Brazil: The Future's Country

(Newser) - The Airbus A320 that crashed at the Sao Paulo airport Tuesday was flying with part of its braking equipment disabled, the manufacturer said today, as pressure on the government escalated. Flying without one of the aircraft's two thrust reversers is legal, but the revelation suggests the slick, short runway probably wasn't the sole cause of Brazil's deadliest air disaster. More »

(Newser) - In the wake of Tuesday's catastrophic plane crash, Brazilian officials are calling for the closure of Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport pending a review of safety conditions, the BBC reports. The Tam Airlines Airbus 320 landing in heavy rain skidded off a wet runway that was resurfaced last month and had not yet had drainage grooves inscribed on the new concrete. More »

(Newser) - The death toll in last night's plane crash at the Sao Paulo airport is expected to near 200, making it the worst in Brazil's history, officials said today as rescuers continued pulling bodies from the rubble. The Airbus 320 had 186 people onboard, and more died on the ground when the aircraft skidded into a building and exploded. More »

(Newser) - A plane with up to 178 passengers and crew skidded off a Brazilian runway in heavy rain, careered across a traffic-snarled road, slammed into a gas station and exploded in a huge ball of fire. The accident happened as a Tam Airlines Airbus was landing in Sao Paolo after a flight from Porto Alegre last night. More »

(Newser) - "SAO PAULO, Brazil - A plane with as many as 170 people aboard crashed and burst into flames in Sao Paulo on Tuesday after skidding off a runway that has been criticized as being too short in a driving rain, the nation's airport authority said. -- From AP More »

(Newser) - Despite missing playmakers Kaka and Ronaldinho and scuffling earlier in the tournament, Brazil got hot at the right time to upset old rivals Argentina and win its eighth Copa America, the second in a row. Argentina's freewheeling offense was disrupted by 37 fouls from its calculating, muscular opponent, and Brazil scored two in the first half to take control. More »

(Newser) - Brazil out-shot Uruguay 5-4 in penalty kicks this Tuesday, earning itself a fifth Copa America final in six attempts. Argentina shut out Mexico 3-0 last night for the other spot in this year's championship Sunday in Venezuela. The match will be a recapitulation of 2004's final, in which Brazil downed Argentina in a shootout. More »

(Newser) - Brazil's president bluntly dismissed the climate-change plan offered by George Bush last week as "voluntarism" in a situation where "multinationalism" is needed. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose fast-developing country is critical to any international deal on emissions cuts, said the proposal for a new international framework was a ruse to sidestep the UN, More »

(Newser) - Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI decried contraception as a threat to the future of Latin America on his visit to Brazil, Brazil's president announced that the government would subsidize birth control pills at private pharmacies so poor women can have "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want." More »

(Newser) - Up to a million spectators will flock to Sao Paulo today to see Pope Benedict XVI canonize the first saint born in Brazil. Friar Galvao, a Franciscan monk who died in 1822, wrote Latin prayers on slips of rice paper that he rolled into "pills," which appeared to cure diseases. Followers still take the pills at a Sao Paulo monastery. More »

(Newser) - Pope Benedict brought the Catholic Church's stern anti-abortion message to Brazil today, weeks after Mexico City legalized the practice and as Brazil faintly contemplates doing the same. The Pope is on his first trip to Latin America—the fastest-expanding corner of his flock, but also one of the most precarious—this week. More »