The air marshals were arrested in Brazil after they arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge aboard a Continental flight.
Two U.S. air marshals who arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge on a flight to Rio de Janeiro — and were themselves arrested and had their passports confiscated by Brazilian authorities — fled the country using alternate travel documents rather than face what they believed to be trumped-up charges, sources said.
The incident has impacted air marshal operations on flights to Brazil, officials said, and air marshals contacted by CNN said the case raises questions about Brazil’s willingness to support future law enforcement actions by U.S. officials on international flights.
The incident occurred on October 1 on Continental Flight 128 from Houston, Texas, to Rio de Janeiro. During the flight, a female passenger who appeared to be intoxicated tried to serve herself drinks by going to the plane’s galley, one source said. The plane’s crew asked air marshals to intervene, and two marshals approached the woman, who began struggling with them.
Two sources said the woman bit one of the air marshals, and she was handcuffed and placed under arrest.
At the Rio airport, the air marshals went to turn over the woman to local authorities but were themselves brought before a federal judge and charged with misdemeanor counts of assault, sources said. Brazilian authorities took the air marshals’ passports, so they could not leave the country and set a court hearing for the following week, sources said.
“They (Brazilian officials) did not want them to leave. They were not free to go,” one U.S. law enforcement source said.
But the air marshals used alternate travel documents and quietly departed the country on a commercial flight that same day without the knowledge of the Brazilian court officials who had sought their detention.
One source said the air marshals believed the charges against them were retaliatory because the passenger they arrested is the wife of a prominent Brazilian judge. The air marshals believed it was to their benefit to leave the country and let the U.S. and Brazilian governments resolve the dispute, the source said.
The air marshals had not recovered their passports when they left, the sources said. (more…)
about Brazil, Paraíba and João Pessoa
A Sao Paulo court has ordered a university to pay $23,600 to a female student who was briefly expelled after she wore a pink minidress to school.
The case became a topic of national discussion in the South American country where skimpy clothing is normal on beaches and in nightclubs, but less so in school and elsewhere.
Geisy Arruda – whose dress provoked jeers and insults from hundreds of fellow students last November – was readmitted to Bandeirante University after the institution reversed a decision to expel her over the tumult under pressure from the Education Ministry and negative media attention.
A Sao Paulo court said the civil court in Sao Bernardo do Campo ruled that award was enough to compensate Arruda for damage she suffered without endangering the financial health of the private school.
Arruda’s lawyers said they would appeal. They are seeking $591,000 for what they say was her trampled dignity.
AFP
about Brazil, Paraíba and João Pessoa
Facebook seems to be everywhere these days: it reached half a billion users in July, its value is soaring and the inevitable film is coming out in October.
While the site has become synonymous with social networking in the US and Europe, the story is very different in Brazil, where Google’s Orkut is king of the hill. But as Brazilians become more globally connected, Facebook is making inroads into Latin America’s largest economy.
“If you’re in Brazil and you’re not on Orkut, you’re nobody”, says Alex Banks, managing director of Brazil and vice president of Latin America at web research firm ComScore. “It’s incredibly popular, incredibly well used, and it is the Brazilian social network.”
Orkut drew 28.9m visitors in July, according to ComScore – more than three-quarters of Brazil’s internet audience, and more than the combined number of visitors to Facebook and Twitter that month. ComScore estimates that Brazilians spend 14 per cent of their total time online on Orkut, and the average user visits the site 37 times a month. (more…)
about Brazil, Paraíba and João Pessoa
A would-be thief escaping from an abandoned house in Brazil where there was nothing to steal died after a window slammed down on top of him, trapping and eventually asphyxiating him.
Inspector Fernanda Rangel says that scratches and other marks on a wall next to the window indicate the intruder struggled to free himself but failed. Rangel says she does not know how soon he died after becoming trapped. Investigators have not yet identified him, but believe he was about 30 years old and that his body was in the window frame for at least four days.
Rangel says that the corpse was discovered Tuesday by the house’s owner, who had arrived to store some personal belongings.
The Associated Press
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com
about Brazil, Paraíba and João Pessoa
‘Rambo’ star Sylvester Stallone is apparently in a 1.36-million-pound dispute with a Brazilian production company that worked on his latest film.
O2, which made the acclaimed crime drama ‘City of God,’ has claimed the 64-year-old Rocky star left the country after shooting ‘The Expendables’ without paying what he owed the company for its help.
According to Veja, a Brazilian magazine, the film’s US producers left a string of debts, with a lighting company, drivers and security guards also owed money, reports the Telegraph.
“Since May of last year, O2 has been trying to get the money from the Americans. However since the beginning of this year, Stallone and his producers have stopped answering their calls,” said the magazine. 2′s accountants even had to recruit armed guards to protect their offices from angry production workers. (more…)
about Brazil, Paraíba and João Pessoa
