2 buildings collapse in Rio de Janeiro

Two buildings collapsed in downtown Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, in the latest incident highlighting the failure of authorities to improve the city’s infrastructure amid preparations to host soccer’s World Cup and the Olympics.
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Syria’s activists urge South Africa, Brazil, India to back the UN resolution

A group of Syrian activists urged South Africa, Brazil, and India, which are current non-permanent UN Security Council members, to back a resolution condemning Damascus’ government’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests. (more…)

France appeals to Brazil to support resolution on Syria

France’s U.N. envoy appealed to skeptical Brazil on Monday to support a European draft resolution that would condemn Syria for its bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

Brazil, like India and South Africa, has expressed reservations about the draft resolution prepared by Britain (more…)

Libya ‘ready for ceasefire’ after UN no fly zone vote

Libya is ready for a ceasefire with the rebels battling Muammar Gaddafi, but wants to discuss how it will be implemented, deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaaim says. (more…)

Death toll from Brazil rains tops 500

At least 511 people have died as a result of downpours over the last four days in the Serrana region of the southeastern state of Rio de Janeiro in one of the worst natural disasters in Brazilian history, authorities said Friday.
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Brazil swears in its first female president

From torture in a dictatorship-era jail cell to the helm of Latin America’s largest nation, it’s been an unlikely political rise for President Dilma Rousseff, a former Marxist rebel turned career technocrat who claimed Brazil’s seat of power Saturday. (more…)

Brazil’s president-elect: Iranian’s stoning would be ‘barbarous’

Brazil’s female president-elect, Dilma Rousseff, said Wednesday she was “totally opposed” to the death-by-stoning sentence ordered for an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani.

“I am totally opposed to the stoning of the Iranian woman,” she told reporters in a joint media conference in Brasilia with outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. (more…)

Gates Criticizes Turkey’s Rejection of Iran Sanctions

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates expressed frustration with Turkey on Friday over its refusal to support a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran, but he suggested that the alliance between Washington and Ankara remained robust.

“I’ll be honest, I was disappointed in Turkey’s vote on the Iranian sanctions,” Mr. Gates said at the end of a two-day meeting of defense ministers at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels. But he added, “Allies don’t always agree on things, but we move forward from here.”

The United Nations Security Council leveled its fourth round of sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, (more…)

UN is set to vote Wednesday on new Iran sanctions

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled on Wednesday to impose new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, taking aim at the financial might of the Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as Iran’s military and nuclear industries with the addition of 41 enterprises to the blacklist. (more…)

Iran sanctions: Opposition from Turkey, Brazil, Lebanon

The United States and its Western allies won crucial support from Russia and China for new sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear program, but they now face a tough campaign to get backing from the rest of the U.N. Security Council. (more…)