Last Thursday, lightning struck Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, breaking off a piece of the right thumb and damaging the head. The event, captured in the perfectly timed ...

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian cleaning crew was rappelling in the shadow of one of the world’s most famous sites: Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue. Wearing harnesses and using ...

According to the National Institute for Space Research, the statue, perched atop Rio’s 2,300-foot-tall Mt. Corcovado, sustains an average of three to five mostly harmless strikes each year.