Brazil

• Thursday, May 4th 2017 - 05:44 UTC

  Petrobras reveals Libra field achieves a breakeven price of US$ 35/bbl

  

  Brazil's oil and gas company Petrobras shared innovations and efficiency gains related to the Libra field at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston. Petrobras revealed collaboration between Libra area partners has produced a US$13/bbl reduction to the project's breakeven price.

• Wednesday, May 3rd 2017 - 06:53 UTC

  Mastermind of Lula's corruption cases temporarily released from jail

  

  Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release from prison of Jose Dirceu, who was convicted of graft-related crimes after serving as cabinet chief of ex-president Lula da Silva. Dirceu has been detained since 2015 in connection to a vast corruption scheme known as Car Wash.

• Wednesday, May 3rd 2017 - 06:37 UTC

  Sweep against crime gangs in Rio triggers shooting and setting buses and trucks on fire

  

  Brazilian military police launched a major anti-crime operation in northern Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, arresting dozens of men and confiscating automatic rifles in a sweep that led gang members to burn public buses and left the city that hosted last year's Olympics on edge.

• Saturday, April 29th 2017 - 08:15 UTC

  Brazil general strike ends with riots and arson; Temer says he will continue with labor and pensions reforms

  

  Violence has erupted in Brazil at the end the country's first general strike in more than 20 years. Buses and cars have been set on fire in Rio de Janeiro's city centre while roads blocks set up by activists were also ablaze and some shops were vandalized.

• Friday, April 28th 2017 - 17:28 UTC

  General strike in Brazil to protest changes to labor laws and pensions system

  

  Public transport largely came to a halt across much of Brazil on Friday as protesters blocked roads and scuffled with police in a general strike to protest proposed changes to labor laws and the pension system. It is the first general strike in over two decades.

• Friday, April 28th 2017 - 17:23 UTC

  Brazil hit by record 13.7% unemployment in March, 14 million out of a job

  

  Brazil's jobless rate rose to a record for the fifth straight month in March with more than 14 million workers unemployed, government data showed on Friday, illustrating the hardships caused by the country's deepest recession ever.

• Thursday, April 27th 2017 - 17:50 UTC

  Brazil's reforms advance in Congress to the relief of beleaguered president Temer

  

  Brazil's lower house of Congress on Wednesday approved the main text of a bill to relax the country's restrictive labor laws, a main issue of President Michel Temer's efforts to bolster investment and pull the economy out of its worst recession ever.

• Wednesday, April 26th 2017 - 12:15 UTC

  Bribes in Brazil “institutionalized” since the fifties, reveals Emilio Odebrecht

  

  The former CEO of the huge Brazilian builder at the center of the world's biggest corruption scandal spoke frankly about the billions in bribes and illegal financing that the Odebrecht company put into the pockets and campaign coffers of politicians and public officials.

• Wednesday, April 26th 2017 - 11:41 UTC

  Brazil and Spain lay direct subsea cable rerouting communications to avoid US bugging

  

  The Spanish and Brazilian governments have teamed up to lay an undersea cable in the Atlantic Ocean to offer fast online and cloud services to citizens of both countries by 2019, underscoring efforts to rout communications outside North America.

• Wednesday, April 26th 2017 - 08:28 UTC

  Tribesmen with bows and arrows clash with riot police in Brasilia on “Indigenous Week”

  

  Thousands of Brazilian indigenous tribe members clashed with riot police Tuesday while demonstrating in the capital, Brasilia, for greater rights. Some of the indigenous people were armed with bows and arrows, while police rained tear gas onto the protesters.