Flamengo Goalkeeper Bruno Souza
The police said Friday that they had charged the goalie of Brazil‘s most popular soccer club, Flamengo, with murder in the disappearance of a former lover who claimed to have had his child.
In a case that has dominated news coverage for weeks in this soccer-obsessed nation, the police said they had concluded their investigation and were charging the goalie, Bruno Fernandes das Dores de Souza, 25, and eight friends and family members in the killing of Eliza Samudio, 25, who disappeared in early June.
Since the police first said they had discovered the blood of Ms. Samudio in Mr. Souza’s car in early June, Brazilians have been exposed to a barrage of soap opera-like revelations and gruesome details. The investigation intensified during the last few days of the World Cup, when the police took Mr. Souza into custody, where he has remained since.
The relationship began last year when the soccer player, who was not on the Brazilian World Cup team, and Ms. Samudio met at a party in Rio de Janeiro. Soon after, the police said, she discovered she was pregnant and told him he was the father. Mr. Souza, who is married, apparently did not take the news well. Last October, she filed a complaint with the police in Rio saying he had kidnapped her and tried to threaten her into having an abortion. (more…)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva (L) and his Uruguayan counterpart Jose Mujica
The presidents of Brazil and Uruguay Friday signed a package of cooperation agreements aimed at accelerating political and economic integration between the two neighbors and the region.
“We undertake a strong commitment to strengthen bilateral and regional integration, highlighting the importance of Mercosur and Unasur (regional trading blocs) as the foremost vehicles for political, social, economic and commercial integration of the region,” Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jose Mujica said in a joint statement.
Brazil’s Lula and Uruguay’s Mujica held their fourth meeting since the Uruguayan leader took office in March, in this Brazilian city on the border with Uruguay.
After the meeting, the pair signed cooperation agreements on defense, science, technology, energy, river transportation and fishing, and pledged to establish a common currency for the two nations to facilitate and boost commercial and social exchanges.
Brazil is Uruguay’s chief trading partner. Bilateral trade between the neighbors reached 1.3 billion dollars in the first six months of the year, a 23 percent increase from the same period last year.
Copyright © 2010 AFP
Brazil is poised to begin one of the most technically advanced deep-sea oil drills ever. The National Petroleum Agency and state-controlled oil giant Petrobras both sent teams to the Gulf to monitor the BP oil spill relief efforts.
Three years ago, the abundant “pre-salt” oil reserves found off Brazil‘s coast epitomized the country’s optimism and rise on the world stage.
Now, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has cast a cloud of caution over finds that could translate into 50 billion barrels of crude equivalent.
It is not just conservationists suddenly urging more calm as oil gets drilled in ever deeper and remote corners of the globe. Only days after it began commercial production of pre-salt oil, Brazil has acknowledged that regulatory reviews and higher insurance costs could cause delays and dampen enthusiasm as the industry draws lessons from one of the worst environmental disasters of this generation. (more…)
Thousands of Brazilian military men have been very active. Brazil is holding military exercises along its Atlantic coast with the deployment of 10.000 troops from the three services to ensure the country can protect its nuclear plants and massive offshore oil industry.
“The high command of the Atlantic II Operation is elaborating a report to test our capacities to protect the nuclear plant at Angra dos Reis (close to Rio do Janeiro) and the crude reserves”, said Defense minister Nelson Jobim.
However Jobim acknowledged that Brazil‘s defense deployment capability is limited and expects to have shortfalls corrected “in the coming months”. (more…)
Multi-billion-dollar deals by Spain’s Telefonica and Portugal Telecom in Brazil’s booming cellphone market this week underline the growth potential of Latin America’s biggest economy, analysts say.
They also point the way to perhaps further consolidation in a country where 185 million people out of a population of 193 million have mobile telephones.
Wednesday’s announcement that Telefonica was taking control of Brazil’s biggest cell network operator Vivo by buying out Portugal Telecom’s stake in the investment vehicle they shared for 9.7 billion dollars started the ball rolling.
PT immediately announced it was using around half that bonanza to buy a 22 percent stake in Oi, the fourth-rated operator and the only one controlled by Brazilian interests. (more…)
