An Amazon rainforest activist and his wife were shot dead in northern Brazil on Tuesday as the country's Congress debated a divisive land bill that threatens to fuel deforestation.

Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, a rubber tapper and leading forest conservationist, and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo were ambushed and killed in the Amazon state of Para, federal police and government officials sa

More than 1,000 native Indians from around Brazil set up camp on Monday in front of Congress to push for land, mining and water rights, demands that could threaten government plans for hydroelectric dams.

Pedro Ferreira spends his days and nights in a cramped, steamy tunnel under the damp earth of the Amazon rain forest, chipping away at a wall of rock glittering with traces of gold.

Cattle ranchers are far bigger culprits in Amazon deforestation than soy farmers, a study showed on Tuesday, as the environmental record of Brazil's commodity exporters comes under increasing international scrutiny.

Environmental police in Brazil seized the equivalent of 400 truckloads of wood in a major raid on illegal loggers, the government said on Wednesday, the latest effort to curb destruction of the Amazon rain forest.