Brazil’s 2013/14 soybean crop that starts planting in September is expected to grow by 9% under normal weather conditions to a record 89.1 million tons, local crop analyst AgRural said in a release.
Pope Francis said the troubled Vatican bank must become honest and transparent and that he will listen to the advice of a commission he has set up on whether it can be reformed or needs to be shut down altogether.
Responding to claims that former president Lula da Silva ‘is returning to politics’ and thus conditioning her re-election bid next year, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said the former trade union leader ‘never left politics’ and their relation ‘can’t be dissociated’. She also ratified Finance minister Guido Mantega.
Pope Francis met with President Cristina Fernandez and other South American leaders following the closing ceremony of the XXVIII World Youth Day in Rio do Janeiro and presented the Argentine head of state with a gift of socks and shoes for her recently born first grandson Nestor Ivan Kirchner.
Pope Francis chided the Catholic hierarchy Sunday, telling regional bishops not to behave like authoritarian princes and urging them to move closer to the people.
Pope Francis on the last day of his week long pilgrimage to Brazil urged Catholics to reject selfishness, hatred and intolerance to help build a new world.
Paraguayan president-elect Horacio Cartes declined a personal invitation from his peer Dilma Rousseff to attend Francis mass on Sunday in Rio do Janeiro, the closing event of the pope’s visit to Brazil, according to one of his top foreign policy advisors.
Pope Francis in yet another strong message said on Friday he understands the young people who lose faith in the church because of bad ministers, and confidence in political institutions because of corruption, but also urged them to change the world.
Pope Francis urged young Catholics to shake up the church and make a “mess” in their dioceses by going out into the streets to spread the faith. It’s a message he put into practice on Thursday by visiting one of Rio’s most violent slums and opening the church’s World Youth Day on a rain-soaked Copacabana Beach.
A severe cold front dumped snow on more than 80 towns in southern Brazil and leaving one dead, local weather forecast reported. In Argentina, six people were reported dead.