A homemade explosive device was discovered in the bathroom of the parking garage of the Brazilian shrine that Pope Francis will visit this week, the military said Monday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Pope Francis has returned to the warm embrace of Latin America, landing in Brazil to begin his first international trip as pontiff. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
It’s wheels up on Pope Francis’ first trip abroad as pontiff. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Pope Francis lands Monday in a Brazil electric with anticipation for the pontiff’s first international trip, heading into the open arms of his home continent where mammoth crowds are expected to celebrate Mass on Rio’s Copacabana beach. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Bringing his message of a “poor Church for the poor,” Pope Francis heads to Brazil Monday to find a country facing a shrinking Catholic flock and anger over government waste. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Since taking the helm of the world’s biggest church in March, Pope Francis has waded into massive crowds with minimal protection to hug children and wash the feet of the faithful. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Pope Francis thanked pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for their good wishes for his impending journey to Brazil for World Youth Day. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The white sands of Copacabana beach typically draw millions of sun-worshippers, New Year’s Eve revelers and fans for free concerts by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Brazil’s president renewed her commitment to affirmative action programs for Afro-Brazilians in a meeting with 20 leading black groups, Racial Equality Minister Luiza Bairros said. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Brazil’s post office is to issue a stamp in honor of Pope Francis, who is due in Rio on Monday to attend a week-long Catholic youth fest. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The Brazilian edition of Playboy magazine announced that a model who claims to be evangelical will be on the cover of their September issue. Aline Franzoi, who belongs to National Mission Evangelical Church in Brazil, is a ring girl for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitions and she drew criticism for joining the organization known to be a violent sport but now the news of her upcoming cover adds even more controversy to her career choices. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
By Matt Cantor
A month after Brazil saw widespread unrest , Pope Francis is headed to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day (which is actually a week long). With more than a million attendees expected, authorities aren’t taking any chances. Demonstrators wore Guy Fawkes masks during June’s protests; at a Mass the pope… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Elegant in tuxedos and white gloves, the six black pallbearers silently and gracefully remove the mahogany coffin bearing a Lima tire magnate from his mansion. They slide it into the Cadillac hearse that will parade Jorge Reyna’s body through the Chorrillos district where he was once mayor.
The pallbearers are in the job precisely because of the color of their skin, a phenomenon unique to this South American capital that was the regional seat of Spain’s colonial empire for more than three centuries. In fact, prominent citizens such as Reyna, a widely respected, charitable man of indigenous origin who died at age 82, request black pallbearers for their funerals.
“He planned his funeral and wanted it to be elegant,” said Reyna’s widow, Clarisa Velarde.
Blacks routinely bear the caskets of ex-presidents, mining magnates and bankers to their tombs in Lima. The peculiar tradition exists neither in provincial Peruvian cities nor in other Latin American countries with significant black populations such as Brazil, Panama and Colombia.
It is not a profession chosen by Lima’s blacks but is rather thrust upon them by a lack of opportunity, say Afro-Peruvian scholars. And racism remains so deeply ingrained in Peru that many don’t consider the practice discriminatory.
“Beyond the question of racism or prejudice, I think it is simply a question of employment,” said Jose Campos, a leading Peruvian black studies scholar and vice rector of the National Education University.
For 61-year-old Armando Arguedas, who like his fellow pallbearers never finished elementary school, it’s simply a job.
“Some people are friendly,” he said of those who employ him. “Some don’t even say thank you.”
Black pallbearers were even used for the recent funeral of the wife of former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
“We were never treated better,” said Arguedas. “The family members thanked us and paid us triple.”
Blacks are all but absent from Peru’s business and political elite and although slavery was abolished in 1854, only 2 percent of Peru’s blacks go to college. Afro-Peruvians are consigned largely to manual labor including as field hands in sugar cane plantations along the nation’s Pacific coast.
Census-takers don’t even register …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Deforestation has soared in the Brazilian Amazon since a new forestry code was passed last year at the urging of the agribusiness lobby, a non-profit environmental group said Thursday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Well, supersonic jet travel may be practical, but will the market pay the price? For years, Jeff Miller has been exploring an array of issues surrounding the feasibility of supersonic business jet development. This is part one of a two-part series where he addresses some of the questions and provokes many more. Jeff Miller (bravojjm@gmail.com) specializes in corporate communications for the business aviation and luxury goods markets, and operates his own advertising agency dedicated to brand marketing. He has led corporate communications for Learjet and Gulfstream. The Anchorage airport has become a typical refueling stop for U.S.-to-Asia business jet flights. The aim is to get in and out fast. The terminals (known as FBOs) that service business aircraft are practiced at turning business flights quickly—sometimes in just 30 minutes. Passengers and pilots want to minimize ground delays. After all, business jets are only midway through 15 or 16-hour journeys. Sure, some of the newest intercontinental-range jets like the Gulfstream G650 and the Bombardier Global 8000, which boast extraordinary 8000 or 9000 statute miles range (effectively the distance between Chicago and Singapore), can eliminate the fuel stop. Even so, long-range business travel has a downside. It takes a physical toll on the toughest executives even when they’re flying aboard the most well-appointed business jets offering productive, comfortable cabins with outstanding eating, sleeping and work amenities. Still, it’s not uncommon for senior executives to make more than one trip from Brazil or the U.S. to Asia every month, and traffic flows the other way, too, with executives from Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere heading to the Americas. Would these executives pay a 30 or 40 percent premium for a supersonic jet to cut those missions to half the time or less? The answer is almost certainly yes. The rationale for a supersonic business jet is stronger today than when companies such as Gulfstream, Dassault and others began displaying Concorde-like models at trade shows more than a decade ago. At that time, the principal market for business jets was in the U.S., with business aircraft designed principally for U.S. coast-to-coast or U.S. to Europe routes. Trade patterns have changed, and the action today is not just in major business jet destinations and markets in China, India, Brazil and Russia, but also in Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates among many other emerging global trade destinations. The number one criterion for business jet purchasers, according to Honeywell Aerospace, is range. It is no wonder that a jet such as the Mach 0.925 Gulfstream G650 sells so well, even though it is, in truth, only modestly faster than an earlier generation of jets. The G650 will still save an hour on the longest trips, and with more than 200 purchased the first day it went on sale, the market has resoundingly indicated that an hour saved is worth paying for. Even before the economic emergence of China and other rapid growth regions outside of North America and Europe, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
An international research team—Drs. Stephan Caravalho, Luc Belzunces and colleagues from Universidade Federal de Lavras in Brazil and Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique in France – concludes that the absence of mortality does not always indicate functional integrity. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
It sounds great: Microsoft now offers a free year’s subscription to its Xbox LIVE Gold service if you pick up an Office 365 subscription or Office 365 University.
But dig into the terms and conditions attached to the promotion, and you’ll find out quickly that it doesn’t apply to everybody. In fact, if you purchased either subscription within the United States, you’re out of luck.
What this does imply, however, is that Microsoft hopes to beef up its international penetration of Office 365 by piggybacking it onto the more popular Xbox game console. The deal is available in Canada and Mexico, plus many European countries like France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Two of the so-called BRIC countries are also included: Brazil, and Russia.
But you’re also out of luck if you purchased any of the following, which are not eligible for the deal:
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Celtic manager Neil Lennon admits his side are nowhere near their best as they prepare to take on Cliftonville in a vital Champions League qualifier in Belfast on Wednesday.
Lennon’s team have endured a far from ideal preparation for the crucial tie after conceding 12 goals in four friendly defeats on a pre-season tour of Germany disrupted by injuries and star sales.
The Scottish champions could be without a number of key players for the second qualifying round first leg match against the Northern Irish minnows.
Adam Matthews, Gary Hooper and Joe Ledley are all expected to be sidelined, while Kenya midfielder Victor Wanyama, a key figure last season, has been sold to Southampton.
And Lennon says starting their European campaign less than eight weeks since their Scottish Cup win over Hibernian at the end of last season is far from ideal.
“It’s so early, it’s a harsh reality of where we are,” Lennon said.
“We won the cup final at the end of May and we are back in on June 24.
“It’s been staggered and a bit disjointed because we have had a lot of injuries as well.
“I don’t even know what my best team is at the moment or which players I’ll have available to me.
“They are the ups and downs you have to cope with during pre-season, but I don’t think you’ll see us anywhere near our best for another two weeks or so.
“We know how difficult it’s going to be because these games are so early in the season.
“We’ll cover it as best we can but it won’t be easy for us.”
Despite the financial gulf that separates the two sides, Lennon has warned his players against complacency against the team of part-timers, whose tiny Solitude ground has been extended to allow a 5,000 capacity crowd.
“What we can’t get involved in is the party or the carnival atmosphere,” Lennon said. “We have to be professional and go there to do a job.”
One player desperate to play and make an impact at the Parkhead club is Australian international Tom Rogic
The midfielder, who helped the Socceroos book their slot in Brazil next summer with a 1-0 win over Iraq, missed out on Celtic’s run to the Champions League last 16 last season after only joining the club from A-League side Central Coast Mariners in January.
The Scottish champions’ task this season is even tougher as they face three qualifying rounds just to reach the money-spinning group stages of the competition, but Rogic can’t wait to get involved.
“The Champions League will be a new experience for me,” he said.
“It would be a great achievement if I could play a part in it and it would also be good for the club and our season if we could make it into the group stage again. We just have to do our best to make sure we get there.
“I’m sure we’ll be ready for Cliftonville on Wednesday night. The squad is more or less the same and we all know our jobs.
“We’re comfortable playing with each other. We’ve all …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
This is the first new Datsun in, well, about three decades. A Datsun? You mean the brand that:
Yeah, that Datsun. Except that the new Datsun Go is probably not very fun, probably rustproofed, and a Nissan turned into it. The idea is to sell the five-door hatchback in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Russia for about the same price as a smaller car from a more mainstream brand. It’s not an original idea. Renault, which is half-merged with Nissan and shares Carlos Ghosn as a CEO, has raked in millions with its cheap ‘n’ rugged Dacia brand.
The Go is definitely simple. It sits on Nissan’s Type-V platform, which also underpins the Micra, a Fiesta-sized car that Nissan sells around the world in countries where the Versa is considered not-tiny. Motivation comes from a 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine—horsepower number not named yet, but two digits are guaranteed—and a five-speed manual transmission. A radio is optional, or, in its place, a clever dock for a smartphone that hooks into the car’s speaker system. And, um, that’s kind of it.
For the industry-interested among you, a few points merit attention. First, we’re unclear why Mr. Ghosn needed to resurrect the Datsun name for this car; Nissan doesn’t exactly have a high-class reputation around the world that would be ruined with a budget model like this. And name aside, why reinvent the budget car? There’s already an entire range of Dacias, and if there’s a compulsion to sell them as Nissans or Datsuns, a logo will glue to the front pretty easily. (In fact, Nissan already sells rebadged Dacias, like the Duster-cum-Terrano.)
Lastly, look at where Datsun is being sold initially: South Africa, India, Indonesia. Similarity? They’re all developing markets with expanding middle classes, sure, but they’re all right-hand-drive. They also are countries where many shoppers prefer sedans, and that is strong enough that it has forced a number of companies to turn small hatchbacks into stumpy little sedans. Datsun is going to need a sedan stat, and an automatic transmission, too. Although left-hand-drive versions are coming for the Russian market, Ghosn told us recently that he’s not in a rush to roll out Datsun around the world. He wasn’t even enthusiastic about his home country of Brazil, which is the archetype market for low-cost cars like this.
And the U.S.? Forget about it. Datsun is just history.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver
By Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor
Eike Batista is going down. Whether or not he is out for the count is another story. But his oil company, OGX, which was once the promise of a new private oil sector in Brazil after government run Petrobras found so much oil it had to share it with others, is a shadow of its former self. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
