Sao Paulo - Unemployment in Brazil dropped to 14.1 per cent in September, its lowest level for that month since 1998, the trade- union research institute Dieese said Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

According to Dieese, unemployment in September in the six metropolitan regions that were studied - Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador de Bahia and Brasilia - fell by 0.4 percentage points in relation to August.

Sao Paulo - The Brazil government will not bailout large conglomerates that have lost money in foreign exchange operations, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Monday.

These firms may have lost up to 20 billion dollars in the ongoing global financial crisis, he said, but added that this loss "is perfectly absorbable" by the companies, without help from the government.

Rio de Janeiro - The Workers' Party of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suffered severe losses in mayoral elections, losing in such metropolises as Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre.

In Sao Paulo, the nation's largest city and its financial hub, incumbent Gilberto Kassab of the conservative Democrats won by a landslide with 61 per cent of the vote in Sunday's runoff against Workers' Party candidate Marta Suplicy.

Brasilia - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday called for "urgent" reform in international financial institutions as the ongoing credit crisis has put developing countries at risk.

"The progress that our countries have made is at risk. The global financial crisis can affect developing countries in an unfair and particularly harsh way," he said.

Sao Paulo/Buenos Aires - Trading at the Sao Paulo stock exchange was again suspended Wednesday, for the sixth time in three weeks, after the fall in its leading index Bovespa went beyond the 10 per cent mark that activates the circuit breaker.

The half-an-hour suspension was launched at 5:17 pm (1917 GMT), less than 45 minutes before the scheduled closing time. The Bovespa was losing 10.03 per cent at the time.

Brazilian markets were again influenced by the market drops in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Brasilia - The Brazilian government on Wednesday authorized the country's main state financial institutions - the Bank of Brazil and the Federal Economic Bank 
(CEF) - to acquire stakes in private banks as a temporary lifeline to the struggling sector.

The move - very similar to one that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown adopted recently - also allows the nationalization of banks that are facing financial difficulties in the light of the ongoing international crisis.

The new disposition authorized the Bank of Brazil and the CEF to create investment banks and subsidiaries abroad, and allows the Brazilian Central Bank to exchange reals for currency of other countries in direct negotiations with other central banks.