
Brazil's jailed former leftist president, Lula da Silva, could gain partial freedom within five months following a court decision on Tuesday to reduce his sentence in one of two corruption convictions.

Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro announced Thursday an expansion of a social welfare program that was created by his jailed left-wing foe Lula da Silva.

Several thousand supporters of former Brazilian president Lula Inacio da Silva rallied on Sunday outside the prison where he has now been held for a year, as they demanded his release and chanted slogans against current leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Since entering prison a year ago, Brazil's former president Lula da Silva has been spending his days working out in his cell and fighting to prove his innocence.

A former communist militant Cesare Battisti has admitted to four murders in Italy during the 1970s, according to local press. Battisti, 64, spent decades on the run and previously denied any involvement. He was arrested in Bolivia in January after living in Brazil, and later extradited to Italy.

Ex Brazilian president Lula da Silva is back in prison after being let out to attend his grandson Arthur's funeral. The seven-year-old died of meningitis on Friday. Lula was allowed to go to the burial in São Paulo on Saturday, where supporters gathered to greet him. Lula is serving 12 years in prison on corruption charges.

U.S. authorities have joined Brazil’s investigation into alleged bribery involving Petrobras and some of the world’s largest trading companies, according to the Brazilian law enforcement officer in charge of the probe.

A Brazilian court on Wednesday handed a near 13-year sentence to Lula da Silva, in a new corruption conviction for the former president already serving a lengthy jail term in a separate case.

Petrobras has put the finishing touches on the first wave of development at the massive offshore Brazil Lula Field, pumping first oil from the latest floating production unit to be installed at the country's largest oil and natural gas producer, the company announced on Friday.

Antonio Palocci, who was minister during the governments of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, affirmed that he gave the former president, in several opportunities, cash proceeds of bribes from the construction companies Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, according to the Globo Group.