Rio's Carnival dazzles on second night of parades

Brazil: Revelers partied into Tuesday morning at Rio's colorful Carnival parade on the second night of the "greatest show on earth," with exquisitely decorated floats and lavishly costumed performers.

The night processions at Rio's renovated Sambadrome marked the high point of the pre-Lent festival, a national holiday that has brought this racially diverse country of 191 million people to a near-standstill.

In Rio, a shootout between police and a drug gang that left one person dead and four wounded in a nearby slum failed to dampen the wild enthusiasm of the capacity crowd of 72,500 at the newly renovated "temple of Samba". AFP