Catholicism in Latin America is "lively and dynamic," Brazilian Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis said Sunday, suggesting that the church look to Latin America for leadership.

Damasceno is one of the the 117 "cardinal electors" that will participate in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope. No favorite has to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who announced that he is stepping down at the end of the month.

A record number of journalists were imprisoned worldwide in 2012 in a "deteriorating environment for press freedom," a leading media advocacy group said Thursday.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in its annual "Attacks on the Press" report that 232 journalists were jailed last year in a "trend driven primarily by terrorism and other anti-state charges levied against critical reporters and editors." It said the number was the highest since it made its first survey in 1990.

Nationality and age should not be key factors in choosing who will succeed Benedict XVI, a Brazilian cardinal considered in the running to be the future pope said here Wednesday.

Much more important will be the candidate's capacity to lead the Roman Catholic Church "at a time of great challenges," Sao Paulo archbishop Odilo Scherer told a press conference.

Rio's Carnival festivities reached their crescendo late Monday with a final night of samba school parades, part of a contest appropriately dubbed the greatest show on earth.

The top dance schools showcased elaborate floats decked with scantily-clad beauty queens writhing to the beat of samba music blasted from giant speakers on flatbed trucks.

Hundreds of thousands of beaming revelers in outlandish costumes poured into central Rio Saturday for wild merrymaking and beer drinking on day two of the world's most famous Carnival.

Last year, the Cordao da Bola Preta bloco, one of the Brazilian city's oldest and most traditional street parties, attracted 2.3 million people.

Brazilians on Monday were mourning the victims of a nightclub blaze in a small college town that left more than 230 people dead and over 100 injured, with many still fighting for their lives.

Shocked survivors, mostly science students in Santa Maria, described how scores of revelers were trampled to death or succumbed to smoke inhalation as blocked exits and rising flames caused panic.

At least 232 people died early Sunday when a fire tore through a nightclub packed with university students in the southern Brazilian city of Santa Maria, police said.

Shocked survivors described a frantic rush to the exits as flames swept through the crowded club in the university town, with scores of young people getting trampled and passing out from smoke inhalation.

The Brazilian government says it's undertaking a four-year, $33 million study of its vast Amazon rainforest to compile a detailed inventory of the plants, animals and people that live there.

Environment Minister Isabella Teixeira on Friday signed an accord with the country's national development bank, which is funding the study. The government says the inventory will help in formulating environmental policies aimed at preserving the forest and preventing deforestation.

Venezuela's main opposition movement demanded Wednesday that the government tell "the truth" about President Hugo Chavez's health as one of his closest allies said his condition was "very worrying."

"Let's hope our prayers will be effective in saving the life of brother President Chavez," Bolivian President Evo Morales said of the longtime leader of OPEC member Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan banned on Wednesday the import of livestock from the southern Brazilian state of Parana where a case of atypical mad cow disease was confirmed last month.

Al-Hajj Hassan banned as well the import of frozen meat from Parana.