Last week, President Obama sent a three-page letter to Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva restating America’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program a day before Brazil hosted Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Though the letter didn’t criticize the visit, Obama requested that da Silva use this opportunity to encourage Iran to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Tim Coco, 48, married and bought a house with his lover, Brazilian Genesio "Junior" Oliveira, 30, back in 2005 in Massachusetts. But their honeymoon period was cut short when Oliveira was denied asylum and forced to return to Brazil. 

200 families are homeless after a massive fire ripped through one of São Paulo's largest favelas (shanty towns). Nearly the entire district of the Diogo Pires was engulfed by the flames as the fire raged on for more than three hours. The fire spread very quickly through the slum, where most of the houses are constructed of cardboard and wood.

Gilberto Kassab, the mayor of the Brazil's second largest city, assured the residents that temporary housing would be provided. About 1,500 hundred people lived in the favela, most of them children.

It was a close battle between Madrid and Rio de Janeiro as the final vote neared, but the International Olympic Committee announced today that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.