
Pope Francis will not use bullet-proof ‘Pope-mobiles’ on his visit to Brazil next week to allow him more direct contact with crowds despite the security risks, according to a Vatican release.

Uruguay needs a quick resumption of Mercosur/European Union trade and cooperation talks because at the end of the year expire a number of tariff benefits for Uruguayan exports, revealed Foreign minister Luis Almagro.

Brazil Foreign minister Antonio Patriota said he expects that Paraguay president-elect Horacio Cartes will accept the return to Mercosur following his taking office ceremony scheduled for next August 15.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff reacted swiftly to the latest national stoppage saying that her government will not tolerate protests blocking highways or streets and with the Ministry of Justice will draft rules to fine those organizations responsible for such actions.

Disclosures alleging that the United States has collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations in Brazil will not affect Brazil-U.S. relations, said the head of the country’s joint congressional committee on intelligence.

The Brazilian government, under pressure to improve public health services, has dropped plans to import a contingent of Cuban doctors and is instead looking to hire physicians in Spain and Portugal, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Lawmakers in Brazil said Monday they want to question Washington's ambassador here about revelations that the United States has collected and stored the e-mail and telephone records of millions of Brazilians.

President Dilma Rousseff sent Congress reform proposals on Tuesday intended to make Brazilian politics more representative in a bid to recoup popularity she lost in a wave of angry protests against the country's political establishment.

The president of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal (Supreme Court) Joaquim Barbosa argued in favour of diminishing the influence of political parties in decisions referred to the Brazilian people’s interest and supports the introduction of what he called “puffs of popular expression” in the current political system.

The Brazilian executive apparently has reached an understanding with the presidents of the Senate and the Lower House, Renan Calheiros and Henrique Eduardo Alves for a plebiscite with several questions referred to changes in electoral and party legislation, and eventually the Constitution relative to the political organization of South America’s largest country and powerhouse.