Rio de Janeiro, Feb 5 - State-controlled energy giant Petrobras announced the discovery of an oil and natural gas accumulation in the Solimoes basin of Brazil's Amazon region.

The find was made during drilling of the Leste do Igarape Chibata well in Coari, a town in Amazonas state located 25 km from the so-called Urucu oil province.

Drilling reached a final depth of 3,295 meters.

Tests indicate the find has the capacity to produce 1,400 barrels per day of good-quality light oil and 45,000 cubic meters per day of natural gas, Petrobras said Friday. (IANS)

Rio de Janeiro, Oct 9 - Brazilian tennis great Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten beat former rival Carlos Moya in the 2011 International Challenge, a friendly competition between the two players.

With individual set scores of 6-4, 2-6 and 6-3, Guga eased to a 2-1 set victory ovre his Spanish native Saturday.

Both are former No. 1 ranked players in the ATP Tour. They faced each other seven times in their professional careers with Guga winning four times to Moya's three, Xinhua reported.

Officials have said that emergency crews spent Thursday recovering bodies from another mudslide in rain-soaked Rio de Janeiro and they feared claimed 200 people's lives.

The mudslide inundated part of a slum in Niteroi, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, late Wednesday, the BBC has reported. The British network further said that at least 50 buildings were destroyed, including a nursery for children.

At least 200 people were feared buried, Civil defense spokesman Pedro Machado told the Globo news network.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 9 - Thirteen people were killed and six injured when a van collided head-on with a truck in southeast Brazil.

The accident took place in Patos de Minas town in Minas Gerais state Friday, Xinhua reported.

The van was carrying tourists.

Twelve people in the van and one person in the truck were killed.

Police said all the victims died on the spot. The truck driver succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

Traffic on the road was disrupted for several hours after the accident. (IANS)

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 8 - General Electric has said that it plans to build a research and development facility in Brazil that will serve all of Latin America.

The announcement was made Thursday by company CEO Jeffrey Immelt after a meeting earlier in the day in Brasilia with Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Sergio Resende.

The Brazilian research centre, which will be GE's fifth worldwide, will receive a portion of the $6 billion that the company currently invests annually in research at its R&D centres in the US, Germany, India and China.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 6 - At least 17 people were missing after a bridge collapsed due to floodwaters in southern Brazil, authorities said.

The rain-swollen Jacui River Tuesday brought down a bridge near Agudo in Rio Grande do Sul, where people had gathered to see the rising waters, police Col. Joao Carlos Trindade Lopes told radio Gaucha.

The officer said that between 25-30 people fell in the water and emergency services units were able to pull eight of them. Another five people who kept from falling in the water by hanging onto trees and brush were rescued from the riverbanks.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 5 - The recovery of four more bodies from the mudslides that buried several homes and a hotel in southeastern Brazil took the toll to 85, authorities said.

The discovery of four bodies buried under a mudslide in Angra dos Reis city Monday raised to 85 the number of fatalities caused by rains, according to official figures.

Authorities have announced 72 deaths up to now in Rio de Janeiro, 10 in Sao Paulo and 3 in Minas Gerais. The three states are the most heavily populated and industrialised in Brazil.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 5 - Brazil registered a trade surplus last year of $24.62 billion, the smallest since 2002's positive balance of $13.09 billion, authorities said.

The 2009 surplus was 1.4 percent lower than in 2008 and was far below the 2007 figure of $40 billion and the record $46.46 billion surplus registered in 2006.

Last year's surplus was the net of $152.25 billion in exports and $127.64 billion worth of imports, the Development, Industry and Trade Ministry said Monday.

While exports dropped 23.08 percent compared to 2008 as a consequence of the global economic crisis, which slashed demand for Brazilian products abroad, imports were reduced 26.22 percent from 2008 levels.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 3 - The toll from a series of mudslides this week in Brazil rose to more than 60 Saturday.

The deaths since Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro and outlying areas came after constant heavy rain over several days that has caused hundreds of houses in poverty-stricken favelas to collapse. Many of the neighbourhoods are built precariously on cliffs and hills.

Rio de Janeiro, Jan 2 - At least 10 people were killed when a mudslide swept away the hotel in which they were celebrating the New Year in southwest Brazil, officials said Friday.

The incident took place on the Ilha Grande island, some 150 km from Rio de Janeiro.

The bodies were recovered from the site. Five people who were injured have been rescued, said Pedro Machado, head of the fire department in Angra dos Reis city, a few kilometers away from the island.

He said many people were inside and outside the hotel when the mudslide struck at 4.30 a. m.

Rio de Janeiro, Dec 30 - A two-year-old Brazilian boy is recovering after a third operation to remove sewing needles that his stepfather has confessed to inserting into his body, doctors said.

The boy is in intensive care at a hospital in Salvador, the capital of the eastern state of Bahia. He is already breathing normally and able to eat without feeding tubes, according to a medical bulletin Tuesday.

Doctors performed a four-hour operation Monday night to remove needles that posed a significant risk to his health, including one that had been inserted between his sixth and seventh vertebrae, near the bone marrow.

Rio de Janeiro, Dec 30 : At least two million people, including 600,000 tourists, are expected to gather late Thursday on Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Copacabana Beach to welcome 2010.

As in recent years, a fireworks display is to be the main attraction of the beach party, designed to make the most of the southern hemisphere's summer. There will also be shows from well-known Brazilian pop and rock bands, as well as performances by percussionists from Rio's samba schools.

Rio de Janeiro, Dec 29 - Brazilian oil company OGX has said it found a new presence of hydrocarbons in a well in shallow waters of the Campos basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

OGX said Monday in a securities filing that it identified an oil column of more than 180 metres in a well that is in its final drilling stage, adding that the well is located in the BM-C-41 block, in which the company holds a 100 percent stake.

This was the second discovery at the well and the third in that oil block in less a month. The well has an estimated depth of 4,000 metres and it is located some 83 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, where the water depth is around 130 metres.

Rio de Janeiro, Dec 10 : Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz has said he is not scared of playing Brazil, winner of five World Cups, in the first round of South Africa 2010.

"Nobody keeps me awake at night. Brazil have excellent players that can make a difference at any moment, but I have to focus on my team's ability to always be a step ahead of the Brazilian national team," Queiroz told a football forum in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday.

Brazil and Portugal are set to play the first round of the 2010 World Cup in Group G, alongside Ivory Coast and North Korea.

Rio de Janeiro, Nov 26  : Brazil rely on an unwritten motto -- drive, discipline and austerity -- to seek in South Africa 2010 their longed-for sixth World Cup title.

Confirming Brazil's status as the current leader of global football remains a pending task for coach Carlos Dunga, who took over command of the "verdeamarela" amid great scepticism in August 2006, after a disappointing campaign at the 2006 World Cup.

Rio de Janeiro  - The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is known in Portuguese as the Cidade Maravilhosa, or Wonderful City in English. But it is now one title richer after it was awarded the Best Global Destination for gays at a tourism trade fair.

The city's authorities have welcomed the award as in recent weeks the reputation of the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games has been badly tarnished by stories of violence and drug criminality in its slums, the favelas.

Rio de Janeiro  - Violence continued in the slums of Rio de Janeiro with the shooting death of a mother and injury of her baby, amid charges Monday of excessive use of force by police.

Late Sunday a 24-year-old woman was injured in the Kelsons slum as she returned home with her husband, two children and two other relatives. The woman died later in hospital.

Since October 17 - when police clashed with drug gangs in the favela (slum) Morro dos Macacos, in northern Rio - at least 47 people have died in several slums in the city that is set to host the 2016 Olympics.

Rio de Janeiro  - At least 12 people including two policemen were killed during shootouts between rival drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro on the weekend, officials cited by the web portal G1 said.

Police said the gangs are battling for control of drug trafficking in the northern sector of the Brazilian coastal city recently chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Gunfire also downed one police helicopter, causing the death of two officers, the report said.

Rio de Janeiro  - Twelve people died on a bloody Saturday in Rio's slums as rival drug gangs clashed in a shootout with police that ended in a riot.

Two police officers were among the dead.

Officials said a police helicopter was shot at during the clash in the favela, or slum, called Morro dos Macacos (Ape Hill) in the Vila Isabel neighbourhood, causing it to make an emergency landing. The helicopter caught fire, killing two police officers in the flames.

Residents reported "war-like conditions."

In the bohemian Santa Theresa neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Flavio and I sauntered up the steps of society lady Laurinda Santos Lobos’s house. The lady was long dead and her house a mere shell. Architects responsible for the heritage property have lovingly left it that way, calling it The Park of the Ruins. As we turned into an open terrace, Falvio exclaimed, "Caramba!" He was overwhelmed by the views. Beyond Rio’s undulating rooftops and pullulating favelas lay magnificent mountain peaks and beaches, ringed by the ocean. The views became paintings framed by broken bricks and chipped plaster.