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Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants answers from the US taxpayer supported Export-Import bank about a $2 billion loan to Brazil for offshore drilling. Vitter’s home state is suffering under a moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama. Vitter said Louisianians “are frustrated” and he wants to know “why permitting domestically is nearly stalled…” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had questions about ExIM—nine years ago when he asked Congress to reject the reauthorization of ExIm for “economic, constitutional and moral reasons.” Vitter sent a letter to Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im president, on March 17. Vitter asked Hochberg to identify all US companies that have...

Face of evil: MOHSEN RABBANI The Islamic Shiite cleric active in Latin America since the early 1990s. Responsible for the 1992 and 1994 anti-Jewish massacres in Argentina. Wanted in that country and by the Interpol for the crimes. Called for Israel to be "wiped off," in 1994. 'Chief' Islamic operator of Hezbollah - Quds activities of: Islamizaton --including 'recruting converts for Islam'-- and terror networks in Latin America, resides in Brazil. Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil - Pages 122-3Tom Diaz, Barbara Newman - Random House Digital, Inc., 2006 - History - 272 pagesThe man directly responsible for this cell-building...

A driver's license bureau employee who earned roughly $24,000 a year made thousands on the side illegally selling licenses to Brazilian immigrants, state authorities said. Cammie Gray Andres, 46, a driver's license bureau employee since 2000, illegally charged at least five undocumented Brazilians between $2,500 and $3,000 for driver's licenses, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Using bogus Social Security numbers, Andres falsely issued them under a program designed to exchange licenses for valid ones from U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She faces multiple counts of unlawfully issuing driver's licenses, official misconduct and unlawful...

Domingos Barros opened a moving company in downtown Framingham shortly before the immigration reform that could have legalized the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants failed. It turned out to be a good move. After federal lawmakers killed the bill in June, dashing illegal immigrants' last hopes to come out of the shadows, many started to pack up and go back home. For Barros' company, which specializes in shipping boxes and containers to Brazil, business is booming. At his Irving Street store, where cardboard boxes filled with clothes, small electronic appliances, toys and other belongings sit on the floor waiting to...

Authorities this afternoon implored members of Boston’s Brazilian community to seek medical attention if they were treated by a couple charged with running an unlicensed cosmetic surgery clinic out of their Framingham basement after a 24-year-old woman died Sunday following liposuction. Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley urged Brazilians and others who may have been treated by Luiz Carlos Ribeiro to see a licensed doctor and call police, saying that patients who come forward would not be charged with a crime. Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, 49, and his wife, Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, 49, pleaded not guilty today in Framingham District...

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. --Jim and Joe Rizoli can't go very far during a walk through downtown Framingham without pointing out something Brazilian. There's the bakery where Brazilian immigrants wait to be picked up for their jobs as day laborers, a Brazilian store where the Rizolis claim illegal immigrants work, and then there's the area near Town Hall where thousands of Brazilians clogged up city streets after their national soccer team won the World Cup. It's all in a day's work for the Rizoli brothers, who have developed a reputation in their hometown as the anti-immigration twins. For Joe and Jim, immigration...

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilians are illegally entering the United States in record numbers in hopes of finding jobs and better lives -- just like characters in a wildly popular Brazilian soap opera "America." The number of undocumented Brazilians caught on U.S. soil is set to rise over four fold this year from 2004 -- a much bigger increase than for illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries, according to U.S. officials. As authorities search for factors spurring the exodus, they have begun to look at the passion of Brazil's poor for "America," a soap opera that debuted in early...

The U.S. Border Patrol answered a Valley woman's questions Wednesday night, regarding problems she's having with illegal Brazilians entering through her back yard. "They leave marks," Hidalgo County resident Idalia Gonzalez said. "They'll leave backpacks, candy wrappers, but mostly it's just marks. When I come here I just break it down." Just south of Palmview, Gonzalez has discovered illegal Brazilians are using her family's land as a gateway into the United States. She said that she's tried to get answers by even calling people in Washington, but has gotten no where. So Gonzalez decided to contact the Action 4 News...

McALLEN — The Mexican government will work toward imposing new passport regulations for entering their country from Brazil almost five years after eliminating passport restrictions for Brazilians entering Mexico. John Naland, U.S. Consulate in Matamoros said he had requested that the Mexican government reinstate the visa requirement for Brazilians. This is the first time the Mexican government has officially responded to that request. Although local Border Patrol officials could not comment on the specifics of the new requirements, the news could mean a possible decrease in the number of Brazilians crossing the border into the United States illegally. Brazil is...