Debora Ely

Heavy rains once again pounded parts of Brazil's southernmost state on Thursday, ruining days-long clean-up efforts and flooding areas which had previously been untouched in Rio Grande do Sul's capital city of Porto Alegre.

Four months after devastating flooding wrecked their house in southern Brazil, Milton do Nascimento and his family still have no permanent home and are sleeping rough under a highway bridge.

Brazil farmers, officials step up controls where bird flu was found on commercial farm

Brazilian authorities hope to determine by Tuesday whether a confirmed outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza among wild birds in a zoo in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul is connected with the country's first bird flu case on a commercial poultry farm in the same state, an official said on Monday.

Test results for a suspected bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm in the town of Anta Gorda in Rio Grande do Sul state came back negative, according to an analysis of samples released by the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry on Monday.

The world's largest poultry exporter has declared itself free of the bird flu virus on commercial flocks after observing a 28-day period without any new commercial farm outbreaks, the Brazilian ministry of agriculture said on Wednesday.

A group of suspected scammers in Brazil using Instagram ads featuring deepfakes of supermodel Gisele Bundchen and other celebrities appears to have made millions of dollars through online fraud, according to police investigators.

Communities rebuilding from devastating floods in southern Brazil two years ago are bracing for an intense El Nino ​that meteorologists warn could bring extreme rains this year.