Wasted Daily News

RIO DE JANEIRO – You’ve got mail — and possibly an STD. The Brazilian Health Ministry has created a Web site to let people inform partners they’ve got a sexually transmitted disease via an e-mailed virtual postcard. The official in charge of the ministry’s STD and AIDs programs notes that many people have a hard time telling partners they’re infected. Read the rest of this entry →

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – So how do you make Brazil’s national cocktail?

Maybe you’d better call a lawyer.

Brazil’s government has published legal guidelines insisting that a caipirinha must be made just so: It’s mostly the sugarcane liquor called cachaca. And you can add at least 1 percent crushed lime. But that had better be real sugar in the glass. Read the rest of this entry →

A disposable diaper has saved the life of an 18-month-old boy, breaking his fall from a third-floor apartment window, officials said Thursday.

Caua Felipe Massaneiro survived a 30-foot (10-meter) fall because his diaper snagged on a security spike embedded in the concrete wall around his apartment building in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife.

The boy dangled from the spike for a moment, then “the diaper opened and the baby fell to the ground, but at a much slower speed,” a police officer said. “The diaper obviously lessened the impact of the fall and saved the baby’s life.” Read the rest of this entry →

Bosnian police have impounded a pigeon after discovering prisoners used it to smuggle drugs into one of the country’s highest security jails, an official said Thursday.

“The guards suspected the animal might be involved in drug smuggling once they noticed four prisoners visibly intoxicated shortly after the pigeon landed on a prison window,” Zenica prison official Josip Pojavnik told AFP.

All four inmates had tested positive for heroin, said Pojavnik, adding disciplinary proceedings had been launched against the inmates. Read the rest of this entry →

After 3,272 miles of exhaustion, sunburn, delirium and piranhas, a 52-year-old Slovenian successfully completed a swim down the Amazon River Saturday that could set a world record for distance — something he’s already done three times before.

After nine weeks, Martin Strel arrived near the city of Belem, the capital of the jungle state of Para, ending a swim almost as long as the drive from Miami to Seattle. Strel averaged about 50 miles a day since beginning his odyssey at the source of the world’s second-longest river in Peru on Feb. 1.

By Thursday evening, he was struggling with dizziness, vertigo, high blood pressure, diarrhea, nausea and delirium, his Web site said. But despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Strel was obsessed with finishing the course and insisted on night swimming. Read the rest of this entry →

Rio de Janeiro hospitals have been sending obese people to share medical test equipment with horses at the local race track, drawing complaints from activists who say the practice is humiliating.

“When people weigh more than the standard equipment can support they have to be directed to the Jockey Club, which is the only place in Rio where they have the appropriate equipment,” a spokeswoman for the Rio state health secretariat said on Wednesday.

Patients needing stomach reduction surgery require a tomography, or multiple X-raying of body sections, which is normally carried out inside a chamber. Read the rest of this entry →

A Brazilian referee was suspended on Monday for sending off the wrong player during a match at the weekend.

Rodrigo Martins Cintra has been banned indefinitely following his performance during the Corinthians-Rio Branco match in the Paulista championship, the head of the Paulista Football Federation’s referees committee said.

“The mistake happened,” Marcos Marinho told reporters. “He thought it was one player but it was a different one. He needs some time to get over it.” Read the rest of this entry →