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American lawyer Manuel von Ribbeck, one of the partners of Ribbeck Law office, which is representing 40 relatives of victims killed in the collision between an executive Legacy jet belonging to New York based ExcelAire and a Boeing 737, told Brazilian reporters, on Thursday, November 9, that he has enough evidence to prove that the American pilots made risky maneuvers over the Amazon forest to show off.
Ribbeck also revealed that his law office has hired experts to probe what has happened during the flight that ended up causing Brazil's worst accident ever, with 154 deaths. He brought with him a Canadian engineer expert in Boeing accidents, Max Vermij, who is in charge of coordinating the job of other specialists working for the law office. Ribbeck mentioned that his information on pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladin's negligent behavior came from a top source in the Brazilian Air Force (FAB): "They were conducting such maneuvers," stated the American lawyer, "because the company ExcelAire was happy with the purchase of the jet and it wanted to show off the equipment to journalists and businessmen who were in the flight." "Apparently the Legacy's pilots were making maneuvers, playing over the Amazon in a negligent way and the government has confirmed this," he added. For Ribbeck there are two main culprits in this Brazilian tragedy: the Legacy's pilots and Honeywell, the American company that manufactured the TCAS (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System). The system should have prevented the collision, but apparently malfunctioned. The equipment should have been able to detect an approaching plane, said Monica Kelly another American from the same law office: "Even if the transponder wasn't working or had been turned off, the alarm should have sounded. The company should be held responsible for this failure." On Monday, November 6, the Ribbeck Law office filed a criminal lawsuit in a New York court against Lepore and Paladino as well as Boeing, Honeywell, and ExcelAire Service. According to Ribbeck, depending on how the investigations proceed, Brazilian companies and people in Brazil will also be sued, including Gol Airlines, Embraer (the Legacy's manufacturer) and air traffic controllers on duty on September 29, when the accident occurred. To make theirs a stronger case, the US lawyers say they will use the information contained in the black boxes of both planes and will also try to interview Joe Sharkey, the New York Times reporter, who was in the Legacy when the accident occurred. Sharkey's piece on the Times recounting his experience in the fateful flight was quite sympathetic to the American pilot's cause and critical of Brazil's authorities and skies management. His piece drew a barrage of criticism from Brazilian authorities and journalists who called him arrogant and misinformed.
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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. 
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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.
a sub culture of sleazy, over zealous ambulance chaser that will drag you into court at the drop of the hat.
Easier to sue an American corporation than a brasilian government run agency.