It's hard to believe there are still tribes of indigenous people in the world who have never had contact with modern society. It's even harder to believe that one of them - the Totobiegosode tribe of Paraguay - recently won a major victory against two Brazilian companies without even being aware they were waging a battle. As CNN points out, lawsuits were filed on behalf of the natives by local environmental groups against the companies that were clearing jungle land to be used for cattle ranches. The companies have already cleared 6,000 hectares of forest in the Totobiegosode and Ayoreo people's (pictured) ancestral homelands, but the ruling puts a halt to further deforestation, at least for the moment. ]]> Victor Ozols 2008-11-16T11:19:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/8/1/114950/7953

We're not sure how five men with automatic weapons got past security in Asuncion, Paraguay. But they managed to steal $1 million from a passenger in the airport boarding area Tuesday.

Julian Sanabria, a local police officer, described what happened:

They went up to the Chinese passenger and took away the case with a million dollars. We police were all surprised, and also we could not fire because there were 150 passengers waiting in the boarding area at that moment.

The owner of the briefcase is a resident of Paraguay and runs a currency exchange business at the airport. According to officials he was transporting the money to Montevideo, Uruguay for what appeared to be a legal transaction.

Hmm, a recent ASU visitor said there are usually coins on a ledge in the airport men's room here -- guessing their weren't enough coins to deter these thieves.

It's not very reassuring to know police stood by and did nothing while the gunmen robbed an innocent man. But seriously--who carries a million dollars in cash anyway?

[Photo Credit: alex-s] ]]> jnaw 2007-08-01T12:08:23-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/