News and reports from North, Central and South America.
Prisoners are beheaded and burned as violence from warring drug factions spreads across Rio de Janeiro’s prisons. A state of emergency has been declared in Rio de Janeiro’s prisons, after a blood bath in one jail triggered a wave of rebellions across the city. Rio’s governor, Rosinha Matheus, made the decision last week after a […]
Continue ReadingA special report from the centre of Rio’s ongoing drugs feud as police forces battle to stop all-out war. High above Rio de Janeiro’s Complexo do Alemão slum, a police helicopter jitters in a brilliant blue sky, circling, hovering and occasionally descending when it spies something of interest. On the ground, a 350-strong, heavily-armed police […]
Continue ReadingParents at an upmarket school in Rio’s embattled Rochinha district want its owners to relocate so their children are not killed in the raging drugs war that surrounds it. Like most of Rio, headmaster Peter Cooper watched in horror as another week of violence unraveled in Rocinha — one of the city’s largest slums. A […]
Continue ReadingAn attempted invasion of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela by rival drug traffickers on Good Friday left at least three civilians dead and wounded scores of others. In the early hours of the national holiday, beginning on Friday, a group of 30 armed men tried to enter Rocinha district from the surrounding forest. In the […]
Continue ReadingClashes between police and slum-dwellers turn Rio de Janerio’s world-famous beach neighbourhood of Copacabana into a war zone. Local businesses were forced to close last week as hundreds of residents from a nearby favela took to the streets in protest after three men were killed in the community. Residents of the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela are accusing […]
Continue ReadingAs City of God – a film depicting wars between rival drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro – receives four Oscar nominations, a real life version is taking place in the city. This time the central characters of the action are not Zé Pequeno or Mané Galinha – Fernando Mereilles’ semi-fictional traficantes – but Lulu […]
Continue ReadingRachel de Queiroz, grand dame of the Brazilian literary community, passed away quietly this week. A published author at 20, Queiroz was a remarkable novelist, playwright, raconteur and columnist. Rachel de Queiroz was always ahead of her time. Born on 17 November 1910, in Fortaleza, capital of Ceará state, she began the writer’s life early […]
Continue ReadingGunfights between police and gangs in a bustling Brazilian ‘favela’ see students at Rio’s neighbouring ‘American School’ running for cover. A US anti-terrorism programme will provide Rio de Janeiro’s American School with bulletproof windows and increased security, after a series of shootouts between police and gangs in a nearby favela. A favela is a typical […]
Continue ReadingAs new statistics show 133 million Americans are breathing in harmful exhaust fumes, President Bush amends a law that critics say will only inflame the growing health crisis. President George Bush’s "Clear Skies" initiative had better work because the country’s air pollution is getting worse. A recent report issued by the Surface Transportation Policy Project […]
Continue ReadingThe world’s first black independent state is gearing up for its 200th birthday. But as Haiti’s pioneering history is overshadowed by its contemporary crisis, is there anything left to party about? On 1 January 2004, the Caribbean nation of Haiti (the left half of the island of Santa Domingo which is shared with the Dominican […]
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