On Tuesday, in a remote, sparsely populated jungle region near the borders of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, a deep, powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook intensely followed by another 7.6 magnitude quake five minutes later and just miles away.
The United States Geological Survey says that the latter earthquake was almost certainly triggered by the earlier event. Seismologists sometimes refer to a pair of similarly sized earthquakes that occur at nearly the same time and location as an earthquake “doublet.”
According to AccuWeather reports, the quake occurred 107 miles west-northwest of Iberia, Peru, and 423 miles east-northeast of the capital of Lima. The second quake was centered 130 miles south of Tarauaca, Brazil.
Because of the depth of these quakes at 373.2 miles and 380.1 miles, respectively, no tsunami watches or warnings were issued.
The area of these quakes are inhabited by fewer than 1,000 people. No reports of injuries are damage have been reported at this time.
A Brazilian man who visited Guinea is being tested for Ebola, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Castro said on Wednesday.
The 46-year-old man arrived in Brazil on Nov. 6 and developed high fever with muscle pains and headaches two days later, he said. Officials declined to provide the man’s name.
After going to the emergency health clinic in Minas Gerais he was transferred to an infectious disease hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The Unit at Minas Gerais was shut down as a preventive measure.
According to Reuters, Guinea is one of three impoverished West African countries, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, that have suffered with the most deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in recent years.
As a precaution and medical workers or other patients who had contact with the man are being monitored by health officials. Brazil immediately informed international health authorities of the suspected case.
Two dams at a Brazilian iron ore mine collapsed on Friday, resulting in a devastating mudslide that has killed at least 2 people, injured 30, and left dozens missing.
A spokesman representing the firefighters said that the numbers of deaths, injured, and missing will likely rise due to the mudslide knocking over cell towers and blocking roads. Time Magazine reports that union officials believe the casualties could be as high as 15.
“In reality there are a lot more, but we can’t confirm any more than that. We don’t even know that we’ll find everybody,” firefighter Adão Severino Junior in the nearby city of Mariana told Reuters.
Hundreds of families were evacuated from the area after the initial escape to higher ground. Television footage of the incident showed a car perched on top of a wall, trees being leveled, and roofs being ripped off of houses due to the waste waters that were unleashed from the dams, according to Reuters.
Rescue teams are still looking for trapped survivors.
A soap opera based on the Biblical story of the Ten Commandments is a massive hit that is allowing its network to challenge the top channel in the country.
The program is driving the Rede Record television network to the top of the ratings. The network, owned by the founder of Brazil’s biggest pentecostal church, has suddenly become a major player in broadcasting.
TV critics and analysts suggest the family oriented script of the program is what drives the sky-high ratings.
“There is a more conservative audience in Brazil that we’ve seen is quite strong,” said Bruno Dieguez, a communications professor at Rio’s Pontifical Catholic University.
“The Ten Commandments” has earned ratings triple any previous offering by its network. The network has also spent more money on the show than any previous production.
“In my opinion, there should only be soaps like this one – to teach about the Bible, about family and values,” hairdresser Cristiana da Silva said, dividing her attention between the evening’s last customer and the action on screen. “This is the best soap.”
The show could be heading to the United States. MundoFox, Fox Television’s Spanish-language channel, is negotiating for the television rights.
A drought that has been called the “worst to hit Brazil’s biggest city in decades” is threatening to collapse the city’s water system.
Sao Paulo water utility company Sabesp says that unless they move now to a five days off, two days on system for providing water, the Cantareia water system will collapse.
Sao Paulo is Brazil’s richest state and economic hub. Officials are concerned the lack of water will have a significant negative impact on the region’s and the nation’s economy as businesses will begin to relocate to other areas and countries.
The biggest impact would be on industrial factories that rely on large scale water supplies to produce goods.
The utility says the Cantareria is at 5.1% of capacity of 264 billion gallons due to the drought.
The state has been attempting to rush projects to bring extra water into the Cantareia system but the projects are well behind schedule.
The Brazilian Bible Society says they will be handing out more Bibles at the World Cup than the population of 23 of the 50 U.S. states.
Leaders of the BBS say that they have four million Bibles that will be handed out to competitors, officials and attendees at the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament.
“Brazilians are football-mad and their obsession with football will reach fever pitch over the next few weeks,” said Dr. Rudi Zimmer of the Bible Society of Brazil, reports the United Bible Societies. “We want the Bible to have a prominent presence amid all the excitement. It’s an unprecedented opportunity for churches and Christians here to share God’s Word with local and foreign fans, and we want to equip and encourage them to do that.”
In addition to the Bibles, over 20,000 copies of the Gospel of John will be handed out in Portuguese and eight other languages.
Over 1,600 churches have joined together as part of the outreach effort in what is called the “Fair Play Brazil” outreach. Those involved say “Fair Play Brazil” was inspired by the apostle Paul.
“Corinth was one of the largest and busiest cities of the Roman Empire and hosted one of the biggest sporting events in the calendar; the Isthmian Games,” said Zimmer. “There, Paul found the opportunity to preach the Gospel to people from all over the world. We and our partners share that same vision now – both for the World Cup this year and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016.”
Soccer’s major world event, the World Cup, arrives in Brazil in June 2014 and officials in the city say they’ve seen a rise in child prostitution as the event draws closer.
The National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labor, a non-government agency, says the government has been pledging to stop child prostitution for 13 years but has taken very few steps to stop it.
The NFPCL said that at the end of 2012, around 500,000 children were being forced into prostitution in Brazil. The total was five times higher than the total in 2001.
“We’re worried sexual exploitation will increase in the host cities and around them,” Joseleno Vieira dos Santos of Brazil’s Human Rights Secretariat told the Guardian newspaper. “We’re trying to co-ordinate efforts as much as we can with state and city governments to understand the scope of the problem.”
The increase in child sex trafficking is being attributed to a number of growing problems within Brazil’s poorer populations including extreme poverty and drug use.
After coming out as one of the harshest critics of the United States National Security Agency’s spying revelations, reports have surfaced that Brazil was actively carrying out counter-intelligence activities against the U.S. and others.
Brazil’s justice minister said that his spies were acting in a lawful manner when they followed around diplomats from the U.S., Russia and other nations while they were engaging in daily activities.
Jose Eduardo Cardoso took great pains to say the situations in his nation and the actions taken by the NSA were not the same.
“I see completely different situations. What happened in relation to Brazil and other countries was a violation. Emails and phone calls were violated, which is an affront to Brazilian sovereignty,” Cardoso told a press conference.
The U.S. State Department said the discovery reported in Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo newspaper proves what they’ve been saying all along regarding all nations conducting spy activity on diplomats of other nations.
A Brazilian drug cartel is threatening mass terror attacks during next year’s World Cup.
The cartel, First Capital Command in Sao Paulo, murdered more than 100 police officers in the city last year. The threat of increased terror and violence came as government prosecutors worked to move cartel members to a more secure jail facility.
Six 2014 World Cup matches, including the tournament’s opening game, is scheduled to be held in Sao Paulo.
Soccer’s World Cup draws millions of fans from around the world and would be a major economic boom for Brazil. The recent spate of violence and the threats from drug cartels is putting tourism in question. Officials said that they could not guarantee the safety of anyone who comes Brazil for the tournament.
Rio de Janiero is scheduled to host the Olympics in 2016 and there are fears of violence causing delays in construction of Olympic venues or threaten safety for athletes.
Three-year-old Isabella Severo dos Santos was caught in her home when water from the broken pipe flooded the Campo Grande neighborhood. Water shot 65 feet into the air from the pipe and forced many emergency rescues.
“Our job was to get people out of their homes as the flooding spread,” Col. Sergio Simoes told GloboNews TV as rescue teams used rubber dinghies to reach areas of the neighborhood inundated with water. Continue reading →
