Brazil

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:57 UTC

  Rio’s Carnival takes off: “I order everyone to have fun”

  

  Rio do Janeiro's four-day Carnival officially kicks off Saturday with a long list of celebrities in town to watch the main event, which this year is dominated by a row over a seven-year-old girl joining the ranks of the sexy adult samba queens.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:25 UTC

  Petrobras finds 25 million barrels oil reserve in shallow waters off Rio

  

  Brazilian government managed energy giant Petrobras announced this week that it has found oil at a well located in shallow waters of the Campos Basin. The find was made in waters just 200 meters deep and is near massive deposits in deeper areas of Campos, which is located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state and is the basin where 80% of Brazil’s oil is extracted.

• Friday, February 12th 2010 - 04:08 UTC

  Brazilian police arrest Brasilia’s governor on bribery charges

  

  Brazilian police arrested on Thursday a key opposition party district governor on bribery charges, potentially hurting the right wing's chances in the general election this year.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 16:51 UTC

  Lula da Silva’s handpicked presidential candidate is “a puppet”

  

  Former Brazilian president Fernando Enrique Cardoso said that the presidential pre-candidate Dilma Roussef is a “puppet” of Brazilian leader Lula da Silva, according to reports in the Sao Paulo press.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 16:43 UTC

  Brazil’s main political force confirms support for presidential hopeful Rousseff

  

  Brazil’s main political force, the Brazilian Democratic Movement party, PMDB, reaffirmed its alliance with President Lula da Silva’s Workers Party, PT, and closed ranks behind his hand picked candidate for October’s presidential election, Dilma Rousseff.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 04:21 UTC

  Carnival takes off and Brazilian government hands out millions of condoms

  Brazilian health officials have kicked off an AIDS awareness campaign and will hand out 55 million condoms during the annual Carnival festival that begins this weekend.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 02:23 UTC

  Lula da Silva beefs up federal payroll with 46.000 new posts

  

  The administration of Brazilian president Lula da Silva increased the federal payroll since 2003 with 64.000 new posts and is planning another 46.000 in this the last year of his two four-year mandate, according to government sources.

• Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:04 UTC

  Brazil’s middle class is half the population, but destitute remain at 40%

  

  The Brazilian middle class has grown sustainedly since 2003, when President Lula da Silva first took office and now represents almost half of the country’s population according to a report from the Getulio Vargas foundation released over the weekend.

• Monday, February 8th 2010 - 01:52 UTC

  Lula da Silva’s party fearful of “Brazilian sub-imperialism” and arrogance

  

  Brazil “sub-imperialism”, the arrogance of Brazilian businessmen and a more left wing approach for a future government of the ruling Workers Party, PT, are some of the points of the document to be considered next week at the party’s convention that must nominate the candidate for October’s presidential campaign and supposedly the heir of Lula da Silva.

• Saturday, February 6th 2010 - 03:51 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil set to grow 5%, helping to ease bilateral “trade relations”

  

  Argentina and Brazil closed Friday in Buenos Aires two days of high level negotiations which should help ease bilateral trade relations tension particularly since both countries economies are forecasted to grow at 5% during 2010.