Brazil

• Friday, September 23rd 2011 - 07:38 UTC

  Brazilian Catholic bishops join anit-corrution protests and call for ‘deep reforms’

  

  Brazilian Catholic bishops called for “a profound political reform” against corruption and strongly supported the popular protests that have erupted in the country following the disclosure of several scandals that have swept away four ministers and has reached the doorsteps of Congress.

• Friday, September 23rd 2011 - 01:31 UTC

  Brazil will hold off plans for fighter jets purchase for another twelve months

  

  Brazil will hold off plans to purchase new fighter jets until at least 2012 as the government cuts spending to fight the global economic crisis, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said in New York.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 22:42 UTC

  Brazil’s August unemployment stable at 6% in tight labour market

  

  Brazil’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6% in August, a record low for the month while average real wages rose 0.5% from the previous months to 1,629.40 Reais (839.16 US dollars) a month, the government statistics agency IBGE report showed.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 21:52 UTC

  Brazil to the rescue of the Real which is down 17% against the dollar in 4 weeks

  

  Brazil's central bank unexpectedly acted to halt the currency's slide on Thursday, highlighting growing concern among officials that the global financial crisis is damaging Brazil's economy and could cause a potentially destructive spurt in inflation.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 08:27 UTC

  Petrobras confirms ultra-deep water Sergipe-Alagoas oil and gas province

  

  Brazilian major oil corporation Petrobras has discovered oil and natural gas accumulations in the ultra-deepwater of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin offshore northeast Brazil.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 17:08 UTC

  World crisis “too deep” to be addressed by “a couple of countries” exclusively

  

  Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff warned that a full blown economic crisis could be devastating for emerging countries as well as for the world’s largest economies. She added that the global financial situation could cause a “serious rupture.”

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  Brazilian daily creates a “Folhaleaks” to help combat rampant corruption

  

  Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo on Sunday launched an online initiative to collect feedback from sensitive information and leaks for journal investigation, a Web site it dubbed “Folhaleaks” in direct reference to the widely known Wikileaks Web site founded by Julian Assange.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:45 UTC

  Family affair: fifty children and still feeling strong

  

  A 90-year-old retired peasant has fathered children with two wives, sister-in-law and mother-in-law in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state, the press reported on Sunday.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:25 UTC

  Obama and Rousseff address world crises and pledge new talks before G20 meeting

  

  The world crisis was the main issue addressed by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff during the bilateral meetings with US President Barack Obama and later with her peer Mexico’s Felipe Calderon in New York.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 00:49 UTC

  Uruguay alert to the extent of Brazil recent measures on auto imports

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica admitted a certain ‘stinging feeling’ following the recent Brazilian decision to increase import taxes on vehicles by 30%, which could also have an impact on Mercosur partners.