Tim Coco said Monday that the Obama administration did not act on a Friday deadline in the case of Genesio “Junior” Oliveira, effectively denying his request. The Justice Department did not immediately return messages.

Oliveira had sought asylum because he said he was raped as a teenager. His request was first denied in 2002. He returned to Brazil after losing an appeal in 2007, two years after he and Coco married in Massachusetts.

The Associated Press does not typically name rape victims, but Oliveira allows his name to be used.

In March, Sen. John Kerry asked Attorney General Eric Holder to grant Oliveira asylum on humanitarian grounds.

The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social Council has overturned a decision by a 19-country committee blocking gay groups from participating in the global body’s debates.

Swedish and Spanish groups were accredited as recognized non-governmental organizations in 2007 and 2008, breaking years of resistance from some governments. At one U.N. debate in 2003, Pakistan’s ambassador even suggested use of the term “sexual disorientation.”

One of the U.N. council’s main powers is granting consultative status to organizations so that they can participate in formal U.N. meetings. More than 3,000 groups already have such rights.

“If the U.N. cannot be open and diverse, then we are really set for failure,” said Guilherme Patriota, a senior Brazilian diplomat. “There are another 400 NGOs seeking the same status next year. We need to keep working on making the U.N. more open to plurality and diversity.”

Patriota told The Associated Press that the organization was a valuable partner of Brazil’s government in AIDS campaigns, condom promotion and other social causes, and questioned why the application was rejected in the first place.

The U.S. also criticized the U.N. committee mandated with recommending which campaign groups should be given a place. U.S. diplomat John Sammis said that body seems to spend more time coming up with ways to exclude qualified civil society groups rather than on work aimed at including them.

The U.N. council also backed a U.S.-based democracy group to participate in meetings, and suspended an Arab human rights group for a year after a complaint from Algeria.

The Democracy Coalition Project says it acts as a caucus of the world’s democracies, but nonmembers China, Cuba and Russia argued that it was “engaged in politically motivated activities” against certain governments, according to the U.N. report recommending rejection of the application.

The Arab Commission for Human Rights had its status suspended until 2010 because it allowed a non-registered individual to speak at a U.N. review of Algeria’s human rights record.

Algeria said the speaker, Rachid Mesli, is accused of belonging to a terrorist group. But the commission’s Geneva representative, Abdel Wahab Hani, said Mesli is a human rights lawyer who was given political asylum in Switzerland after Amnesty International called him a prisoner of conscience in Algeria.

“We’re not diplomats. We’re not here to hide reality,” Hani said. “We’re here to say what is happening in the Arab world.”

The ban followed the February recommendation by 18 U.N. countries as diverse as Britain, Cuba, Egypt and Israel. The U.S. was the only country to abstain, saying it needed more information about the charges against Mesli to take a position.

The Rev. Luiz Couto has been suspended from his work in the northeastern state of Paraiba.

Archdiocese spokesman Eisenhower de Albuquerque says the church took the action because of Couto’s public stance “in favor of the use of condoms, his support of gay marriage and his opposition to priestly celibacy.”

Couto spokesman Jose Moreira says the priest is not a gay-marriage advocate but is an opponent of discrimination “including discrimination against homosexuals.”

It’s an increase of 20 million from what the government hands out each month the rest of the year in Brazil, which has aggressive anti-HIV and -AIDS efforts praised by the United Nations.

“In addition to the 45 million condoms we already distribute on a monthly basis, we’re increasing that amount this month so there can be enough condoms distributed at all the parties and events that take place during Carnival,” said Mariangela Simao, director of the national HIV-AIDS program in the capital, Brasilia.

All told, the country plans to spend roughly $36 million to purchase 1.2 billion condoms this year – making it the world’s No. 1 government buyer, Simao said. About 560 million free condoms will be available nationwide, or around three for each of Brazil’s 191 million people.

The prophylactics – distributed to state agencies who then hand them out – come in purple wrappers emblazoned with the message “Always use a condom!”

Church officials in Brazil, home to the world’s largest Roman Catholic population, have opposed the condom program.

Also, the Health Ministry hosted a “Mature Woman’s Block Party” in Rio de Janeiro to highlight its latest target demographic: women over the age of 50, about 70 percent of whom do not use condoms, according to the ministry.

Health officials said AIDS cases have tripled among that group in the last decade, from 3.7 cases per 100,000 people to 11.6.

“We senior citizens are still sexually active nowadays, so these types of campaigns are very important,” said Ana Leila Goncalves, a 62-year-old grandmother who took part in the event.

Earlier this month, the health ministry reported it would spend $500,000 this year on 15 million small packets of personal lubricant, which it said helps keep condoms from breaking.

Patricia Araujo received a standing ovation after parading along the runway for the Complexo B brand to end the event in a city that delights in shocking the prudish with each year’s Carnival celebration.

Complexo B designer Beto Neves said he invited Araujo to amaze the public.

“In fashion, the cool thing is to surprise,” he told the O Dia newspaper.

Globo Television’s web site called the 25-year-old Araujo “the star” of the show’s final day and model Isabeli Fontana told O Dia that Araujo “is the greatest”.

Tall and slim, the dark-haired Araujo entered the catwalk wearing a long fur coat and quickly unveiled a short black-and-white dress to the applause of the hundreds of guests at the event.

“I love to be mobbed by the press,” she told O Dia afterward. “I’ve always dreamed of being famous.”

Araujo’s legal name is Patricia Oliveira, but she is known by the stage name of araujo.

Authorities say retired state police Sgt. Jairo Francisco Franco was taken into custody Wednesday night after a witness identified him as the killer of a gay man on August 19.

Police inspector Paulo Fortunato says Franco is suspected of acting alone in all of the 13 killings.

The murders took place between February 2007 and August 2008 at Paturis Park, a favorite meeting point for gay men.

Fortunato says the suspect, who worked as a private security guard in a supermarket, denies the charges.

He says Franco does not yet have a lawyer.

"We have a credible witness who says he saw Franco pump 12 bullets into a black gay man inside the park,” Fortunato said in a telephone interview.

A second witness said Franco visited the park frequently, "apparently cruising for gay men and victims,” Fortunato said.

Police have dubbed the killer of the 13 men as the "rainbow maniac,” a reference to the gay-pride symbol.

"We are convinced he is the rainbow maniac we have been looking for,” Fortunato said.

The Sao Paulo State Public Safety Department says a police sergeant is suspected of taking part in the killings that occurred between February 2007 and August 2008 at the Paturis Park, a favorite meeting point for gay men.

The department said Wednesday that neither the sergeant nor anyone else has been arrested in the case. It said it would not provide further details to avoid jeopardizing the investigation.

Police chief Paulo Fernando Fortunato tells the O Globo newspaper that 13 gay men were killed there between February 2007 and August 2008.

He says police are not sure whether a single person is responsible. Undercover police are now patrolling the park at night.

Fortunato says he went public with the investigation to help warn people of the danger.

His comments were published Monday. Requests for police comment were not immediately answered.

Brazil is in the midst of elections and the popular president used the bully pulpit in a TV interview this week to chastise Congress. A proposed law that would give same-sex couples rights equal to those enjoyed by married opposite-sex couples has been stalled in Brazil’s Congress for more than a decade.

“There are men living with men, and women living with women [who] build a good life together,” the President said in an interview on the government-run TV Brazil.

Da Silva also said that politicians who oppose same-sex unions and yet seek the votes of gay men and women are “hypocrites.”

Earlier this year, he called LGBT civil rights leaders to a precedent setting summit to discuss gay rights legislation and battling homophobia. The meeting involved representatives from the president’s office, cabinet members and legislators.

But in addition to stonewalling legislation on same-sex couple rights, the lower house of Congress last month stripped out portions of a new adoption bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.

Opponents of gay adoption said that because the country does not recognize same-sex unions it would be wrong to allow those couples to jointly adopt.

Some Brazilian states, however, have gone ahead and recognized gay couples.

In 2002, Buenos Aires legalized civil unions.  Two years later, the state of Rio Grande do Sul passed similar legislation.

In 2006, a Sao Paulo state court allowed a gay couple to adopt a 5-year-old girl.

Not at all. Due to a quirk in Brazilian electoral law, candidates can put any name they want on the ballot, as long as it isn’t offensive. At least eight candidates have chosen to be known as “Barack Obama.”

The Illinois senator is hugely popular in Brazil. The prospect of a black U.S. president has generated enthusiasm across the country, where more people call themselves black than anywhere except Nigeria.

Many Brazilian candidates are hoping they can ride his distant coattails into office.

Alexandre Nunes Jacinto, a 48-year-old air conditioner salesman, says his candidacy for city council in the dusty northeastern town of Petrolina is partly a tribute to the American. He read Obama’s biography four years ago and was impressed with the way he crossed racial barriers.

“Like Barack, I believe racism is something we should overcome,” Nunes told The Associated Press.

Claudio Henrique dos Anjos, who’s running for mayor of Belford Roxo on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, took the name Barack Obama de Belford Roxo.

“I intend to enter into history as the first black governor of Belford Roxo, just like the American Barack Obama intends to enter history as the first black president of the United States,” he told the newspaper O Globo.

Some of the candidates say the changing identity doesn’t just apply to the campaign trail.

“Since I registered my new name, Alexandre died,” Jacinto said. “Now everybody calls me Barack.”