Brazil

• Monday, December 19th 2011 - 07:29 UTC

  Mercosur summit to deal with Venezuela inclusion and obstacles to trade

  

  A two day Mercosur summit begins Monday in Montevideo with Foreign Affairs ministers meeting Monday and the presidents on Tuesday when the rotating chair will be passed from Uruguay to Argentina for the next six month.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:30 UTC

  FDI in Brazil jumped four times since 2005 totalling 661bn; US main investor

  

  Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil expanded fourfold between 2005 and last year, from 162.8 billion to 660.5 billion dollars, the country’s central bank said on Thursday.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:26 UTC

  Disclosed documents reveal Brazilian strong support for the Pinochet regime in Chile

  

  Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo published a report on this week revealing a series of 266 telegrams from the Brazilian embassy in Santiago that unveiled strong economic and diplomatic ties between the nations’ military regimes in the early 1970s.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:23 UTC

  French PM from Brazil admits new “jolts” can be expected in the Euro zone

  

  French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country is likely to face new “jolts” from the Euro zone debt crisis amid rumors it could lose its triple-A credit rating.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:16 UTC

  Brazil joins the club of countries with strict no smoking legislation

  

  President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday signed a law banning smoking in all enclosed public spaces in Brazil. The new text will make Brazil, which has a population of more than 191 million, the largest country in the world to go smoke-free.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 18:03 UTC

  After dismal year Brazilian industry expects modest recovery in 2012

  

  Brazilian industry saw 1.8% growth this year, well below expectations, and expansion will be limited to 2.3% in 2012 due to a global economic slowdown, a business group said this week.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 17:58 UTC

  Brazilian prosecutors suing Transocean and Chevron 10bn dollars for oil spill

  

  Brazilian federal prosecutors are suing Transocean Ltd and Chevron Corp for 20 billion Reais (10.6 billion dollars) in environmental and social damages and asked a court to suspend their operations, according to a statement yesterday.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:42 UTC

  Brazil ‘disappointed’ with Paraguay Senate attitude towards Venezuela and Mercosur

  

  Brazil’s International Affairs presidential advisor Marco Aurelio García admitted there is “disappointment” in Mercosur with the delay from the Paraguayan congress in approving the incorporation of Venezuela.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:37 UTC

  Brazil decides full support for the (development) Bank of the South

  

  The administration of President Dilma Rousseff will be sending the bill creating the Bank of the South to congress next month, since this financial institution “will help the region address the global crisis”.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:32 UTC

  Lan-Tam clears Brazil antitrust regulator, becomes world’ second largest carrier

  

  Chile Lan Airlines planned 3.2 billion dollars acquisition of Tam SA was approved by Brazil’s antitrust regulator, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the formation of the world’s second-largest carrier.