Far away from their nerve-wracking days as a spectacle for the public, some 50 chimpanzees live together in Sorocaba, a small Brazilian town repurposed as a refuge for big primates recovering from a traumatic life in zoos and circuses. High up a cement tower, a 20-year-old chimpanzee named Dolores jumps compulsively, claps her hands and screams incessantly, even as her fellow chimps regard her wi...

Rio de Janeiro, Feb. 9 — A protest Thursday against a proposal to privatize the Rio de Janeiro state water company shut down the center of Brazil's tourist mecca, leading to injuries, arrests, and damage to property. Demonstrators clashed with police in streets near the seat of the state legislature, where lawmakers were scheduled to debate the bill authorizing the sale of the Cedae utility. ...

Rio de Janeiro, Jan. 17 — Brazilian health authorities are on alert after the outbreak of yellow fever, with 47 cases detected in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais and given the risk that it could spread to nearby areas where possible cases are starting to be detected.The Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday that 152 suspected cases of the disease have been detected in 26 municipalities in rural...

Madrid, Jan. 16 — Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said Monday it will pay a total of around 671 million pounds sterling ($810 million) to law enforcement authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil to settle bribery and corruption charges, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires. The company, which manufactures jet engines and marine diesel engines, said it had reached deferred ...

By Wendy Anders Representatives from nine South American countries met this month to discuss the conservation of marine biodiversity in the open ocean, said the Costa Rican non-profit marine conservation group MarViva Foundation. Almost half the planet is covered by the high, or open seas, the waters found beyond countries’ territorial limits. Despite their abundance, these vast areas hav...

The Itaipu dam, which is operated by Paraguay and Brazil, finished 2016 with record electricity production of 103.09 million MW hours, eclipsing China's Three Gorges Dam as the world's top generator of hydroelectric power, officials said Sunday. Itaipu's hydroelectric turbines achieved an operational efficiency level of 96 percent last year, a figure that exceeded the 94 percent goal set by the...

By Wendy Anders Dec. 28: A full American Airlines flight destined from Sao Paolo, Brazil to New York made an unexpected landing when a couple having an argument in first class refused to follow crew instructions, said EFE. The resumption of the flight was delayed for almost 15 hours due to airline crew guidelines, the airline said. The plane left Tuesday night from Sao Paulo and landed at...

The creation of protected areas and parks in Central America aimed at conserving tropical forests has pushed indigenous people off the land they have nurtured for generations, researchers said on Friday. Protected areas are more effective when the rights of indigenous people living on the land are formally recognized, said the report released on the sidelines of a U.N. conservation conference i...

Sao Paulo, Dec. 6 — Colombian singer Shakira said here Tuesday that the task of being a mother has been the most difficult one in her life, admitting that combining motherhood with her professional career is a "daily challenge." Shakira with her eldest son in early 2015, source Facebook. "I don't know how I do it. I imagine that, like all women in the world, we're crazy. It's a daily challe...

(EFE).- At least 75 people died and five survived the Lamia flight that crashed in Colombia with 81 people on-board, police said Tuesday. On-board the plane were 22 players from the Brazilian Chapecoense soccer team, 28 management staff, members of the technical team and special guests, 22 journalists and nine crew members, who were en route to Medellin, Colombia to play Atletico Nacional in t...

Scientists in Brazil are preparing to release millions of factory-bred mosquitoes in an attempt to wipe out their distant cousins that carry tropical diseases. The insects' method: have sex and then die. British firm Oxitec says its genetically modified mosquitoes will swarm in among ordinary species such as Aedes aegypti, the insect that carries feared diseases such as Zika, dengue, yellow fev...

Brasilia, Oct 25 — About 3,000 cowboys and cowgirls on horseback rode Tuesday into Brasilia's Esplanade of the Ministries, which connects all of the government buildings in the Brazilian capital, to protest a Supreme Court ruling banning traditional bullfighting festivals. Vaquejada in Brazil, Facebook. The protest tied up traffic for an hour in downtown Brasilia, where demonstrators create...

CHAPADA DOS GUIMARAES, Brazil — Maia grunts and nervously moves her huge body back and forth while being released from a transport container to a new home. Here, there are no gawking crowds for the Asian elephant that has spent her life in captivity. There are no blows from bull hooks, no one demanding tricks like people did when she was in the circus. Wikimedia Commons Instead, the first e...

REUTERS- Home to the vast Amazon, Brazil has reduced its deforestation rate by more than 70 percent since 2003, but Latin America's largest country is still losing the equivalent of two football fields of rainforest every minute. The country aims to reduce net new deforestation to zero by 2030. Key tools in the fight are new satellite monitoring technologies, rural titling schemes to encoura...

SPAIN PROSTITUTION  Alicante, Spain, Sept. 18 — The Spanish police have dismantled a group dedicated to human trafficking, prostitution and drugs, and managed to arrest six suspects. Police officials announced that this group is part of a criminal organization specialized in sexual exploitation of women of different nationalities to make revenues that have been transferred to Brazil. The ma...

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Forest fires raging in northeast Brazil are forcing indigenous people out of their traditional territories and threatening uncontacted tribes, an indigenous leader said on Wednesday. Fire season in the Amazon and surrounding Savannah normally lasts from July to November, but burning has become more intense due to climate change and illegal logging, said Sonia Gua...

Shanghai, China, Sept. 15 - The proposed inter-oceanic railroad linking South America's Atlantic coast with its Pacific shores via Brazil and Peru will cost around $60 billion, Peruvian Vice-President and Transport Minister Martin Vizcarra revealed Thursday. "The preliminary report says the corridor would exceed $60 billion; given these figures and other projects that could be more urgent, it h...

Brasilia, Aug 31.- Brazil's Senate voted 61-20 on Wednesday to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office over budget irregularities. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff smiles as she attends a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Adriano Machado The decision means that Michel Temer, who became interim president May 12, will serve the remaind...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff By Manuel Pérez Bella for EFE Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing her most difficult moment yet in a long and storied political career: she now stands suspended from office, alone, surrounded by hostile forces and retaining scarce support from her once-loyal social base. The constant erosion suffered by her party's congressmembers has been refle...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff Brasilia, Jun 21 (EFE).- The speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, currently sidelined pending trial on corruption charges, said Tuesday that he will feel "proud" if the case against suspended President Dilma Rousseff ends with her impeachment. "I'm neither a hero nor a villain in the case" against Rousseff, Eduardo Cunha told a press conference. ...

Wikimedia Commons Algeciras, Spain, Jun 20 (EFE).- The Spanish Civil Guard in the southern port of Algeciras seized 280 kilos (615 lbs.) of cocaine hidden in a container shipped from Brazil, the security corps reported in a statement. An investigation by Spain's Civil Guard aided by Brazilian police intelligence found the drug hidden in a container transporting a legal cargo of sugar. On...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, May 27 (EFE).- The gang rape of a 16-year-old girl by more than 30 men in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown has sparked an outcry for justice on social networks and from Brazil's political class, including suspended President Dilma Rousseff and interim head of state Michel Temer. Thousands of Internet users have inundated Twitter with messages expressing indignation...

Presidential Standard of Brazil. Wikimedia Commons Brasilia, May 12 (EFE).- Vice President Michel Temer will become Brazil's acting president on Thursday after the Senate voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office for up to six months while she is tried in that chamber for allegedly violating budget laws. The vote to impeach and suspend Rousseff came after a marathon session in the upper ho...

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin America on Sunday. (Archive/Reuters) Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin American states on Sunday, May 8, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Iranian foreign minister’s 6-day-long visit to Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela a...

Microcephaly is a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) A group of Brazilian scientists on Monday released a study proving the relationship between the Zika virus and cases of babies being born with abnormally small skulls, a condition known as microcephaly which has increased exponentially in Brazil in recent mon...

Wikimedia Commons By Carlota Ciudad Rio de Janeiro, Apr 11 (EFE).- Stable sexual relationships in which more than two people are involved, or "polylove" as its participants call it, is gradually gaining ground in Brazil by making use of a loophole in the laws of the country, where more and more unions of this kind are in evidence. Though the number of such cases has grown in recent years...

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Gregg Newton With reporting by EFE and Reuters The Government of Costa Rica expressed its concerns this week about the deepening political crisis in Brazil, as Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said she will not resign in Brazil's worst political crisis in ...

Flickr Commons Sao Paulo, Mar 1 (EFE).- The vice president of Facebook for Latin America was arrested here Tuesday for repeated non-compliance with court orders, Brazil's Federal Police said. Diego Dzodan, an Argentine citizen, was arrested in Sao Paulo on a warrant handed down by a judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe. Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao ruled that the executive failed to...

  "Força Nacional de Segurança - Luziânia" by Fábio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr - http://www.agenciabrasil.gov.br/media/imagens/2007/10/21/1625FP4021.jpg/view. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 br via Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Feb 28 (EFE).- About 1,500 taxi drivers took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday to demand a peaceful debate on ride-sharing service Uber and other transportation compani...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Rio de Janeiro, Feb 18 (EFE).- The front man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, said Thursday that he is happy to return to Rio de Janeiro, where the iconic British rock band will offer its fourth concert on the weekend, 10 years after giving a free performance here that attracted 1.2 million fans. "...

Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo, Feb 16 (EFE).- Real estate prices fell between 15 percent and 20 percent in Brazil last year and the sector will remain "under pressure" until mid-2017, credit rating agency Moody's said Tuesday. Brazil's real estate industry has been in a cyclical downturn since 2012, with the slump coming after a period of rapid growth, Moody's said. The downturn has intensifi...

By Ministério da Defesa - Solenidade de passagem de cargo dos Comandantes da 2ª Região Militar e da 2ª Divisão de Exército no QG do Comando Militar do Sudeste (CMSE), CC BY 2.0 Rio de Janeiro, Feb 13 (EFE).- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff led this Saturday the National Day of Mobilization for the Fight against the Aedes Aegypti, a day during which more than 200,000 members of the armed for...

Microcephaly is a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) WASHINGTON DC and SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA - The Pan American Health Organization says Latin America will have between 2 million and 3 million Zika cases, warning that the 100,000 cases reported thus far do not reflect the magnitude of the situation because many ...

Olympic mascots are seen at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome, Feb. 7, 2016. (Reuters OMX) NEW YORK (Reuters OMX) The United States Olympic Committee told U.S. sports federations that athletes and staff concerned for their health over the Zika virus should consider not going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August. The message was delivered in a conference call involving USOC of...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Feb 5 (EFE).- Mayor Eduardo Paes took the opportunity of Friday's ceremony marking the state of Rio's famous Carnival to urge residents of Brazil's second city not to forget the fight against the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus and dengue fever. "Don't forget the mosquito, which now brings us a new disease, Zika," he said. The spread of Zika and i...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Lima, Feb 2 (EFE).- The Rolling Stones sent a message to their Peruvian fans saying they "can't wait to play in Lima" on their Latin America Ole Tour. The rock group wound up rehearsals for the tour Monday in Santiago, and will give their first concert Wednesday in the Chilean capital, after which they...

Wikimedia Commons Geneva, Feb 1 (EFE).- The World Health Organization said Monday that the dramatic increase in Brazil of birth defects thought to be caused by the mosquito-borne Zika virus constitutes an international public health emergency. The sharp rise in babies born with abnormally small skulls - a condition known as microcephaly - in areas suffering from a Zika outbreak "constitute ...

Source: Flickr Commons Rio de Janeiro, Jan 25 (EFE).- The mayor of the Brazilian town of Goianesia do Para, Joao Gomes, was murdered Sunday night while he was attending a wake, local media reported. He was 62. Gomes, popularly known as "Russo," was attending a wake downtown in the municipality in the northern Brazilian state of Para, when two people wearing helmets that covered their faces,...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Jan 27 (EFE).- The average annual percentage rate on Brazilian credit cards climbed to 431.4 percent in December, its highest level since that statistic began to be published in March 2011, the Central Bank said in a statement Wednesday. The average credit card APR rose by 16.1 percentage points in December compared with November and by 99.8 percentage poin...

By Alba Santandreu Piracicaba, Brazil, Jan 27 (EFE).- Roughly 800,000 genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are being released per week in the Brazilian city of Piracicaba to combat that insect, a transmitter of the dengue and zika viruses that has confounded health authorities in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Unlike other mosquitoes, the "good" Aedes aegypti, as it is c...