Brazil

• Tuesday, January 31st 2012 - 05:39 UTC

  Dilma Rousseff arrives in Havana to advance trade and investment relations

  

  Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff arrived Monday to Cuba for a two-day visit to discuss bilateral economic cooperation and human rights. From Cuba Rousseff will travel on to Haiti as she aims to continue the regional diplomatic outreach of her popular predecessor, Lula da Silva.

• Tuesday, January 31st 2012 - 05:22 UTC

  Brazilian company signs agreement to recover the defunct Cuban sugar industry

  

  Brazilian builder Odebrecht plans to produce sugar in Cuba, the company said on Monday as incentives for foreign investment in the Castro family’s regime raise hopes of a recovery in the once-booming sector after decades of decline.

• Tuesday, January 31st 2012 - 05:17 UTC

  The itsy-bitsy tanga and ‘fio dental’ succumbing to bikinis and ‘gordinhas’

  

  The Girl from Ipanema has put on a few kilos and for many sun basking in Brazil’s beaches the country’s iconic itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny tanga just doesn’t suffice anymore.

• Monday, January 30th 2012 - 21:11 UTC

  For Brazil Argentina is a “good problem”, no longer a “permanent problem”

  

  Argentina is “a good problem” for Brazil, said President Dilma Rousseff’s Foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia ahead of another trade dispute when Argentina begins applying a new imports’ scheme that has been equally criticized by local and Brazilian manufacturers.

• Monday, January 30th 2012 - 09:45 UTC

  Chile, Brazil and Uruguay among the world’s leading exporters of wood chips

  

  Wood chip exports from Latin America are on track to reach a record high of almost eight million tons in 2011, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. This would be an increase of 7% from last year and of almost 60% higher than in 2006.

• Monday, January 30th 2012 - 06:40 UTC

  American Airlines increases flights to seven major Brazilian cities

  

  American Airlines announced changes to its coming spring and summer schedule that will expand the airline’s presence in Brazil. Next December, American’s route between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Sao Paulo (GRU) will be operating with the new state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300ER, making Brazil the first market for the new aircraft.

• Saturday, January 28th 2012 - 10:16 UTC

  Brazil exceeded budget primary target last year and is optimistic about 2012

  

  Brazil’s central government exceeded its budget target for 2011 by posting a primary surplus (excluding interest payments) of 93.5 billion Reais (53.7 billion dollars) for the year.

• Saturday, January 28th 2012 - 07:13 UTC

  Drought in Argentina and Brazil cuts significantly corn crops’ volumes

  

  Corn advanced heading for the biggest weekly gain in five as concerns that a renewed heat wave in Argentina and south Brazil may damage crops boosted demand for US grain. Soybeans were little changed.

• Friday, January 27th 2012 - 11:39 UTC

  Rousseff signals clear difference with Lula da Silva in coming visit to Cuba

  

  Brazil issued a tourist visa to a dissident Cuban blogger a few days before President Dilma Rousseff is scheduled to travel to the Castro family island in a visit being dominated by human rights concerns.

• Friday, January 27th 2012 - 11:25 UTC

  Petrobras admits oil leak off the coast of southern Brazil

  

  Transpetro, a subsidiary of Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras, said Thursday it had detected an oil leak off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul state but did not know how much had spilled.