For another person present at the 1994 meeting in which Lula told the story that he had tried to rape a young political prisoner in jail with him, who was known as "MEP's boy" was just a crude joke not different from other pranks and capers the current Brazilian president was always playing with friends.  

Rio de Janeiro was about to lose one of its most enduring images, that of young coconuts opened and sold on its beaches.  The environment secretariat of the host city of the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games argued that the big green fruit is an unhygienic eyesore and had decided to ban its sale starting December first.

The president of Brazil's Central Bank (BC), Henrique Meirelles, said this Friday, November 27, that the moratorium announced by the government of Dubai for the payment of debts of the Dubai World investments fund should not worry the government and the Brazilian banks. For Meirelles, the event is an alert against the "euphoria excess".

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters on Thursday, November 26, that Rio de Janeiro is ready to put on the 2016 Olympic Games. "We will stage the best Olympic Games ever done. Brazil has material, economic, and sporting conditions and we are ready to host enviable Olympics," he remarked.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is according to his cabinet chief Gilberto Carvalho, "sad, downcast and unable to understand" after finding out that an old friend and one of the founders of the Workers Party, César Benjamin, wrote an article in daily Folha de S. Paulo telling that Lula by his own admission tried in 1980 to rape a colleague who was in jail with him for political crime. 

The Brazilian minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, reaffirmed on Thursday divergences with the United States regarding the political crisis in Honduras before the opening of the Amazon basin countries and France Summit on climate change in Manaus, Brazil.

Gathered in Brazil, nine nations in the Amazon region have called on rich countries to provide poorer nations with the funds to preserve forests. The nations, meeting in Manaus, Brazil, also discussed supporting a 40% reduction in global emissions by 2020.

Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during a summit of the Amazon presidents, in Manaus, capital of the Amazonas state, sent a very clear message to the world that Brazil does not accept advice from gringos on environment preservation and predicted the Amazon region will grow and develop according to Brazilian needs and aspirations.

Brazil's Foreign Relations minister Celso Amorim told reporters that he talked for about an hour this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, with US's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and that there is no crisis between Washington and Brasília.

In Brazil, unlike other countries, different ethnic groups interact a lot - sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.  This interaction leads, frequently to mixed marriages, genes and cultural heritage.

The number of weddings grew 35% in the last decade, even if Brazilians are choosing to get married later in life. A study released this Wednesday, November 25, by IBGE, Brazil's official statistics bureau, shows that a growing number of women is getting married between 25 and 29.

In a move certain to irk the United States and elevate the temperature of the arms race in Latin America, the Brazilian army is in the process of buying a sophisticated antiaircraft system from the Russians, the Tor-M2E, says Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo.

Global warming, Honduras elections, Doha round of negotiations, these three items are just the beginning of a laundry list of matters the Brazilian government is not happy with in the Barack Obama administration. The magic is gone.

US's Ford Motor Co. has just announced that it will spend 4 billion reais (US$ 2.3 billion) to expand its operation in the growing Brazilian market. This is the largest investment the American car company has ever made in Brazil.

Jean Charles de Menezes's family has agreed on a compensation deal with the London Metropolitan Police. Relatives of the Brazilian electrician, who was living in Britain on an expired visa, have been locked in an often acrimonious legal battle with the force since he was shot dead at Stockwell subway station on July 22, 2005.

The Brazilian government does not rule out new steps to slow gains in its currency, the real, even as the government evaluates the impact of a recently imposed tax on capital inflows, Secretary of Economic Policy Nelson Barbosa said in an interview on Monday, November 23.

São Paulo state governor José Serra, the main leader of the Brazilian opposition and a probable presidential candidate at the 2010 elections,  criticized the Lula administration for receiving Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and recalled that the Iranian Defense minister has been accused of the attack against the Argentine Jewish Mutual, AMIA, in 1994, in Buenos Aires.

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, worried about a possible military attack by the United States or Israel? Talking to Brazilian and foreign journalists Monday night, in Brazilian capital Brasília, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran said he doesn't fear any reprisal against his nuclear program. Neither the US or Israel, he states, "have the courage" to start a war against Teheran.

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called today, November 23, on his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to adopt a democratic policy that respects diversity. Indirectly, Lula also brought up the need for Teheran to end its financial support of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance movement, which has an active destabilizing role in the West Bank and Lebanon.

The Iranian program of nuclear energy was supported today, November 23, by the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brazilian capital Brasília. He argued that the enriched uranium production in his country conforms to international norms and denied that Iran is a threat to peace or has plans to manufacture nuclear weapons.