Tokyo  - Demanding better job and housing security, a demonstration by 300 Brazilians and their supporters in Tokyo Sunday is just the latest sign of the impact that the global economic slowdown is having on Japan's Brazilian-based workforce.

Waving their national flags across the busy streets of central Tokyo, the demonstrators called out, "Give us a chance of employment," "Stop abandoning us" and "We don't have secured housing."

Many temporary Brazilian workers have lost jobs recently, primarily in the car and electronics industries, as Japanese exports have slumped due to the sluggish economy and the Japanese yen's gains against other currencies. Others have been informed of planned layoffs in the spring.

Tokyo  - Demanding better job and housing security, a demonstration by 300 Brazilians and their supporters in Tokyo Sunday is just the latest sign of the impact that the global economic slowdown is having on Japan's Brazilian-based workforce.

Waving their national flags across the busy streets of central Tokyo, the demonstrators called out, "Give us a chance of employment," "Stop abandoning us" and "We don't have secured housing."

Many temporary Brazilian workers have lost jobs recently, primarily in the car and electronics industries, as Japanese exports have slumped due to the sluggish economy and the Japanese yen's gains against other currencies. Others have been informed of planned layoffs in the spring.

Caracas  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday called for an end to the US embargo on Cuba and suggested a meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and president-elect Barack Obama, who is to be inaugurated Tuesday.

Lula noted that differences between Caracas and Washington were largely because of outgoing US President George W Bush, and stressed that the "extraordinary importance that Venezuela has at this point" cannot be denied.

Sao Paulo - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an optimist to the bone, keeps repeating his mantra that Brazil, the world's 10th largest economy, will emerge from the turbulence rattling the global economy with only minor scratches.

"We will do everything to achieve a 4-per-cent growth [of gross domestic product] in 2009," Lula says optimistically, not wasting a thought on recession.

Brasilia  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday called upon the United Nations to play a key role in the resolution of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which has claimed hundreds of lives.

"The UN must exercise an important role. It is important for the Security Council resolution that defined the need for a peace agreement to be respected, both on the Palestine side and on the part of Israel," Lula said in his weekly radio programme, Breakfast With the President.

Zurich - The reigning women's Footballer of the Year Marta on Monday confirmed that she would be leaving her Swedish club Umea IK to move to the US.

The 22-year-old Brazilian confirmed at a press conference in Zurich that she would be joining the Los Angeles Lakers on a three- year contract. "It is a fantastic project and it will be the best league in the world."