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Latin American stocks advanced, with Brazilian shares getting a boost from some encouraging earnings news and the government's move to exempt foreign buyers of government bonds from capital gains taxes.
Brazil's Bovespa Index surged 1017.09 points, or 2.73%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index jumped 288.08 points, or 1.59%, while Argentina's Merval Index gained 26.47 points, or 1.59%. Brazilian stocks rallied, as investors were cheered by news that Brazil's government, as expected, decided to exempt foreign buyers of government bonds from capital gains taxes. The government published an executive order in the official Federal Register (Diário Oficial) that exempts overseas investors from the 15% capital gains tax and the 0.38% financial transactions tax. Giving banking shares a boost, Unibanco said its fourth-quarter net profit jumped 35.7% to 509 million reais from 375 million reais a year earlier. In other bank news, Brazil's largest private bank, Bradesco, said it is creating an investment banking unit called Banco Bradesco de Investimento, or BBI. Meanwhile, steel shares gained on solid earnings results from Arcelor Brasil. The company's 2005 net consolidated profit dipped 3% on a pro-forma basis to 3.255 billion reais from 3.357 billion in 2004, but net revenue rose 7% to 13.341 billion reais. "The 2005 results confirm the sustainable growth under way at Arcelor Brasil," the company said. Mexico's equity rebound continued, with shares witnessing their third-straight session of gains. U.S. shares were also upbeat on the day, thanks to a positive earnings report from blue chip Hewlett-Packard and a stronger-than-expected reading from the Philly Fed manufacturing index in January. On the earnings front, conglomerate Desc SA said that its fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to 41 million pesos from 18 million pesos a year ago; although, sales slipped slightly to 6.33 billion pesos. Excluding certain items, sales rose 5%. Full-year net profit arrived at 308 million pesos, reversing a year-earlier loss of 203 million pesos. Government-run airline holding firm Cintra SA, which was recently renamed Consorcio AeroMexico SA, said that the sale of Mexicana led to bolstered results in the fourth quarter. Quarterly net income jumped to 1.02 billion pesos, compared to 74 million pesos in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Revenue rose 1% to 9.82 billion pesos. For the year, the net profit advanced to 1.45 billion pesos from 592 million pesos in 2004. Also, the government indicated that it is considering selling AeroMexico through a stock offering, as opposed to a bidding process. In other corporate reports, cement firm Cemex said that it will invest US$ 220 million over the next three years to build a second kiln at its Balcones Cement Plant in New Braunfels, Texas. Argentina turned higher today, as bargain hunters moved in following five- straight sessions in the red. Tomorrow marks the final day to exercise options contracts; although, the settlement for those contracts will continue into next week. Earnings news is also starting to trickle in. Flat steelmaker Acindar SA posted full-year net profit of 549.7 million pesos, up from 545.8 million pesos in 2004. Net sales jumped to 2.54 billion pesos from 2.12 billion pesos in 2004, while operating profit slipped to 878.4 million pesos in 2005 from 893.3 million the prior year. Oil and gas firm Petrobras said that its net profit for the full year ended December 31 was 613 million pesos. The firm's main operating unit, Petrobras Energia, said that its net profit for the full year totaled 819 million pesos. 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.