Operation Odyssey Dawn began Saturday with coalition missiles targeting Moammar Gadhafi's tanks and air defenses. Is the United States leading this effort? Meanwhile, relief and rescue efforts continue in Japan and time is of the essence as over 12,000 people are still missing and 8,000 have been confirmed dead so far. 

While the world watches the events unfolding in Japan and the Middle East, President Obama heads to Latin America for a five day tour. The president and first lady Michelle Obama begin their first official trip to Brazil tomorrow, a country with a fast-rising GDP rate that some economic experts have taken to calling "The New World Player." The president and first lady will also stop in Chile and El Salvador.

Floods in mountain towns north of Rio de Janeiro have killed at least 600 people, and weather forecasters say more rain is on the way. The death toll has risen steadily as rescuers reach remote areas and unearth corpses from mounds of debris. As Brazilians wait for the water to recede, authorities fear the spread of disease through contaminated water. Brazil’s civil defense agency has distributed vaccines against tetanus and diphtheria, according to its website.

More than five hundred people have been killed by flooding and mudslides in southeastern Brazil. Authorities have sent nearly a thousand rescue workers to the region. The floods have affected poorer rural residents, who live in houses built in risky areas. BBC Brazil correspondent, Paulo Cabral, reports from Brazil on the flooding and the dramatic rescue efforts.

Dilma Rouseff has become the first woman to be elected as president of Brazil. A former Marxist guerrilla who was imprisoned and tortured during Brazil's long dictatorship, Rousseff said her first priority would be the eradication of poverty in the country. Her election is seen as a major victor for Brazil's popular incumbent president, Lula Da Silva. Rousseff served as da Silva's chief of staff. She has never before held elected office. The BBC's Rogehrio Simoyes reports.

When you play Brazil, you are expected to lose. At least in soccer anyway.

Last night the U.S. Men's National Team took on the five-time world champions for the first showcase of international soccer on our soil since the World Cup. For the U.S. team it was something of a victory lap for their impressive finish in South Africa. Coach Bob Bradley filled his roster with familiar faces instead of testing out new talent. Brazil, on the other hand, used the occasion to debut an overhauled squad, keeping just four players from their last World Cup team. A new trio of youngsters, Neymar, Alexandre Peto and Ganso, passed their first test with ease.

The ongoing back-and-forth between the U.S. and Iran over the latter's nuclear ambitions is often compared to a chess game. But there's a notable difference: a chessboard only has two sides. Yesterday's announcement that Iran would trade in some of its low-enriched uranium for fuel rods to power a reactor that makes medical isotopes - a swap engineered by Turkey and Brazil - had some observers asking what Iran is up to.

The Brazilian government is trying a new scheme to cut its carbon emissions and slow down the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. It's planning to do that by PAYING local communities to protect forests and stop cutting down trees. BBC Brazil reporter Paulo Cabral has been to visit the first trial project in the Juma reserve, which contains 1 million acres and is home to over 300 families.

During a visit there, he found the approach is changing the attitudes of local people. "The key drivers of deforestation are poverty and lack of education," Amazonas State Governor Eduardo Braga told him. "Don’t ask for one mother and one father to keep one standing tree if their kid is crying because they’re going to say ‘I’m going to save my kid and I don’t care about this tree.'"