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/ 9 April 2008

More than 30 dead in Brazil floods

At least 33 people have died in two weeks of flooding in north-east Brazil, and more than 77 000 people have been left homeless, with officials warning on Wednesday that the heavy rain would continue. The state of Paraiba was the worst-hit, according to the national Civil Defence service. Twenty-six of the fatalities occurred there, and 76 towns are under water.

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/ 27 November 2007

Rich and poor gird for climate change

People around the world are preparing for floods, droughts and other natural disasters in ways largely dictated by wealth and poverty as evidence of climate change mounts, a United Nations report said on Tuesday. Even if countries took steps to cut greenhouse gases, temperatures would continue to rise until 2050 due to accumulated carbon emissions.

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/ 25 November 2007

Brazilian psychic stands by quake alert

A Brazilian psychic who set officials in Indonesia scrambling after he predicted a huge quake would hit Sumatra island next month reaffirmed on Wednesday that the disaster is indeed coming. "The danger of this earthquake exists, there is no doubt," Jucelino Nobrega da Luz (45) said by telephone from his home in south-east Brazil.

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/ 6 November 2006

Brazil proposes fund to protect Amazon

Brazil, home to the world’s largest rainforest, will ask rich nations to back a plan to help it slow deforestation at global climate talks this week, a senior environmental official said. The plan marks a first step toward including deforestation in global climate agreements to cut emissions of carbon.

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/ 30 October 2006

Re-elected Lula to champion Brazil’s poor

Celebrating a landslide re-election, Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed on Sunday to fight for social justice while spurring economic growth. "The poor will take precedence," the self-styled defender of the downtrodden told several thousand jubilant supporters after garnering almost 61% of the vote.

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/ 29 October 2006

Lula set to win Sunday’s poll, needs unity

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to clinch victory in a run-off election on Sunday but will have to forge national reconciliation after an acrimonious campaign. Lula is expected to win over former São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin with about 61% of the vote, with 39% going to Alckmin two polls showed on Saturday.

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/ 2 October 2006

Brazil’s Lula battles to avoid run-off vote

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was battling to secure the votes needed to clinch an outright victory in Sunday’s presidential election after public disgust over corrupt politics eroded his support in the final days of campaigning. Failure by Lula to win more than 50% of the vote would mean he faces a run-off against his closest rival on October 29.

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/ 1 October 2006

No sign of life in Brazil plane tragedy

Military searchers parachuted down on Saturday to the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed a day earlier in remote Amazon jungle with 155 people on board. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said there was no sign of survivors. The brand-new Boeing 737-800 probably plunged into the ground nose, the head of Brazil’s airport authority Infraero said.

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/ 30 September 2006

Search under way for missing Brazil airliner

Rescue teams on Saturday searched for a Brazilian GOL airline Boeing 737-800 with 155 people aboard that went missing during a flight from the Amazon jungle to Brasilia, officials said. Authorities were trying to establish whether the airliner had collided with a Legacy executive jet whose pilot made an emergency landing on Friday in Cachimbo, near the area of northern Brazil where the Boeing was reported missing.

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/ 14 September 2006

Brazil, India, SA join forces on global issues

The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa solidified their ties Wednesday at a summit that highlighted the regional powers’ role as reprasentatives for the developing world. The leaders pressed for United Nations reform, urged richer nations to yield on heated trade talks and agreed to boost their cooperation on energy.

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/ 13 September 2006

SA, Brazil and India look at trade agreement

The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa met on Wednesday to discuss a trade agreement between three of the world’s most vibrant emerging economies. The meeting is the first summit of the India, Brazil and South Africa Group, or IBSA, formed in 2003, as an informal group for political consultations between the three countries.

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/ 30 August 2006

Brazil landless chief vows protests to push Lula

The leader of a militant Brazilian peasant organisation says it will take to the streets to force President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva toward more social and land reform if he wins re-election in October. Joao Pedro Stedile, chief of the Landless Rural Workers Movement, said that if Lula stuck with the fiscally conservative policies he would lose his grass-roots political base.