Spectacular bodies, minimum clothing plus bubbles, feathers and glitter blended the first night of parades in Rio do Janeiro's Carnival, as the city's samba schools battled for top honours in what Brazilians proudly consider the world's largest party.
Brazilian mining giant Vale do Rio Doce, the world's biggest iron ore producer, expects to ship a record-high 30 million tonnes of iron ore to China in the first quarter of 2009, it said on Friday.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will become on Sunday the country's first president in the last 15 years to attend one of the samba-school parades at the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, the main event of the festival, his office confirmed.
Brazil unemployment rate in January jumped the most in seven years to 8.2% from 6.8% in December according to the country's national Statistics Agency. The jobless rate is based on Brazil six largest metropolitan areas.
Brazil has survived the worst of the global financial crisis and could see an upturn as early as the second quarter, the state-funded Institute for Applied Economic Research, or IPEA, said this week.
Petrobras average oil and gas production in Brazil during January climbed to 2,219,165 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe), 4.8% more than a year ago and up 0.7% over December 2008. Oil from domestic fields was 1,922,946 barrels/day, setting a monthly record, 5.3% above the mark set a year earlier and 2.5% more than the December volume.
Brazil's JBS, the world's largest beef producer and owner of JBS-Swift, said on Friday it had abandoned its attempt to takeover of US meat company National Beef Packing Company LLC.
Brazil signed an agreement to supply China with 100,000 to 160,000 barrels of oil per day at market prices in exchange for a loan from the China Development Bank to help develop its huge oil reserves.
Brazil metalworkers unions from the country's powerhouse, Sao Paulo state, have agreed to salary and working hours cuts in an attempt to save 16.300 jobs, according to industry sources.
The family of Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes dropped their legal battle for justice after British prosecutors refused to bring charges over his death. They said almost four years of relentless campaigning brought them little closer to holding any individual to account for the innocent Brazilian's death.