BrazzilMag

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.

After meeting US president Barack Obama in the White House Oval Office, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff told reporters, today, that she talked with him about the ill effects of Washington's and Europe's monetary policies, which are hurting developing countries like Brazil.

The popularity of Dilma Roussef, the president of Brazil, is at its highest level since taking office, a little over a year ago, buoyed by her handling of an economic slowdown and tough stance against corruption, a poll showed this week. 

José Márcio Camargo, a professor of economics at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), with specialization in labor and microeconomics (he has a Ph.D. from MIT), says that the measures in the program to stimulate the Brazilian industrial sector announced yesterday "do not solve the problem... because they are mostly more of the same."

The Brazilian government announced on Tuesday tax cuts and other stimulus measures worth about 65 billion reais (US$ 35 billion) to protect the country's struggling industry from what she said were "predatory" trade practices by rich nations. 

The history of violent land conflicts in Brazil is a long one specially in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian North. At least since 2007, the federal Environmental Protection Institute (Ibama) has been caught up in a running battle in the region.

Brazil's 2014 World Soccer Cup law approved yesterday, March 28, by the Brazilian House of Representatives, liberates the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages during soccer games by not prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, defended today, in New Delhi, India, reforms in the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) and in international financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Rousseff said that Brazil and India want a "more democratic" international system.

Nelson Barbosa, the executive secretary of Brazil's Ministry of Finances, speaking at a seminar at the Getúlio Vargas School of Economics, declared that the Dilma Rousseff administration considers its floating exchange rate policy to be the best strategy for the country.

The US, on February 29, announced it was suspending a contract worth US$ 355 million to purchase 20 Super Tucano (AT-6) aircraft from the Brazilian aerospace firm, Embraer. The plane had been selected in a competitive bidding process. Most of the aircraft would have been built in Florida, by Embraer and an American partner, Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira severed his ties with FIFA, soccer's international governing body, a week after he resigned as head of the Brazilian Football Confederation and organizer of the 2014 World Cup. 

Brazilian specialists have become seriously worried about more oil spills off the coast of Rio after an oil sheen trail about a kilometer long was discovered on Friday, March 16, in the same area of the Frade oil field, in the Campos Basin, where Chevron Brasil had a 2,400 barrel oil spill last November.