BRASIL: Satellites Show Mato Grosso Deforestation Increased...6-Fold; Dilma's Chief Of Staff Palocci Slammed For...20-Fold Increase...In Wealth.

BBC/

    Brasil's own space institute reports that satellite images show deforestation increased...from 103 sq km in March and April 2010...to 593 sq km.
    Most of the destruction took place in soya growing Mato Grosso state.
    Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira called the report "alarming" and will set-up a "crisis cabinet."

AND: the WSJ's P. Prado reports that President Dilma Rousseff's 5-month honeymoon may be over.

    Her trusted chief of staff Antonio Palocci, 52 (above) is under fire after a report in FOLHA de S.PAULO that his net worth...increased 20-fold...in just 4 years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576333661046913114.html

BRASIL: Rare "Tornado Fire" Caught On Film As Large Areas Burn.

MOMENTO24/ VIDEO LINK/     Large swaths...millions of hectares... in the states of Brasilia, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondonia, Goias and Tocantins are burning. Someone caught a rare "tornado fire" as it twisted along the ground.

BRASIL:1ST UPDATE: Natives Protesting Hydro Plant Release 5 Of At Least 155 Hostages.

NEW LINK/M.PRESS/ 27 July/    Indigenous protesters who took over the site of a hydro power plant in the Amazon and also took at least 155 people hostage, have released 5 engineers. The protestors are demanding compensation for the site which they say is sacred to the native people of the Mato Grosso region. Armed with knives, bows and arrows, the protestors have contained the workers in barracks at the dam site.

BRASIL: At Least 70 Arrested For Illegal Amazon Logging.

BBC/       Police in Mato Grosso have arrested at least 70 people for illegal logging in the Amazon, including some officials employed to protect the rainforest after a two-year investigation in six Amazon states. Police estimate the illegal logging caused about $500m in damage.

BRASIL: Alleged Abortionist Doctor Found Dead.

LAHT/
Neide Mota Machado, an anesthetist charged with 9,896 illegal abortions, was found dead in her car at a ranch outside Mato Grosso. Police are investigating if the death was a murder or a suicide. Machado was to go on trial soon for 25 abortions.

Brasil Environmentalists Pay To Protect Rain Forest.

NYTIMES.

Many scientists, politicians and environmentalists argue that cash payments are the only way to end tropical forest destruction to limit global warming.