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Brazil Carnival honors South Korea, Korean immigrants

February 10, 2013 12:15
With samba music and allegorical pageantry, the Brazilian Carnival pays glowing tribute this year to South Korea's ancient culture and technological prowess, and to 50 years of Korean immigration. Friday, South Korean popstar Psy was a star guest at Carnival celebrations in the northeastern city of Salvador, wowing the crowd with his "Gangnam Style" hit that made Internet history last December by clocking more than one billion views on YouTube. Saturday, he was warmly applauded as he watched the sumptuous parades of samba schools at the Sambodrome parade ground in Rio.

Japan designer lends style to Brazil Carnival group

February 10, 2013 03:46
If the Barroca Zona Sul samba school shines when it takes center stage at the Sao Paulo Carnival early Tuesday, some of the credit will surely go to Japanese avant-garde fashion designer Junko Koshino. The Osaka-born stylist, world famous for designing costumes for operas and uniforms for sports teams and corporations, is usually more at ease in the upscale fashion circles of Paris, Beijing or New York. But there she was last Wednesday night, hobnobbing with the humble denizens of Jabaquara, a working-class Sao Paulo district.

Tide of revelers engulfs Rio for Carnival bash

February 9, 2013 17:01
Nearly two million beaming revelers in outlandish costumes invaded central Rio Saturday for wild merrymaking and beer drinking on day two of the world's most famous Carnival. The Cordao da Bola Preta bloco, one of the Brazilian city's oldest and most traditional street parties, attracted 1.8 million people this year, down from 2.3 million last year, according to the municipal tourism agency Riotur. Organizers earlier said they expected 2.4 million, which would have qualified as the world's biggest street party in the Guinness World Records.

Human tide engulfs Rio for huge Carnival bash

February 9, 2013 15:31
Hundreds of thousands of beaming revelers in outlandish costumes poured into central Rio Saturday for wild merrymaking and beer drinking on day two of the world's most famous Carnival. Last year, the Cordao da Bola Preta bloco, one of the Brazilian city's oldest and most traditional street parties, attracted 2.3 million people. This year organizers expect 2.4 million, with tourism officials saying Guinness World Records representatives were on hand to check whether the 95-year-old street bash can qualify as the globe's biggest.

Human tide engulfs Rio for huge Carnival bash

February 9, 2013 13:16
Hundreds of thousands of beaming revelers in outlandish costumes poured into central Rio Saturday for wild merrymaking and beer drinking on day two of the world's most famous Carnival. Last year, the Cordao da Bola Preta bloco, one of the Brazilian city's oldest and most traditional street parties, attracted 2.3 million people. This year organizers expect 2.4 million, with tourism officials saying Guinness World Records representatives were on hand to check whether the 95-year-old street bash can qualify as the globe's biggest.

REFILE-Brazil's Carnival erupts, but in some cities the samba is silent

February 8, 2013 15:45
(Changes "them" to "it" in paragraph four) By Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's Carnival celebrations cut loose on Friday, but the parades, block parties and overall festivities began under the pall of a recent nightclub fire that killed 238 people in the southern city of Santa Maria. Even as the mayor of Rio de Janeiro handed over the keys of the city to King Momo, the ceremonial figurehead of Brazil's best-known Carnival celebrations, the mourning continued.

King Momo kicks off Rio Carnival

February 8, 2013 13:15
Under a shower of confetti, portly King Momo on Friday officially kicked off Rio's famed Carnival, a five-day extravaganza that will climax in spectacular weekend parades of top samba schools. Milton Rodrigues da Silva, the event's symbol of overweight excess, symbolically received a giant key to the city from Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes. "The time has come to hand over my duties to magnificent King Momo so that the city may have fun under his rule," said Paes, wearing a white panama hat and a collar of blue flowers. "Let there be peace and joy."

Carnival fever grips Rio

February 7, 2013 16:17
Carnival fever is in full swing in Rio as Brazil's Marvelous City gears up for its annual five-day extravaganza of sizzling samba dancing, glittering parades and wild merry-making. The over-the-top pre-Lent bacchanalian festival in the Brazilian beach city officially begins Friday when King Momo, Carnival's overweight symbol of excess, receives the city's keys from Mayor Eduardo Paes. The 150-kilogram (330 pounds) Milton Rodrigues da Silva, the event's undisputed king for the past five years in a row, will kick off five days of nonstop partying in Rio.

Rio unleashes "pee patrols" to clean up Carnival

February 6, 2013 15:45
* Authorities crack down on public urinating * If Carnival is clean, maybe World Cup, Olympics can be too * Agents nab offenders in flagrante By Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro has in recent years evicted drug dealers from hillside slums, carved fast-moving bus lanes into sclerotic streets, and cracked down on unauthorized food vendors along the city's 58 miles (93 km) of beaches.

King Momo: from bank teller to Carnival king

February 4, 2013 21:45
The undisputed heavy-weight champion of the Rio Carnival for the past five years, Milton Rodrigues da Silva wants to keep his crown until 2016, when the city hosts the Olympics. Da Silva -- better known as "King Momo" -- weighs in at 150 kilos (330 pounds) and plans to use every ounce of his talent to remain the symbol of Carnival's excess through the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Games.
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