Brazil

• 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.

• Friday, February 5th 2010 - 02:57 UTC

  Brazil’s dilemma: how to contain growth (inflation) in an electoral year

  

  Brazil's Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Copom, expressed concern about inflation and advanced it was prepared to respond “promptly” according to the minutes from its meeting last week when it decided to maintain the basic interest rate at 8.75%.

• Thursday, February 4th 2010 - 17:51 UTC

  Brazil finally decides to purchase Dassault Rafale fighter planes

  

  Brazil has agreed on a price to buy and assemble 36 Rafale fighter jets with French manufacturer Dassault after months of negotiations, a leading Brazilian newspaper reported on Thursday.

• Thursday, February 4th 2010 - 17:17 UTC

  As China tries to cool economy asset bubbles fears emerge in Brazil

  

  Brazil, Latinamerica’s largest economy is feeling the consequences of China’s moves to rein in an overheated economy and global fears of asset bubbles in attractive fast developing economies. The strongest warning came this week from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD.

• Thursday, February 4th 2010 - 14:07 UTC

  Brazil’s best known writer against Blair as Olympics advisor

  

  Brazil's best-known writer, Paulo Coelho, is making it clear he doesn't want Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair involved in planning for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2010 - 12:20 UTC

  Green light in Brazil for controversial dam in Amazon jungle

  

  A controversial project to build a massive hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon jungle has received the go-ahead from Brazil’s environmental protection agency, despite objections from environmentalists and indigenous people who live in the area.