Shake your body by Claudia Sonea

Brazil is a country famous for many things like customs, women, the weather, but mostly for the carnival's unsurpassed beauty. The most famous carnival is held in Rio and although for many tourists it is just a show, for the local people it is a serious competition. Each samba group receives grades in ten categories ranging from their floats and costumes to how well they move thousands of dancers through the half-mile Sambadrome stadium parade ground. Everything is decided by forty judges and the perfect score is 400, which this year samba group Beija Flor was very close in reaching it. For the fifth time in six years Beija Flor whose winning parade honored legends of the Amazon rain forest was declared Brazil's carnival champion. The judges graded them with a nearly perfect score of 399.3 and like always they dominated the competition. However their joy was shadowed by the shooting that took place in front of Beija Flor's headquarters during the title celebrations late Wednesday, according to Globo TV's G1 Web site. Three people were injured and of them are hospitalized. The cause of the attack is still unknown by the local police who suspects that the party that took place inside the headquarters might have triggered everything. This was not the only incident that marked Beija Flor their reputation being marred by accusations that directors conspired to steal last year's championship by intimidating judges. On the second place it was Salgueiro group with a score of 398 for its parade, which honored the city of Rio de Janeiro. The judges also penalized Sao Clemente group for breaking a rule against display of genitalia during its 80-minute parade. Everyone thinks that the culprit was none other than the samba queen Viviane Castro, who danced wearing only a 1.6-inch patch, believed to be the smallest in Rio parade history. Like all events, the carnival was marked by some incidents. The Viradouro group, who ranked the 7th, initially wanted to parade with a dancer dressed as Hitler and float covered in naked Holocaust victims. Viradouro changed the float into a free speech exhibit with dozens of gagged men and women in white robes due to the fact that it outraged the Jewish. Gossip, dances, exoticism, intrigue, the carnival definitely has it all. It just worth going to see it at least once.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080207/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_brazil_carnival;_ylt=Ar_vBk.cMOQjWn.7MW1kxkas0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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