
Brazil’s Commerce and Industry minister Fernando Pimentel called on the Argentine government to de-activate restrictions on Brazilian exports and revealed he had addressed a letter to his Argentine peer Debora Giorgi exposing restrictions on bilateral trade and demanding a reply this coming week end.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff claimed that land reform was needed to eradicate poverty, avoid overcrowding in urban areas and as a matter of justice for the long delayed distribution of land.“

The number of international tourists visiting Rio de Janeiro increased by 8% in 2010 compared with the previous year, according to a study conducted by Embratur, the Brazilian Tourism Board.

British Petroleum is negotiating opportunities to buy stakes in oil fields in Brazil to accelerate production increases, the head of the company's Brazil division said on Wednesday.

Brazil will harvest this year a record crop of 158.7 million tons, 6% higher than last year’s 149.7 million tons, according to the latest release from the country’s Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE.

Brazil may start leasing farm land to foreigners to find a way around new legal restrictions on land sales and attract more foreign investment, the agriculture minister said.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that Brazil is the seventh economy in the world and announced that the government is to finance scholarships abroad. “We are the world’s seventh economy and this is due to the effort and sweat of those who made this country grow,” she claimed.

French police said a second body has been removed from the underwater wreckage of the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean nearly two years ago. A remote-controlled submarine raised a body that was still strapped into an airline seat some 3,900 metres to the water's surface Friday.

Brazil’s benchmark consumer price index in April exceeded the upper limit of the government’s target range for the first time since 2005 but officials are confident April was a peak and during May the tendency is for inflation to decelerate.

Automobile production in Brazil fell 4.9% and sales dropped 5.5% in April from March, the national automakers' association said on Friday.