BrazzilMag

The Brazilian government stepped in and negotiated a reduction of at least 20% in hotel prices during the Rio +20 United Nations Sustainable Development Conference that will take place between June 15 and 23 in Rio de Janeiro.

Embratur, the Brazilian Tourism Corporation, is starting an international campaign to promote tourism in Brazil with an eye on the many events scheduled to take place in the country between now and 2016.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the number of people who have fallen behind in making installment payments rose to 21.8% in April, up from 18.5% in March. The São Paulo Commercial Federation (Fecomercio-SP) has released monthly reports on payment defaults since February 2004, and Della Rosa, an economist at Fecomercio-SP, says that although the April numbers are high, they are not necessarily a reason for concern.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil's former president (1995-2003), believes that Mercosur "needs to be reborn but with a real integration spirit among its members" leaving behind such ambitions as the mirror of the European Union. 

 Compared to the same period last year, sales of vehicles in April were down 9.5%, in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Auto Dealers Association (Fenabrave), a total of 406,496 vehicles were licensed in April. That was down 15.96%, compared to March 2012. Fenabrave says it has now revised its forecast of the vehicle sale increase for this year to 3.4%, down from 5.76% at the beginning of the year.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's top administrative aide, Gilberto Carvalho, made it clear that the Land Use Law (Código Florestal - Forestry Code) approved in the Chamber of Deputies Wednesday evening was not what the government hoped for.

The National Association of Federal Prosecutors, says that the decision by a panel of judges at the Superior Appellate Court, that sex with a minor of less than 14 years of age is not necessarily rape, is an affront to the principle of absolute protection of children under the Brazilian constitution.

For over a decade now Brazil has been trying to pass a new Land Use Law. Land Use bills have been bogged down in Congress for 13 years, in fact.

A panel of judges at Brazil's Superior Appellate Court (Superior Tribunal de Justiça - STJ) recently ruled that a man was not guilty of rape after he had sex with three girls, all aged 12, because they were already prostitutes.

Last week, the Brazilian Central Bank's Copom (Monetary Policy Committee) cut the Brazil's benchmark interest rate, the Selic, by 0.75 percentage points for the second consecutive time, lowering it to 9% per year. The decision was unanimous.

The business of America is business, goes the saying, and as Brazilians are interested in doing business, bring them on. At least make it easier for them to come.

Around a decade ago, the açaí berry (pronounced ah-ssa-ee) was starting to get a lot of attention in Brazil, where many began consuming its pulp in a bowl mixed with granola or other ingredients to benefit from its antioxidant and energetic properties.

Brazil's MST, the Landless Rural Worker Movement has been demonstrating since the beginning of the month, demanding land reform and commemorating the massacre of 21 rural workers 16 years ago.

The Brazilian Association for the Defense of Missing Children (ABCD), known as the Mothers of the Plaza Sé ("Mães da Sé"  -  the name of a large, central plaza in downtown São Paulo), held a street protest recently.

According to police chief Wesley Fernando, from Garanhuns, in the northeastern state of Brazil, Isabel Cristina Pires da Silveira, 51, has  confessed to acts of cannibalism and that some of the snack food she sold on the streets was made with human flesh of two women she and her husband Jorge Beltrão Negromonte da Silveira, 51, had killed. 

A study on risk factors and health of the Brazilian population released by the Ministry of Health found that Brazilians have gotten fatter since the last such study in 2006. The study, known as Vigitel, discovered that the percentage of Brazilians who are overweight rose from 42.7% in 2006 to 48.5% in 2011.

In Washington, while speaking on the world economic crisis during her visit to the United States at the beginning of the week, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff described the situation as one that forced people to search for ways to overcome paradigms and find new opportunities.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, at the meeting yesterday at the White House with president Barack Obama, once again - after having done the same when she met German chancellor Angela Merkel - complained that the use of monetary expansion, also known as quantitative easing, by the US and other rich nations as a tool to get them out of the Great Recession, was having a negative effect on the international economy.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered the opening remarks at the "Brazil-U.S.: Partnership for the 21st Century" conference, which took place during Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's official visit to the United States.