Brazilians race to adopt abandoned baby floating in lake

Doctors released a 2-month-old girl from a hospital "in perfect health" Monday, two days after she was found in a black plastic bag floating in a lake in southeastern &to=http://english.pravda.ru/diplomatic/2002/05/22/29069.html' target=_blank>Brazil.

Scores of Brazilians mobbed the Odilion Behrens Municipal Hospital, offering to adopt or just catch a glimpse of the child whose dramatic rescue was filmed by an amateur cameraman and was broadcast Sunday on nationwide television.

Authorities said it was the same Belo Horizonte hospital where the infant was born, a fact that helped authorities locate the mother, who allegedly set her adrift on nearby Pampulha Lake, 340 kilometers (210 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro.

The baby was released into the care of local child-protection authorities.

"She's doing great, in perfect health," said Rosana Alves, a hospital spokeswoman. "Now the Juvenile Court will decide whether she goes to a family or to a shelter."