Brazil

• Tuesday, July 23rd 2013 - 07:54 UTC

  Despite papal blessings, Brazil further cuts spending and growth forecast

  

  Brazil is cutting spending for the second time in two months to help meet its fiscal target as it forecasts slower growth this year which was also confirmed according to the latest Central Bank survey. The economic data was announced while Brazil had its eyes and ears in Rio do Janeiro to receive Pope Francis.

• Tuesday, July 23rd 2013 - 07:48 UTC

  Violent protests against Rio do Janeiro governor following Pope’s reception

  

  Rio de Janeiro was the stage for violent protests centred at Palacio Guanabara where earlier in the day Pope Francis had been received by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The incidents occurred Monday night during a demonstration against Rio state governor Sergio Cabral which convened an estimated 1.500 people according to the police.

• Monday, July 22nd 2013 - 20:36 UTC

  Pope warns of an entire generation of jobless young people, before arriving in Rio

  

  Pope Francis warned Monday that the world risks having an entire generation of jobless young people as he arrived to Brazil. The 76-year-old Argentine, speaking to journalists aboard the papal plane heading to the Catholic youth event in Rio de Janeiro, said his trip aimed in part “to encourage young people to integrate into society” and convince the world not to abandon them.

• Monday, July 22nd 2013 - 06:54 UTC

  Francis, champion of the poor arrives at a restive and Catholic faith losing Brazil

  

  Pope Francis is due in Brazil Monday on his first foreign trip as pontiff to attend an international youth festival in the world's biggest Catholic country.

• Monday, July 22nd 2013 - 06:50 UTC

  The good pastor will put in practice ‘the new way of interacting with the world’

  

  Pope Francis’s response to the challenges of the Catholic Church has been to help find “an entirely new way to interact with the world” by the manner in which he communicates, said Sao Paulo Cardinal Odilo Scherer, one of two Latin Americans named to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization created in 2010.

• Saturday, July 20th 2013 - 22:24 UTC

  Tickets for the 2014 World Cup final will range from 440 to 990 dollars

  

  FIFA has released the price list for tickets to the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil. Fans have until 10 October to apply and a ballot will decide which of the applications are successful.

• Saturday, July 20th 2013 - 05:57 UTC

  Brazil the seventh most violent country; in 30 years homicides soared 132%, says Map of Violence

  

  More than one million people were murdered in Brazil between 1980 and 2011, making it the world’s seventh-most violent country, according to the Map of Violence survey. In that period the homicides soared 132% to claim 1,145,208 lives, from a rate of 11.5 murders for 100,000 inhabitants in 1980 to 27 per 100,000 in 2011.

• Saturday, July 20th 2013 - 05:46 UTC

  Money exchange controls limit Argentines from travelling to Brazil to greet Pope Francis

  

  Despite the pope is Argentine and on Monday he will be making his first pastoral trip overseas to Brazil, Argentine government strict currency controls are making it difficult for prospective pilgrims to travel. An estimated 60.000 Argentines are expected to travel to Rio do Janeiro for the grand event.

• Saturday, July 20th 2013 - 05:35 UTC

  Fitch maintains Brazil’s debt outlook ‘stable’ and minister says the report was ‘fair’

  

  Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said that Fitch's decision to maintain the country’s debt outlook at stable was “fair” given Brazil robust finances and lesser debt burden.

• Saturday, July 20th 2013 - 05:31 UTC

  Brazil Catholic church losing ground to Protestants and Pentecostals

  

  Brazil's Catholic population has declined since 2000 while its Protestant population has grown during the past two decades, a Pew survey fund.