Brazil

• Thursday, May 18th 2017 - 10:56 UTC

  Brazilian ambassador will return to Venezuela next week

  

  Brazil's ambassador to Venezuela, withdrawn last year during tensions between the two neighbors, will return to Caracas next week, Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said Wednesday.“Next Monday, the ambassador of Brazil will return to his place in Venezuela as a gesture of goodwill,” Jungmann told journalists in Brasilia.

• Thursday, May 18th 2017 - 10:36 UTC

  Brazil faces humanitarian crisis in Venezuelan border as thousands spill over

  

  Brazil is concerned about growing numbers of refugees spilling over its border from Venezuela and is creating a plan to deal with a possible mass influx if the crisis in Venezuela worsens, Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said on Wednesday.

• Thursday, May 18th 2017 - 09:03 UTC

  Seism in Brazil: Temer could soon be joining Rousseff at the removed ex presidents' club

  

  Brazil's President Michel Temer faced calls for his removal Wednesday after a newspaper reported that he had been recorded discussing payments of hush money to a corrupt politician. Temer immediately denied the report in O Globo newspaper.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2017 - 21:15 UTC

  Something smells rotten in Brazilian food companies: probes into bribed inspections

  

  Brazilian police on Tuesday opened two separate investigations into whether certain food companies improperly received favorable treatment from the Agriculture Ministry, the latest probe ensnaring the powerful farming sector. The probes into whether inspection procedures were relaxed for meatpacking, dairy and other food companies come two months after industry leaders JBS SA and BRF SA were rocked by allegations of bribing food inspectors.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2017 - 17:44 UTC

  .Brazil seems to be climbing out of the worst recession in history

  

  Brazil is set to show a return to growth, the Central Bank indicated Monday, raising hopes that Latin America’s biggest economy could be inching out of a two-year recession.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2017 - 15:53 UTC

  Petrobras performance improving: largest quarterly earnings in two years

  

  Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras reported its largest quarterly earnings in two years as crude prices rose and the government allowed it to sell fuel at a profit in the domestic market. Petrobras posted a 4.5 billion reais net profit (US$ 1.4bn) in the January to March period, reversing a 1.25 billion reais loss (US$ 400 million) in the first three months of 2016.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2017 - 09:50 UTC

  Amnesty International blasts Brazilian police systematic killings and impunity

  

  Amnesty International lambasted “impunity” for Brazilian police who kill suspects during operations after a regional rights court ruled against Brazil in a spate of slayings in the 1990s. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled last week that Brazil must reopen investigations into the killings of 26 people in a Rio de Janeiro favela two decades ago and should provide compensation.

• Tuesday, May 16th 2017 - 10:04 UTC

  Brazil states RAF Hercules flights from or to Falklands are “humanitarian motivated”

  

  The Brazilian government discards any “irregularities” in allowing British military aircraft, flying to or from the Falkland Islands, landing in its airports since the authorizations are humanitarian motivated, revealed a source from the Brazilian government to the Argentine news agency, Telam.

• Tuesday, May 16th 2017 - 08:13 UTC

  Temer admits not having the votes to pass the pension reform bill: investors edgy

  

  Brazilian President Michel Temer acknowledged on Monday that he may not have the votes at present to pass his pension reform bill in the lower house of Congress, and the key measure for fiscal savings might not face a floor vote until late May.

• Sunday, May 14th 2017 - 08:53 UTC

  Brazil retail sales plunge in March; government insists economy will be positive in first quarter

  

  Retail sales in Brazil unexpectedly fell in March at the steepest monthly rate in 14 years, strengthening bets on a bolder interest rate cut at the end of this month. Sales volumes excluding cars and building materials fell 1.9% in March from February, government statistics agency IBGE said. Sales fell 4.0% from the year-earlier period.