Rio de Janeiro, Jan 3 (DPA) The toll from a series of mudslides this week in Brazil rose to more than 60 Saturday.
The deaths since Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro and outlying areas came after constant heavy rain over several days that has caused hundreds of houses in poverty-stricken favelas to collapse. Many of the [...]
New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS) ‘I had gone to Copenhagen not to save the world but to protect India’s right to development,’ Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh declared Tuesday.
Summing up his experiences at the Dec 7-19 climate summit in the Danish capital, Ramesh said India had ensured there was ‘no limit on development. We were afraid [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 19 (IANS) Hectic backroom parleys to rescue the Copenhagen climate summit from total failure continued Saturday morning, as an overnight plenary session was adjourned for the third time without agreement on whether to adopt an accord proposed by five countries including India.
Despite support from most countries around the world, there was no consensus [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 19 (IANS) Venezuela, Bolivia, Sudan and Tuvalu objected to a Copenhagen accord supported by almost all other countries around the world, and held up its adoption the morning after the climate summit was scheduled to end. India and four other nations had prepared the accord.
As a result, the Copenhagen summit remained on the [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 19 (IANS) India and other emerging economies prepared a Copenhagen accord late Friday night in association with the US, to be presented to an overnight plenary session of the UN climate summit. The accord came under attack from the Group of 77 almost at once, though it was unclear if it would carry [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 18 (IANS) India Friday placed itself firmly on the side of the developing world as the Copenhagen climate summit reached its final hours, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying any global regime to tackle climate change must take sustainable development into account.
‘The outcome here at Copenhagen may well fall short of our expectations,’ [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 18 (DPA) Brazil is willing to pay poor countries to help them fight climate change in a bid to kick-start global talks, the country’s president said Friday as he said that he was frustrated with the limping pace of United Nation negotiations in Copenhagen.
The move ups Brazil’s negotiating power in the down-to-the-wire talks [...]
Copenhagen, Dec 18 (IANS) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met here to exchange views on cooperation in dealing with global climate change.
Wen said that China and Brazil enjoyed broad consensus on international cooperation in tackling global climate change, Xinhua reported.
The two countries have been playing an important [...]
Washington, Dec 18 (DPA) US President Barack Obama departed for Copenhagen Thursday night for the last day of the UN-backed climate change summit with questions still remaining about whether an international pact can be reached.
Obama was to arrive in the Danish capital Friday morning to join 120 world leaders in the negotiations that began Dec [...]
Rio de Janeiro, Dec 10 (EFE) Brazil’s economy grew at an annualised rate of eight percent in the third quarter and the result for the final three months of the year will be roughly equivalent, Finance Minister Guido Mantega has said.
After growing 1.9 percent in the second quarter, real gross domestic product growth in the [...]
Rio de Janeiro, Dec 8 (EFE) The native Indians living in the Brazilian region of Amazonia have threatened the government against the construction of a hydroelectric dam there and said the move could result in a bloody war.
In a letter sent to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Indians blamed the government for [...]
Sao Paulo, Nov 28 (EFE) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has authorised spending six billion reais ($3.43 billion) to finance construction of 2,285 amphibious armoured vehicles for the Brazilian army, officials said.
Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said the new vehicle, the Guarani, will be built by Brazil in partnership with Italy’s Fiat-Iveco.
‘It will replace the [...]
Brasilia, Nov 26 (DPA) US President Barack Obama wrote a letter to his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to express his concern about the situation in Iran and Honduras, officials said Wednesday.
The letter was sent Sunday, a day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Brazil on the first leg of a South [...]
Paris, Nov 15 (IANS) France and Brazil have agreed on a policy to deal with climate change ahead of a UN summit on the subject in Copenhagen, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
‘We want the Copenhagen to be a success, we won’t accept an abated accord,’ Sarkozy said at a joint press conference with his visiting [...]
Sao Paulo, Nov 14 (DPA) Brazil plans to lower its emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) by nearly 40 percent by 2020, a government official said here.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff emphasised late Friday that the ambitious goal was voluntary.
Brazil intends to emit around one [...]
Brasilia, Nov 12 (EFE) Visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres has urged his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to join the Middle East peace process.
‘Come, President, and light the light of peace in the Middle East,’ Peres told Lula during a joint press conference here Wednesday after a closed-door meeting.
In response, Lula said all [...]
New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) Manmohan Singh has done quite well among global leaders on initiatives to fight climate change, according to a ranking prepared by the NGO Greenpeace. US President Barack Obama has fared the worst, while the premier of Tuvalu has come out tops.
Leaders of all the major developing countries — India, [...]
Rio de Janeiro, Nov 6 (EFE) ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steelmaker, plans to invest $5 billion to build a new steel mill in Brazil, CEO Lakshmi Mittal said in statements published by Brazilian business daily Valor.
The plans to invest in a plant in the southeastern state of Espirito Santo were announced in a meeting [...]
Stockholm, Oct 6 (DPA) Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti should step down immediately in return for an amnesty, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday.
‘For us, the solution will be easy if those that participated in the coup leave power and allow the legitimately elected president to take power,’ Lula told journalists at [...]
Copenhagen/Chicago/Washington, Oct.3 (ANI): Emotion, interpersonal appeal and geographic appeal led to Chicago losing 2016 Olympic bid to eventual winner Brazil, say most in America.
While there was no immediate explanation why the International Olympic Committee in its first round of voting eliminated Chicago from the 2016 Olympic bidding process, despite it being widely regarded as among [...]
Rio de Janeiro/Copenhagen, Oct 2 (DPA) When Rio de Janeiro announced its bid to host the Olympic Games, chances of success seemed very slim.
Problems like urban violence, chaotic traffic and pollution appeared to indicate that the Brazilian city stood little chance against major rivals from the industrialised world with a longer tradition of hosting large [...]
Copenhagen, Oct 2 (DPA) Rio de Janeiro was elected host city of the 2016 Olympics Friday as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) finally entrusted the unchartered territory of South America with the world’s premier sports event.
IOC president Jacques Rogge announced that the Brazilian metropolis Rio won a final round of IOC voting against Madrid after [...]
Copenhagen, Oct 2 (DPA) Rio de Janeiro was elected the host city of the 2016 Olympics Friday as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) finally entrusted the unchartered territory of South America with the world’s premier sports event.
IOC president Jacques Rogge announced that the Brazilian metropolis Rio won a final round of IOC voting against Madrid [...]
Rio de Janeiro, Sep 30 (DPA) International Football Federation (FIFA) president Joseph Blatter said he will vote for Rio de Janeiro as the host of the 2016 Olympics, Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral said Tuesday.
As a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Blatter is set to take part Friday in Copenhagen in the [...]
Tegucigalpa, Sep 22 (EFE) The de facto Honduran government imposed a nationwide curfew following the return of ousted President Mel Zelaya.
The government’s decision was televised while hundreds of Zelaya’s supporters gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy where he is staying since Monday.
The government said that the curfew was imposed with an eye towards ‘protecting people’s tranquility, [...]
Brasilia, Sep 18 (EFE) Sweden is ready to sell fighter jets to Brazil for half the price of French- or US-made aircraft and will give the South American country the capability to upgrade the planes as needed, Stockholm’s deputy defence minister has said here.
Sweden’s Saab is competing with Dassault and Boeing to sell 36 planes [...]
Brasilia, Sep 17 (EFE) Brazil will have crude for half a century and become a leading oil exporter and ‘an important player in international geopolitics’, the country’s energy minister has said during a congressional hearing.
Edison Lobao said Wednesday that thanks to the vast potential of its pre-salt region, so-named because the estimated 50-80 billion barrels [...]
