Brazil

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 06:37 UTC

  Brazil can’t explain the four hours massive blackout

  

  The world’s largest operational hydroelectric dam, Itaipú which on Tuesday caused a four hours blackout in 16 of Brazil’s 27 states and most of Paraguay was back in full production early morning Wednesday but authorities have so far remained silent about the causes of the major turnoff.

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 05:54 UTC

  Brazilian Senate suspends vote on Venezuela’s Mercosur admission

  

  The Brazilian Senate agreed to postpone a full house vote on the admission of Venezuela to Mercosur given the “strained climate” generated by President Hugo Chavez who alerted his people of a “possible” war with Colombia.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2009 - 11:32 UTC

  Brazil downplays Venezuela/Colombia “continental rhetoric”

  

  Differences between Venezuela and Colombia won’t reach extreme situations and both neighbours will find a way out through dialogue, said Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2009 - 11:29 UTC

  Chavez “war alert” shell-shocks Mercosur admission debate in Brazil

  

  Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez alert calling on the Army and the people to prepare for “a possible war” with Colombia shell-shocked the Brazilian Senate that this week is scheduled to vote on Venezuela’s full incorporation to Mercosur.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2009 - 10:29 UTC

  Fighting to get Atlantic albatrosses off the hook

  

  As scientists gather in Recife, Brazil, to agree on quotas for the Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of tuna and swordfish in the latest round of fisheries talks, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and BirdLife International are reminding delegates that at least 37 species of seabirds are at risk from these fisheries.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2009 - 08:17 UTC

  Rio do Janeiro: police “wild west tactics” behind 10.000 death toll in 12 years

  

  An independent study in Brazil suggests that the soaring number of police killings of suspected criminals in Rio do Janeiro's war on drugs is linked to bonuses now paid to “courageous” police officers, according to a newspaper report Monday.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2009 - 08:09 UTC

  Mini-skirt student with “provocative attitudes” expelled from Brazilian university

  

  In Brazil, famed for its tiny bikinis and carefree attitude, a university student has been expelled after violent protests by students and professors outraged at the short mini skirt she wore on campus and her “provocative attitude”.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2009 - 07:54 UTC

  Lula da Silva: “I preferred to give Paraguay a chance to develop”

  

  A country with the size of Brazil can’t fight with Paraguay, said Brazilian president Lula da Silva justifying the Itaipu hydroelectric energy agreement signed last July with his Paraguayan counterpart Fernando Lugo in Asuncion.
  He added, “I preferred to give a country like Paraguay the chance to develop”.

• Monday, November 9th 2009 - 12:54 UTC

  Amorim and Taiana meet to address “trade difficulties”

  

  Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim will receive Monday in Rio do Janeiro his Argentine counterpart Jorge Taiana to discuss several issues of the “bilateral agenda” including, according to Argentine diplomatic sources the ongoing “trade differences”.

• Monday, November 9th 2009 - 10:15 UTC

  Lula da Silva tells Obama to look after “US drugs’ consumers”

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva warned his peer Barack Obama that South America “does not need US bases” in Colombia to combat narcotics trade and suggested he look after “US drugs consumers”.