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Latin American stocks advanced, as investors resumed a recent buying spree, after sending shares lower Thursday. Shares have benefited so far this year from optimism about local economies and hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its interest-rate hiking cycle.
Today's weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report for December added to expectations for looser monetary policy. Brazil's Bovespa Index jumped 538.91 points, or 1.54%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index rose 128.44 points, or 0.69%, while Argentina's Merval Index gained 16.38 points, 1.02%. Brazilian stocks resumed a recent rally, with the Bovespa briefly moving above the 35,500 mark. Stocks are up sharply so far this year on expectations of solid Brazilian economic growth, tame inflation and further interest rate cuts in 2006. The Brazilian central bank is seen reducing interest rates, currently at 18%, by at least 50 basis points at its next meeting on January 18. Hopes for looser monetary policy, in turn, have led economists to forecast 2006 economic growth of 3.5% to 4%. Shares of mobile telecom carriers rose, amid indications that intense competition in the sector may be easing, news services reported, citing analysts. Meanwhile, shares of Acesita were active, after European steel giant Arcelor took steps to assume majority control of the Brazilian specialty steel company. Arcelor reached a deal to buy a minority stake from a pension fund and announced a public offer for Acesita's remaining common shares. In other corporate news, the Brazilian Securities Commission said it will investigate what it called "unusual trading volume" on Thursday in shares of mining company Caemi Mineração and Metalurgia. Earlier today, Caemi announced that it completed the purchase of mining company Rio Verde for US$ 45 million. Elsewhere, Mexican shares climbed, as weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data added to expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve is close to ending its interest-rate hiking cycle. Non-farm payrolls climbed by 108,000 jobs in December, below expectations for an increase of 215,000 jobs. However, November payrolls were upwardly revised to show an increase of 305,000. Closer to home, state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said gasoline sales in Mexico rose 5.6% last year. Sales averaged 672,000 barrels a day, compared with 613,000 b/d in 2004. In December, sales surged 4.6% from a year earlier. In political developments, Mexican Social Development Secretary Josefina Vazquez resigned to join the campaign of the ruling party's presidential candidate, Felipe Calderon. A spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Vazquez's resignation would be the last cabinet resignation of Fox's term, which ends on December 1. A host of cabinet members have been replaced since Fox took office in 2000. Argentine issues gained ground, as buyers returned to the market following a decline yesterday. Argentine issues are up strongly so far this year on strong foreign investor interest in emerging markets and bargain hunting following a poor performance for Argentine issues in December. Argentine stocks were pressured last month by worries about mounting inflation and whether the government is taking appropriate steps to contain it. Concerns about the government's decision to pay off its entire debt to the IMF ahead of schedule also weighed. Thomson Financial - www.thomsonfinancial.com
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.