BrazzilMag

Brazilian defense contractor Avibras will join plane maker Embraer SA and the local unit of Israeli Defense Company Elbit Systems in developing unmanned aircraft in Brazil, the companies informed. Brazil will be hosting next year the World Cup and in 2016 the Olympic Games and needs to keep tight control of its 16.000 kilometers of frontiers with ten Latin American countries.

Brazil's Central Bank financial market analysts have maintained at 3.1% the estimated growth this year. For 2014, the projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the added goods and services produced in the country, was adjusted at 3.65% for 3.70%.

Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled oil multinational said in a market filing that it would increase refinery prices for gasoline and diesel by 6.6% and 5.4%, respectively, starting on January 31. However the market's reaction was negative with the Bovespa stock exchange falling to a seven-week low.

The Brazilian police have arrested today one of the owners of the nightclub Kiss and two members of the Gurizada Fandangueira band.  A fire started when the musical group used fireworks during their show killed 231 people in the nightclub in Santa Maria, a city in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Brazilian Embraer and Italian AgustaWestland have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture in Brazil. In the document, the companies state that the partnership may lead to the manufacturing, in Brazil, of AgustaWestland both military and commercial helicopters targeting the Brazilian and Latin American markets.

Consumer prices in Brazil ended 2012 near the top of the Brazilian central bank's target range for the third year running, prompting concern from economists that the country is stuck in a phase of low growth and high inflation.

Taxi drivers and bellboys aren't the only ones going back to school to learn a little English ahead of the 2014 World Cup to be hosted in various cities across Brazil.

Brazil started the year with US$ 84 million greater outflow than inflow of dollars in the first three working days of the month. In 2012, the country had the lowest inflow of dollars since 2008, the peak of the international financial crisis.

The Brazilian Northeast is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

Brazil posted its smallest annual trade surplus in a decade last year as a sluggish global economy curbed demand for its products despite government efforts to boost exports. Brazil's trade surplus fell 35% to 19.44 billion dollars from the prior year, the weakest performance since 2002, Trade Ministry data showed on Wednesday.

Despite recession and the poor performance Britain has clawed back the ground it lost to Brazil in the rankings of the world's richest economies - but it is not expected to hold on to the spot for long.

Brazil's Confins and Galeão airports, respectively in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, should be handed in to the private initiative. The Federal Government’s forecast is for the call to tender to be published in August 2013 and for the auction to take place in September. The measure was announced by the chief minister of the Civil Aviation Secretariat, Wagner Bittencourt, during the promotion of the Investment in Logistics Program, dedicated to airports.

Brazil had a record-setting 351,153 divorces in 2011, 45.6% more than in 2010 and the most since the annual statistic began to be kept in 1984, the government said Monday.

Talking in Paris, Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, told reporters her government intends to build approximately 800 regional airports in Brazil. According to the president, the project considers that each city with over 100,000 inhabitants should have an airport within a 60-kilometer range.

The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, once again repeated she would not be influenced by The Economist magazine's call for her to sack Brazilian Finance minister Guido Mantega after a country's growth report that fell short of government forecasts.

Brazilian Architect Oscar Niemeyer died in Rio de Janeiro, at age 104. He had been in hospital for over a month, initially for dehydration, but later due to kidney and respiratory problems, worsened in recent days. Niemeyer, who would have turned 105 on the 15th, leaves as his legacy several architectural icons worldwide.

The last day of the Free Palestine World Social Forum, on Saturday, was marked by the reaffirmation of claims for an independent Palestinian state, and the refugees' right to return. At the closing of the event, new proposals were presented to support the Palestinian people.

Jerome Valcke, FIFA's general secretary, has warned Brazil of the increasing crime rate in cities like São Paulo and also stressed on the need of more infrastructure ahead of the 2014 football World Cup.

The head of Brazil's Justice and Human Rights Movement, Jair Krischke stated before the Truth Committee that it was the Brazilian dictatorship which masterminded the notorious Plan Condor, the South American military dictatorships undercover transborder organization of the sixties and seventies.