Brazil

• Sunday, October 14th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Lula da Silva discards re-election and denies heavy drinking

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva reiterated he was against a hypothetical reelection for a third mandate but did not deny the possibility of running again in 2014, according to a Sunday interview with Folha do Sao Paulo. The president also pointed out that the last time he got drunk was in 1974.

• Sunday, October 14th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  “Hands off the Amazon”, Brazil tells environmentalists

  Brazilian Defence minister Nelson Jobim stated that the Amazon sovereignty is non negotiable and rejected recommendations from a United Nations panel that last week shared with former US Vice president Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize and suggested the creation of an international treaty to guarantee the protection of the vast rain forest in South America.

• Thursday, October 11th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  US Commerce Secretary Says Doha Deal Could Be Close

  

  A general agreement on global trade liberalization in the Doha round of talks is “closer than most people think,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Wednesday.

• Tuesday, October 9th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  EU farmers lobby for ban on Brazilian meat imports

  

  The European Union may resort to a ban on Brazilian meat imports if the country does not improve food safety standards, the European Union's health chief said on Tuesday addressing members of the European Parliament.

• Friday, October 5th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil tightening on foreign purchase and ownership of land

  

  Global liquidity in recent years has led to a boom, --and speculation--, in real estate and farming land in Mercosur member countries. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay have seen land prices soar pushed by foreign buyers and now governments are reacting tightening restrictions on land ownership.

• Thursday, October 4th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Playboy photos reveal latest Brazilian political scandal

  

  A beautiful journalist at the heart of one of the latest Brazilian Congress scandals has hit the cover of the Brazil edition of Playboy and become an instant sales success.

• Thursday, October 4th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  New controversy with Brazil's air traffic control system

  

  Brazil's top aviation official on Thursday rebuffed charges by the head of an international air traffic controllers organization who said it was only “a question of time” before there was a new air disaster in Brazil.

• Thursday, September 27th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Sao Paulo holds Kyoto Protocol “carbon market” auction

  A bank from the Netherlands has emerged as the winning bidder in an auction which marks a new phase in the global “carbon market” reports the BBC. Fortis Bank has paid more than 13m Euros for the rights to emit 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide, in the first such auction to be held in a regulated exchange, the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange (BM&F

• Wednesday, September 26th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Lula da Silva proposes a Rio + 20 environment summit

  

  Standing before the United Nations General Assembly one day after an historic meeting on climate change, the President of Brazil proposed convening in 2012 a summit on the environment, exactly two decades after the landmark international conference met there to produce the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

• Tuesday, September 25th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian Indians campaign: 'Guarani Are Great People'

  

  A group of Brazilian Indians has just kicked off a campaign called Guarani People, Great People. The self-esteem-enhancer promotion was launched in the Tey' kue village, near the municipality of Caarapó, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in the Brazilian Midwest.