helicopter. Local media report that preliminary findings indicate that the stretcher and blanket used to cover the body became loose thanks to the heavy winds in the area, hitting the helicopter's back rotor and bringing it down. The aircraft exploded when it touched the floor, killing the three firemen that were still inside.

All new cars to have radar tracking in Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:07:00 +0000

Due to the large number of stolen cars in the country, the Brazilian Transit Council (Contran) announced that all new cars sold in Brazil will have to come equipped with a tracking device that will allow the vehicles to be localized by sattelite. The manufacturers have two years to comply with the new rule. For buyers, the decision not only means they will be forced to pay for the system to be installed by the car makers. They will also have to pay for a service monthly fee, roughly around US$ 40/month.

The idea may be good to discourage criminals, but not so for consumers already forced to pay nearly 50% more than the real value of cars in duties alone. In addition to creating rules that ultimately force people to pay more, the authorities should try to do their part in guaranteeing a safer environment not only against car thieves, but also murderers, burglars, drug traffickers and kidnappers.

Brazilian authorities arrest Colombian drug lord

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:05:00 +0000

Brazilian authorities arrested a man said to be one of the most wanted drug lords in the world. According to Reuters, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, was seized around dawn at a luxury apartment in Aldeia da Serra in Sao Paulo state. Abadia, also known as Chupeta, or Lollipop, could be extradited to face U.S. charges that he smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine into the United States. The US has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.

Let's see if anything happens from all of this. More likely than not, he may just be replaced by the next in line in this lucrative business.

Brazilians dig 76 tons of buried meat for barbecue

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:12:00 +0000

Dozens of families in Rio de Janeiro spent the weekend savoring barbecues made from meat they dug from an Army land on Friday. The meat was buried after the Brazilian Customs agency determined it had been imported illegally. As Army trucks left the place where the 76 tons of meat had been buried, locals started digging the boxes of meat. According to some of the people who ate the meat, interviewed by the local media, the meat was still frozen when it was dug out of the hole, and had an expiry date of October 2007.

Several families in the region of Albuquerque, in the outskirts of Rio, promoted barbecues during the weekend. The local store manager reported having sold three times as much beer as normal, to help quench the thirst of the barbecuers.

The local authorities explained that burying products that are imported illegally is a normal procedure taken with several different types of goods that are confiscated on a daily basis. The meat was imported from Algeria, but the importer abandoned the cargo. Local media reported that so far nobody has fallen ill from eating the dug meat.

Plane crash kills nearly 200 in Sao Paulo

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:58:00 +0000

An Airbus carrying more than 170 people crashed after skidding off a runway at the Congonhas Airport Tuesday evening. It's believed all passengers and more than 20 people who were on the ground were killed in the accident. TAM airline flight 3054 had left Porto Alegre and was landing in Sao Paulo when it skidded off the runway and hit a cargo hangar situated next to it. According to witnesses, it immediately exploded, engulfing the hangar in flames.

Situated in downtown Sao Paulo, the Congonhas runway has often been criticized for being too short and slippery under rainy conditions. It was recently renovated, but critics say the new tarmac had not yet been totally prepared to get rid of excess water quickly enough. On Monday, a smaller plane had already skidded off a runway, stopping in the ditch dividing the two main runways in the airport. It's the second large airplane accident in Brazil in the last ten months. In September, a Gol Airlines Boeing crashed on a smaller plane above the Amazon. All 154 people aboard the Boeing died, while the smaller plane was able to land safely shortly after the mid-air collision.

Unwanted pregnancy leads to increase in violence

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:49:00 +0000

A new study shows that an unwanted pregnancy may be a much stronger factor in the increase of violence related incidents than other components usually believed to encourage violent acts, such as economic or inequality factors. According to the new study, undertaken by economist Gabriel Hartung in Brazil, the number of violent incidents is directly related to the number of children living with single mothers. A decrease in this number of children - usually a result of an unwanted pregnancy - could be three times more efficient in reducing violence than a similar decrease in inequality levels and four times as efficient than an equivalent economic growth. According to Mr. Hartung, heard by the Agencia Estado news agency, birth control would be the most efficient way of reducing violence levels in Brazil. The link between unwanted pregnancies and violence is the environment in which the child grows up, usually a home where the mother lives without a partner, struggling to make ends meet.

Brazilian Congress blames American pilots for accident

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:05:00 +0000

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (Lower House of Congress) has blamed the American pilots of the Legacy jet Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, together with four Brazilian air traffic controllers, for the accident between the jet and a Boeing in September 2006. The accident killed 154 people, all aboard the Boeing.

The report was presented today by Congressman Marco Maia, who prepared it for a special Congress Investigation Comission created to study the problems in air travel in the country. After the accident, Brazilians have been experiencing several delays and problems with air travel in the country, with the air traffic control structure being severely questioned by authorities and the general public.

Plane skids off runway

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:23:00 +0000

One week after the tragic plane accident that killed 155 people over the Brazilian Amazon, another aircraft from the same company - Gol Airlines - skidded off a runway during its landing at the Sao Paulo Congonhas airport. Despite the incident, none of the plane's 120 passengers and six crew were injured. The plane was coming from Cuiaba, and the light rain that fell in the city at the time of the accident (6am local time) may have contributed to the plane failing to land properly. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Investigations on plane crash continue

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:10:00 +0000

Brazilian authorities are still trying to determine how a Boeing 737 carrying 155 people collided in mid-air with a smaller business jet plane over the Amazon on Friday, resulting on the death of all aboard the larger plane. The pilots from the Embraer Legacy, which was carrying seven people and managed to land in a military air base, are still being questioned by the police in regards to what happened at the time of the accident. Their passports are currently being held by request of the local authorities, who want to make sure they do not leave the country while the investigations are not concluded.

One of the possibilities being investigated is that the pilots from the Legacy may have turned off the plane's tracking equipment, in order to perform some tests in the handling of the new plane - which had just been acquired prior to the flight, by an American company. Without the tracking devices turned on, the plane could not be identified by the Boeing's own equipment, leading both planes to keep the collision course without taking any measures to avoid the crash until visual contact had been established.

Meanwhile, a New York Times reporter which was aboard the Legacy has returned to the US, and wrote his take on the accident for the newspaper. The article can be read by clicking here (external link to the newspaper's website).

Presidential election goes to run-off

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:06:00 +0000

Brazilian president's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva biggest fears came to reality Sunday night, when he failed to get the majority of votes in the presidential election and had to settle for a run-off with second place Geraldo Alckmin. Lula, who had been heavily favored to win a second term in Sunday's election, managed to get 48.6 percent of the valid votes, against 41.5 percent from Alckmin. To avoid a run-off, a candidate needs one vote more than 50 percent of the valid votes. The president seemed to lose votes in the two weeks prior to Sunday, after it was revealed his party tried to buy illegal documents to use against their political opponents. These documents allegedly showed these opponents involved in several wrongdoings, but the allegations were never proved and the plan backfired.

Early polls suggest that both Lula and Alckmin would have close to 50 percent of the votes in the run-off, scheduled for October 29. Fearing a defeat, president Lula has already called his top aides for a series of meetings on Monday, to decide whether to change the focus of his campaign.

Rescue of bodies from plane crash should take a week

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:56:00 +0000

The Brazilian authorities confirmed that all 155 people aboard the commercial plane that crashed on Friday in the Amazon forest have died in the accident. The rescue operation to retrieve the bodies from the crash scene should take a week, due to the difficult access to the area where the plane fell. On Friday, a Gol Airlines flight from Manaus to Brasilia crashed after reportedly being hit by a smaller plane near the border between the states of Para and Mato Grosso, in northern Brazil. The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was found on Saturday, when the first members of the Brazilian Army arrived on the remote location of the crash.

The smaller plane, an Embraer Legacy, was carrying American businessmen and Brazilian employees of the aircraft maker Embraer. The jet had just been purchased in Sao Paulo and was being flown to the United States. Despite suffering some damage to the wing in the crash, the Legacy was able to safely land in a nearby airbase. The American pilots said they did not see the Boeing, just a shadow, and heard a loud bump. Authorities are still trying to determine why the two planes were allowed to fly so close to each other, leading to the accident.

Lula avoids TV debate

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 15:46:00 +0000

For the third time during the current presidential campaign, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva did not show up for a TV debate with his main opponents in the general election scheduled for Sunday. This time, on Thursday, the president missed the debate organised by Globo TV, saying he would not show up due to the 'desperate and virulent attacks' he's been suffering from the other candidates in the race. Without Lula, the three candidates left (Cristovam Buarque, Heloisa Helena and Geraldo Alckmin) chose to criticize the president for his lack of courage in not wanting to discuss and present his ideas openly in a debate broadcast nationally. According to some polls, the president is the favorite for winning a second term, and could get more than 50 percent of the valid votes on Sunday to avoid a second voting round with the second-placed candidate - Geraldo Alckmin, according to the polls.

Central Bank lowers growth expectation

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:30:00 +0000

The Brazilian Central Bank lowered its growth expectation for the country's economy in 2006. Due to the slow moment in the economy in the third quarter of the year, the bank lowered its growth prediction from 4 to 3.5 percent in the year. The inflation should be 3.4%, below the 3.8% the Bank had predicted previously.

Central Bank lowers growth expectation

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:30:00 +0000

Bus accident leaves one dead and 30 injured

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:31:00 +0000

An accident with a bus near the city of Uberlandia, in the State of Minas Gerais, killed a baby and left 30 other people injured, according to reports from the Brazilian media. The accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, which flipped over on a curve. A five-month-old baby died on the scene, and five of the 30 injured were rushed to nearby hospitals in critical condition.

Bank workers stop for 24 hours

noreply@blogger.com (fejas) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:08:00 +0000

Bank workers from all over Brazil have started a 24-hour strike in order to force banks to accept their demands for better wages. After not being able to get a settlement with the National Federation of Banks, the workers' union decided for the stoppage. Most bank branches will thus be closed this Tuesday, and people needing bank services will have to use ATMs or online banking to pay bills, transfer or withdraw money. Some workers threaten to extend the strike beyond the initial 24-hour period if an agreement is not reached.