Brazil News

Comments about the latest news from Brazil. Unusual stories or mainstream items.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Playstation 3 rocks - or rock

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.

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Alagoas health in chaos

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.

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Five-star cell treatment for businessman

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.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Politicians will have fewer chances to change parties

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.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Company is sued for not allowing employee to use the toilet

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."

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Amazon deforestation rate down, still high

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.

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Cigarette companies are also sued in Brazil

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.

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Friday, August 10, 2007

Can this man really see the future?

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.

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Thursday, August 09, 2007

Car is stolen twice on same day

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.

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Man survives helicopter crash in Brasilia

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.

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Wednesday, August 08, 2007

All new cars to have radar tracking in Brazil

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.

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Brazilian authorities arrest Colombian drug lord

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.

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Brazilians dig 76 tons of buried meat for barbecue

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.

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