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Latin American stocks were mostly higher, with Brazilian stocks posting robust gains, as investors cheered a sharp drop in oil prices.
Meanwhile, Mexican shares leapt higher amid expectations the Bank of Mexico will cut interest rates further this Friday. Brazil's Bovespa Index climbed 767.92 points, or 2.10%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index gained 428.30 points, or 2.32%, while Argentina's Merval Index shed 1.06 points, or 0.06%. Brazilian stocks jumped, as a steep drop in oil prices helped to ease worries about inflation at home and abroad. Investors have grown concerned recently that high energy costs will fuel local inflation and impede the Brazilian Central Bank's cycle of lowering interest rates from their lofty levels. Another fear is that high global oil prices will prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to continue its interest-rate hiking cycle longer than expected. High interest rates in developed countries like the U.S. tend to draw funds away from emerging markets like Brazil. In corporate news, mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce said it was making an offer for the outstanding preferred shares of smaller rival Caemi Mineração and Metalurgia that it does not already own. Shares of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional climbed after the company said that an accident over the weekend did not damage the infrastructure of one of its blast furnaces. However, the company did not say when the furnace would be restarted. In addition, a major investment bank said the financial impact of the accident is "likely to be material but not large." Also, a credit-ratings agency said the accident would not have any immediate effect on the company's credit ratings. Meanwhile, shares of Petrobras were active after an influential brokerage raised its price target for the company's ADRs to US$ 110 per share. Telecom giant Telemar said that it plans to invest US$ 442 million to put systems in place to distribute audiovisual content via its broadband Internet network this year. In other news, a Brazilian congressman said Brazil's government will approve a 17% increase in the minimum salary to a new monthly level of 350 reais. Elsewhere, Mexican shares posted robust gains amid a mixed batch of economic data. The Finance Ministry reported that Mexico posted a trade deficit of US$ 1.2 billion in December, narrower than the US$ 2.26 billion deficit a year earlier and the $ 1.51 billion shortfall in November. The December deficit also beat forecasts for a shortfall of US$1.69 billion. Exports rose 24.8% in December to US$ 19.41 billion, and imports grew 15.7% from a year ago to US$ 20.6 billion. Meanwhile, the Bank of Mexico said the consumer price index gained 0.32% in the first half of January, above expectations for an increase of 0.29%. The inflation reading also exceeded the year-earlier level of 0.08%. Still, a number of market watchers do not expect the data to diminish the likelihood of further interest-rate reductions by the central bank, which is widely expected to cut rates by 50 basis points at its next meeting on Friday. On the corporate front, Alfa SA reported fourth-quarter earnings of 673 million pesos, down from 1.97 billion pesos a year earlier, as results were hurt in part by the sale of steel unit Hylsamex in the third quarter. Argentine issues were little changed in a light news day for the market. Late yesterday, the government extended its policy of containing inflation via industry-level price accords. The government secured price agreements with beef producers and food company Molinos Rio de la Plata late. A number of investors have been skeptical about the effectiveness of this strategy. 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.