Brazil

• Tuesday, December 27th 2016 - 09:26 UTC

  Chapecoense team air crash caused by human error: pilot, airline and Bolivian regulators blamed

  

  The plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia last month, including players from Brazil's Chapecoense football team, was caused by human error, an investigation says. Colombian officials said there was no technical failure and blamed the pilot, the airline and Bolivian regulators. A recording had already indicated the aircraft had run out of fuel.

• Tuesday, December 27th 2016 - 09:17 UTC

  Petrobras plans to claim part of Odebrecht's payments deal in US and Switzerland

  

  Brazilian oil company Petrobras plans to request part of the record anticorruption settlement that construction company Odebrecht SA signed earlier this week with Brazilian, U.S. and Swiss authorities. Petrobras has said it was the victim of the vast bid-rigging and kickbacks scheme that Odebrecht admitted to helping run.

• Tuesday, December 27th 2016 - 09:12 UTC

  Brazil's trade balance with a US$ 45bn surplus record

  

  Brazil's trade balance reached a surplus of US$ 45bn by the third week of December. The third week period recorded a US$ 864 million surplus from exports of US$ 3.969bn and imports of US$ 3.105bn. The result is far better than last year when the whole year surplus was US$ 19.69 billion.

• Saturday, December 24th 2016 - 17:50 UTC

  UK and Brazil agree on a Business Dialogue to address commercial and political issues

  

  The United Kingdom and Brazil announced the creation of the Anglo-Brazilian Business Dialogue, which aims to establish a bilateral business dialogue to address commercial and political issues affecting UK and Brazilian companies in their respective markets and to refer them to the upper echelons of both governments. This was achieved during the recent visit to Brazil of Liam Fox, British Secretary of State for International Trade

• Saturday, December 24th 2016 - 15:41 UTC

  President Temer rejects any idea of resigning, “I haven't given it a thought”

  

  Brazilian President Michel Temer rejected any idea of resigning and anticipated he will file “one appeal after another” if the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) rules that the action calling for removal from office of the Dilma-Temer ticket moves forward.

• Saturday, December 24th 2016 - 15:24 UTC

  Brazilian Army chief anticipates an even worse political ethical situation in 2017

  

  Brazil's commander in chief of the Army, General Eduardo Villas Boas anticipates that the current situation described as “political, economic but above all ethical” will worsen during 2017, which he said will be reflected in the Defense ministry budget and salaries of Armed Forces members.

• Friday, December 23rd 2016 - 01:46 UTC

  Brazil's Odebrecht breaks another penalty record, this time in US court: US$ 3.5bn

  

  Brazil's construction colossus Odebrecht and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem SA agreed on Wednesday in New York to pay at least US$3.5 billion, the largest penalty ever in a foreign bribery case, to resolve international charges involving payoffs to Brazil's state oil company and others.

• Thursday, December 22nd 2016 - 23:22 UTC

  A good one for Brazil: excellent prospects for agribusiness in 2017

  

  Brazil’s farm economy will rebound in 2017 with a record harvest pushing up grain exports and expanding the country’s livestock industry, according to analysts’ forecasts. An estimated record grain harvest of 213.1 million tons would be 14% larger than last year, when crops were devastated by drought, according to Brazil government estimates. The harvest will start in January.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2016 - 08:57 UTC

  Brazil's Vale sells its fertilizer business to cut debt

  

  Brazil's Vale, the world’s largest iron ore and nickel miner said on Monday it will sell most of its fertilizer business to US-based Mosaic Co., the No.1 producer of phosphate fertilizer, in a deal worth about US$2.5 billion.

• Monday, December 19th 2016 - 08:04 UTC

  Another major clash between Brazil's Supreme Court and Congress in the making

  

  Another major clash between Brazil's Supreme Court and Congress in the making. Justice Luiz Fux ruled to return the anti-corruption bill back to its initial stages in the Lower House, despite the fact the fill had already reached Senate and was preparing to put the bill to a vote.