Brazil hosts a regional summit on how to save the Amazon basin from continuing deforestation and climate change.

Somali pirates say they have freed a Greek-owned ship with a Ukrainian crew, hijacked more than six months ago, after a ransom was paid.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard could return from injury sooner than expected and take his place in the team to face Arsenal in Sunday's Premier League tie.

How a Whitehall battle saved 30% of the UK's cows from an early grave.

Ghana youngster Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu signs a four year deal with Serie A side Udinese after impressing at the U20 World Cup.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says US support for Sunday's presidential election could divide the region.

Michael Schumacher's manager says the seven-time champion is "absolutely fit" and "could win races", plus other rumours.

A range of accords are set to be signed as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

A cup of Brazilian mint tea has pain relieving qualities to match those of commercially available analgesics, a study suggests.

Southern African countries have high expectations that they too will benefit from South Africa's World Cup.

Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor still has a chance of making England's World Cup squad, says club boss Martin O'Neill.

Sunderland fear Darren Bent may be sidelined for three weeks after their leading scorer underwent a scan on a suspected hamstring injury.

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Farai Sevenzo ponders the possible unifying and peacemaking powers of the beautiful game.

Julie Walters takes an acting prize while Sir David Frost wins a lifetime achievement award at the International Emmys.

Brazil has reaffirmed its support for Iran's right to a civilian nuclear programme, but called for a "just and balanced" solution with the West.

A film about the Brazilian president's life proves controversial because of a clash with the next election.

The BBC's Garry Duffy finds out why the rock star Sting is calling on Brazil to listen to indigenous tribes protesting against a proposed new hydro-electric dam in the Amazon.

Portsmouth manager Paul Hart tries to allay fears over David James after the keeper has to pull out of the loss at Stoke because of a calf injury.

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce believes striker Darren Bent "has to be" in England boss Fabio Capello's squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Many Nigerians have returned home to escape the rigours of the downturn in the West. But with Nigeria experiencing its own credit crunch can the country's brain gain be sustained?

The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area.

The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy.

On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil.

Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms.

One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis.

On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking.

Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse.

Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.

The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj).

A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17.  Three policemen died and another two were injured.  This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.