News stories by Fabiola Ortiz, page 5

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 24 (IPS) - Ornela Mbenga Sebo, a young Congolese woman, escaped in 2011 from a rebel camp in Tanzania where she was being held as a slave and stowed away in the garbage bay of a merchant ship, with no idea where it was headed.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 25 (IPS) - It took Brazil four decades to overcome food insecurity and earn a place as a major global food supplier. Now its experiences will contribute to the evidence base for a new initiative that seeks to reconcile agriculture and the conservation of biological diversity.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 19 (IPS) - Over the last two decades, nearly 92,000 people have gone missing in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, according to official figures and academic studies. Most of the cases have been shelved with little or no investigation.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 30 (IPS) - Ten years ago, Brazil yielded to agribusiness pressure and legalised the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) soy. Today it is the world's second leading producer of GM crops, surpassed only by the United States.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 29 (IPS) - Pope Francis' first overseas trip, to Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, was marked with setbacks, disorganisation and lack of infrastructure for an event that brought half a million pilgrims to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 18 (IPS) - Several years after the start of the economic crisis in the United States and Europe, which led to a shift in migration patterns, Latin America still lacks a more inclusive view of the phenomenon of people seeking a better life abroad.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 17 (IPS) - In less than 10 years, consumers throughout Brazil will have access to eight biofortified "superfoods" being developed by the country's scientists. A pilot initiative is currently underway in 15 municipalities.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 09 (IPS) - With three years to go to the 2016 Olympic Games, hundreds of athletes in the Brazilian city that will host the games were evicted from the only public track field, and have had nowhere to train for the past six months.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 (IPS) - The Catholic Church has become sclerotic and is afraid of facing the issues of post-modernity, Brazilian theologian Frei Betto says, although he hopes that Francis, the first Latin American pope, will inspire it to renew its emphasis on social issues and the defence of the poor.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 25 (IPS) - Matheus Mendes Costa, a 21-year-old university student, spent 13 hours in a three-square-metre police station holding cell after he was arrested in this Brazilian city for allegedly assaulting police officers and destroying public property.