Stories related to: Brazil

Candy giant Mars is investing $10 million in a 5-year research project to unlock the secrets of chocolate's genetic code—the cocoa genome—as the first stage in developing cacao trees that can produce more, survive droughts, and combat disease. Mars intends to make the results public to stop key genes from being privately patented, reports the Washington Post. The cocoa harvest has become volatile and unreliable in recent years. More »

Nations once known for extremes of poverty—China, India and Brazil—are now producing more of the world's millionaires and super rich than ever before, according to a new study of the globe's wealthiest entrepreneurs. The US is losing ground to emerging markets when it comes to producing personal wealth, reports the Wall Street Journal . More »

An "unprecedented" combination of ills is threatening the Amazon, and if nothing is done to ease the pressure on the world’s largest rainforest, more than half of it could be gone or withered in 20 years, Rhett Butler writes for Yale Environment 360 . After a three-year decline, forest clearing doubled in the latter part of 2007 to help feed the insatiable demand of the growing economies in China, India, Russia, and elsewhere. More »

Picasso remains the artist of choice for the criminal elite of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Three armed robbers made off with two of his prints— The Painter and the Model and Minotaur, Drinker and Women —from a city museum today, Reuters reports. The robbery comes just weeks after thieves nabbed Picasso's Suzanne Bloch painting from a different city museum. More »

Four nations have appealed to stop the fast-track adoption of Microsoft’s Office Open XML file format as an international standard, a world standards body announced yesterday. Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa and India have all appealed. The exact reason is unknown, but many have complained that the March vote to approve Open XML was rushed, Reuters reports. Adoption would help Microsoft land more public-sector contracts worldwide. More »

One of the last remaining Amazon tribal communities yet to have contact with the outside world has been photographed from the air, reports the BBC. The photos show startled, red-painted tribesmen aiming arrows at the aircraft overhead. Members live in thatched huts near Brazil's remote Peruvian border. More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru. Brazil's government took the photos as part of a push to protect the tribes. More »

Fisher-Price has tackled some unexpected challenges lately, from perfecting a recording of the phrase “It’s learning time!” in Mandarin to removing pig illustrations from Turkish kids’ books. In the past 5 years, Fisher-Price’s sales abroad have more than doubled while sales drop domestically—as traditional toys are replaced with high-tech gadgets—and the firm is re-prioritizing to serve its new audience, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Anheuser-Busch executives are surely examining the fate of Interbrew, the Belgian company swallowed in 2004 by InBev, the Brazilian juggernaut reportedly preparing to grab the iconic US brewer, the Wall Street Journal reports. InBev's locker-room, bottom-line-oriented corporate culture has quickly replaced beer-loving Belgians with Brazilian execs, a situation that would seem certain to fly in the face of A-B's tradition. More »

Brazilian consumers are putting better credit offers and growing wealth into computers, and HP and Dell are the beneficiaries. The country is now the 5th-biggest PC market in the world, and low-income buyers are fueling the boom there. Computer shipments rose 38% last year to 10.7 million, Bloomberg reports, as overall purchases passed TVs for the first time ever. More »

A ferry taking passengers home from a nighttime party capsized yesterday in Brazil, killing at least 15 people, AP reports. Dozens more were missing in the Solimoes River, one of the Amazon's largest tributaries. Most of those killed were women. Some passengers swam to shore and others were picked up by nearby boats. The ferry, which was carrying at least 80 people, was grounded earlier this year after failing an inspection. More »

Soccer virtuoso Ronaldo was questioned by police in Rio de Janeiro yesterday after an altercation in a motel with transvestite prostitutes, Reuters reports. The star of AC Milan and the Brazilian national team took three call girls to the motel, only to discover that they were men in drag, according to cops. Ronaldo then offered them $600 each to close the affair, but one of them demanded $30,000 to keep the story from the media. More »

Rescuers in boats and helicopters are searching off the coast of Brazil for a priest who vanished while trying to set a world record for the longest flight with helium-filled party balloons, AP reports. The priest took off from the northeastern city of Paranagua in a chair with hundreds of balloons attached. He was last heard from 30 miles offshore. More »

Brazil buys more condoms and boasts more rainforest than any other country; now officials hope to connect the dots, the BBC reports. The government will use rubber from Amazon trees to make 100 million condoms a year, given out freely as part of the country's anti-AIDS program. Rubber can be obtained without destroying trees and is widely available. More »

Brazil is launching a new crackdown against the loggers who are destroying the Amazon rainforest at alarming rates, the Washington Post reports. After several years of decline, deforestation is surging as cattle ranchers clear land and loggers cut down trees for charcoal to fuel steel mills abroad. But Brazil will have to find another way for the region's people to make a living; in some towns, 70% of citizens work in the logging industry. More »

Condoleezza Rice has embarked on a visit to Brazil and Chile, but the secretary of State won’t be stopping in neighboring Argentina, a sign of ever-frostier relations. “The United States is clearly snubbing Argentina,” one expert tells the New York Times . New Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has worsened already-sour relations by strengthening ties with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. More »

A helicopter whisked Naomi Campbell away from waiting paparazzi at a Brazil hospital after a successful operation to remove a cyst from her abdomen, E! Online reports. Doctors, including one of Brazil's top specialists, say the British supermodel is "completely cured" following the emergency surgery. Campbell, 37, is a frequent visitor to Brazil. More »

The next big buzz in the world of potent beverages may well be cachaça, the Brazilian take on rum that has its sights set on unseating tequila as the trendy shot du jour in the US. The exported version of the national drink, distilled from sugar cane, ranges from 76 to 96 proof and is already popular in Germany, BusinessWeek reports. More »

Nine people died, and 10 more are missing and feared dead after a ferry in Brazil sank this morning after colliding with a barge on the Amazon River, the AP reports. Authorities, who rescued 92 passengers near the town of Itacoatiara, say  "visibility was very poor" at the time of the accident due to the lunar eclipse. More »

The president of Brazil is pushing for stricter alcohol regulations following the release of two studies showing more Brazilians are abusing alcohol and at an earlier age, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The government has already temporarily banned the sale of alcohol on federal highways, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants Congress to limit daytime alcohol advertising on TV and radio. More »

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, today announced that important information had gone missing, and one Brazilian site says the data concerns two large, important new gas and oil finds, the Associated Press reports. The new fields are so large, Terra reports, that they could earn Brazil a seat with the OPEC oil cartel. More »