A Brazilian court sentenced ex-treasurer of the ruling Worker's Party Joao Vaccari Neto to 15 years for charges related to the Petrobras corruption scandal.
A Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous leader was shot dead in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state, one week after his community occupied part of their ancestral lands usurped by ranchers.
Amnesty International charges that Brazil's military police have been responsible for more than 1,500 deaths in Rio de Janeiro's favelas in the last five years.
Gunmen killed at least 18 people in outlying districts of Sao Paulo, and authorities suspect a coordinated campaign of revenge by off-duty officers for the death of two colleagues.
Some 100 Guarani activists launched an occupation of the Justice Ministry building in Brasilia, demanding action on demarcation of ancestral lands usurped by ranchers and agribusiness.
Indigenous people and advocacy groups charge the mega-project to build a transcontinental railway through the Amazon basin would mean "genocide" for isolated tribes.
Brazilian prosecutors called for authorities to halt the eviction of some 2,000 families living in an area of the Amazon rainforest where the huge Belo Monte dam is being built.
China's Premier Li Keqiang, on a tour of South America, is plugging a transcontinental railway project that would cut through the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
Mexican authorities busted another Zetas "narco-tank factory" in Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border—days after Brazilian police made a similar find in Sao Paulo.
Experts tell us the North American shale oil boom is responsible for low prices despite Middle East unrest. But the price slump serves Western aims of weakening Russia and Iran.
Brazil's Congress concluded work for the year, having failed to approve a constitutional amendment aimed at gutting the process of indigenous land demarcation.
Peru's government made much of its rainforest protection efforts at the Lima climate summit—but a new report names it as the fourth most dangerous country for ecology activists.
