RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro's Carnival jury named parade group Beija-Flor (Hummingbird) champion for the second year running on Wednesday, while another samba group was relegated to the second division after its dancing queen paraded naked.
The 4,200-strong Sao Clemente samba school, which kickedoff two nights of parades on Sunday night, lost its place amongthe 12 top league groups as judges punished it by trimmingprecious points for "exposed genitalia."
Viviane Castro, 25, a model and dancer, had lost heroriginal "tapasexo" -- a small triangle of glitter used tocover the most intimate parts. An improvised substitute gluedbetween her legs right before the show also fell off on theparade strip.
She symbolized native Indians as they appeared to thePortuguese.
Although bare-breasted, almost naked beauty queens rungalore in Rio's Carnival, full nudity is forbidden.
Beija-Flor won the champion's title with a parade dedicatedto Brazil's Amazon state of Amapa and featured a giant floatwith hummingbirds native of the region.
Beija-Flor and 12 other top samba clubs competed in the70,000-seat Sambadrome on Sunday and Monday nights in aglobally televised pageant.
The schools were judged by their floats, costumes, dancing,overall enthusiasm, song lyrics and other criteria.
Ash Wednesday is a partial holiday in Brazil and most Rioresidents stayed away from work completely to watch thetelevised awards ceremony for the best samba school.
The city is still teeming with hundreds of thousands oftourists who came to watch the parades and take part in raucousstreet processions.
Although Carnival officially ends on Ash Wednesday and isfollowed by a period of Lent and penitence in the world'sbiggest Roman Catholic country, some street processions ofirreverent merry-makers will continue playing loud samba tunes,dancing and drinking for a few days.
On Saturday night, six top-rated samba schools will hit theSambadrome venue again for the all-night Champions' Parade.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Bill Trott)
