Brazil

• Thursday, April 17th 2014 - 08:12 UTC

  Brazil's chief banker forecasts inflation will come down in coming months

  

  Food prices in Brazil have started to ease and should bring inflation down in coming months, central bank chief Alexandre Tombini said on Wednesday, reinforcing views that policymakers are ready to wrap up their year-long campaign of rate hikes. He reiterated that a significant part of the impact of past rate increases on inflation has yet to be felt.

• Thursday, April 17th 2014 - 08:09 UTC

  Argentina court prevents supplying Brazil with football hooligans intelligence

  

  Notorious Argentine “barras bravas” football hooligans can travel to the World Cup without intelligence being passed on beforehand to hosts Brazil, a court has ruled. The court in Buenos Aires said that the Argentine government is not allowed to tell another country personal information about its citizens, a lawyer for the United Argentine Fans (HUA) supporters' group said on Wednesday.

• Thursday, April 17th 2014 - 07:59 UTC

  Brazil sends army to World Cup host city following police strike and widespread looting

  

  Brazil's government ordered 5,000 army troops to one of the host cities for the coming World Cup to provide law and order after a police strike led to civil unrest and looting.On Wednesday, the troops entered Salvador, the capital of Bahia state in northeastern Brazil, the state where police began striking on Tuesday night followed by the ransacking of shops and supermarkets, according to local reports.

• Wednesday, April 16th 2014 - 04:42 UTC

  Nissan opens new complex in Brazil to turn out 200.000 cars and engines

  

  Japan Nissan's top executives travelled to Resende, Rio do Janeiro state on Tuesday to inaugurate a complex designed to turn out 200,000 vehicles and engines per year with the goal of capturing 5% of Brazil's new car market by 2016.

• Wednesday, April 16th 2014 - 04:39 UTC

  Vice-president Biden will visit Brazil and attend a US national team game

  

  United States Vice President Joe Biden is planning to be among the crowds at this summer's World Cup soccer tournament. The White House announced Monday that Biden would travel to Brazil for the event in June. He also plans to attend a U.S. national team game.

• Wednesday, April 16th 2014 - 04:36 UTC

  Warnings of 'catastrophic' Chikungunya epidemic; fears it could spread during the World Cup

  

  A team of French and Brazilian researchers warn that chikungunya virus is poised to invade, and become epidemic in the Americas according to research published ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.

• Saturday, April 12th 2014 - 08:59 UTC

  Brazilian police investigation into money laundering includes Petrobras

  

  Brazil's Federal police confirmed on Friday that it had orders from a Parana federal judge to raid Petrobras offices in search of documentation related to an alleged major money laundering scheme but it was not necessary because of the collaboration from the country's largest oil and gas corporation officials.

• Saturday, April 12th 2014 - 08:12 UTC

  Police and squatters clash in Rio do Janeiro next to the Maracana stadium

  

  A dozen people were hurt and 27 arrested Friday in clashes between police and some of the roughly 5,000 squatters occupying a vacant industrial property in Rio do Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city. Militants among the squatters set fire to several vehicles including a police patrol as they sought to remain on the site in the impoverished Engenho Novo neighborhood just steps away from the iconic Maracana stadium.

• Friday, April 11th 2014 - 22:01 UTC

  Olympic Committee top official sent to Rio to tackle delays in the 2016 Games

  

  The International Olympic Committee is sending its executive director Gilbert Felli to Brazil next week as part of a series of emergency measures to tackle the delays threatening the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. The announcement was made by IOC president Thomas Bach.

• Friday, April 11th 2014 - 12:12 UTC

  Footage of live mugging of a woman while being interviewed in Rio do Janeiro

  

  Brazilian TV is showing footage of a woman being robbed while being interviewed on television about crime near Rio de Janeiro’s main train station. The images of the interview conducted Wednesday by TV Globo were posted on its G1 internet news portal and come just a few weeks before the beginning of the World Cup.