Washington  - US President Barack Obama insisted Saturday

Washington  - US President Barack Obama met Saturday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for talks on the global financial crisis and energy issues.

Obama's meeting with Lula at the White House was his third with a foreign leader and first with one from Latin America, signalling the importance with which his administration views the region and its role in pulling the world economy out its downturn.

Brazil so far has been able to weather the bad economy. The two leaders discussed next month's summit of the world's 20 leading economies.

Washington  - The US government is urging Brazil to return an 8-year-old boy to his father in the United States in a case that could come up when US President Barack Obama holds his first meeting with his Brazilian counterpart on Saturday.

The boy lives with his stepfather in Brazil. A New Jersey court has ruled in favour of his father, David Goldman, and decided the boy, Sean, should be returned to the United States. But a Brazilian court has granted custody to his stepfather.

Washington  - The US government is urging Brazil to return an 8-year-old boy to his father in the United States in a case that could come up when US President Barack Obama holds his first meeting with his Brazilian counterpart on Saturday.

The boy lives with his stepfather in Brazil. A New Jersey court has ruled in favour of his father, David Goldman, and decided the boy, Sean, should be returned to the United States. But a Brazilian court has granted custody to his stepfather.

Rio de Janeiro  - A man suspected of having raped a teenage girl caused a tragedy in Brazil, when he attacked his wife, abducted his 5-year-old daughter in a stolen airplane and crashed on the parking lot of a shopping mall.

The crash Thursday at the shopping mall in the city of Goiania, near Brasilia, initially put the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) on alert, thinking it was a terrorist attack similar to that perpetrated on September 11, 2001 in the United States.

The man and his child died in the crash of the single-engine plane.

Sao Paulo - Ronaldo's recovery from knee surgery is well on track, and he is now a starter at Corinthians and again scored in his team's 2-1 victory over Sao Caetano in the Sao Paulo state championship.

"Everything is going very well, I am happy," the veteran striker said after the game Wednesday night.