Brazil plane crashes, killing 16

13 July 2011 Last updated at 14:48 GMT Firefighters said there were no survivors from the crash A twin-engine aircraft has crashed in north-east Brazil, killing all 16 people on board.

The crew had reported problems almost immediately after take-off from the city of Recife, officials said.

They said the pilot had apparently tried to land on the beach near Recife, but the plane came down on an empty lot and burst into flames.

Authorities say they believe weather was not a factor in the crash, which they are now investigating.

Firefighters said the blaze was quickly brought under control.

According to the authorities, the plane came down on wasteland between two Recife neighbourhoods - Piedade and Boa Viagem.

Brazilian media reported that the crash scene was just 150m from the beach and in a residential area.

A circus had been pitched on the site a fortnight previously, reports said.

"I saw a woman in a window [of the plane] asking for help and it just exploded" witness Erandir Rodriguez told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"There was nothing to be done."

The twin-engined L410 was operated by Noar Airlines and took off from Recife at 0615 (0915 GMT), officials said.

It was en route to Mossoro via Natal.

Noar Airlines has been operating for about a year, running short flights in north-east Brazil.

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Brazil ex-President Franco dies

2 July 2011 Last updated at 22:08 GMT Franco was seen as an unassuming politician Former Brazilian President Itamar Franco has died in Sao Paulo aged 81 from complications from leukaemia.

Mr Franco, who had been vice-president, took over the presidential role in October 1992, when then-president Fernando Collor de Mello was facing impeachment proceedings.

He remained in the post until January 1995, at a time of hyper-inflation.

His choice as finance minister, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, is widely credited with stabilising the economy.

Mr Franco was elected in 1990 as the running mate of Fernando Collor de Mello.

He was obliged to step in as corruption charges swirled around Mr Collor. He officially assumed the presidency in December 1992 when Mr Collor resigned.

Mr Franco himself was seen as a modest, unassuming politician and he left office with high approval ratings. He also served as governor of his home state of Minas Gerais.

But he hit the headlines in a dramatic way in 1994 when he was watching the Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro alongside model Lilian Ramos.

As she danced next to the president, photographers took pictures that revealed she was not wearing any underwear.

Mr Franco will also be remembered for the Plan Real, a set of economic measures devised to end Brazil's high inflation rate by raising interest rates and controlling government spending.

After his spell as president, he served as ambassador to Portugal and as Brazil's representative to the Organization of American States.

He was still serving as a senator for Minas Gerais at the time of his death.

On Sunday, Mr Itamar's body will be taken to Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, where he grew up and started his political career.

There, his body will lie in state before the cremation in the state capital Belo Horizonte on Monday.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has declared seven days of mourning.

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French food fight for Brazil firm

29 June 2011 Last updated at 07:34 GMT Pao de Acucar was founded in Sao Paulo in 1948 Two French food giants are locked in a battle to take over Brazil's number one retailer, Grupo Pao de Acucar.

Proposals to merge Pao de Acucar with the local operations of Carrefour are opposed by rival Casino, which already has a stake in the Brazilian group.

The proposed Pao de Acucar-Carrefour deal would create a firm with a 27% market share and sales of more than $40bn (?25bn) a year.

Pao de Acucar is already Latin America's second-biggest retailer.

As well as its Pao de Acucar and Extra supermarket chains, it also has a majority stake in the Ponto Frio and Casas Bahia chains that sell electrical goods and furniture.

Pao de Acucar's shares rose 12.6% on Brazil's main stock exchange on Tuesday after news of the deal emerged.

Secret talks

Brazilian investment fund Gama announced the merger plan on Tuesday. Under the terms of the offer, it will combine Pao de Acucar and Carrefour's Brazilian assets into a new company, to be called Nova Pao de Acucar.

Gama said investment fund BTG Pactual and the BNDES state development bank had committed $2.8bn to the deal, as well as $710m in debt financing.

The deal followed talks between Carrefour and Pao de Acucar chairman Abilio Diniz, whose family founded the firm in Sao Paulo in 1948.

Since 1999, Pao de Acucar has been part-owned by another French firm, Casino, which denounced the proposal to merge with Carrefour as "illegal".

Casino said it was disappointed with Mr Diniz for negotiating a deal without its authorisation.

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Landless activist held in Brazil

16 June 2011 Last updated at 23:34 GMT One of the founders of the landless movement in Brazil, Jose Rainha Junior, has been arrested on suspicion of misappropriating public funds.

Mr Rainha, 50, is accused of funnelling public money away from landless families, which he denies.

He was a leader of Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement until he set up a parallel organisation in 2007.

He was convicted of murdering a farmer and a policeman in 1989, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.

Mr Rainha was arrested in Presidente Prudente in Sao Paulo state.

Police did not say how much money he is accused of misappropriating, but said he was one of 10 suspects wanted in connection with the charges.

They accuse the landless group Mr Rainha was leading in Pontal de Paranapanema of channelling money from the government's National Institute for Agrarian Reform away from the landless families for whom it was intended.

During his time with the MST, Mr Rainha had close links to the former President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose party the landless movement supported.

Founded in 1984, the MST, which campaigns for land reform and the rights of landless workers, is considered the best organised social movement in Brazil.

The MST said it would not comment on the arrest of Mr Rainha as he "had not participated in any of the national, state or local meetings of the movement" for years.

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Brazil Amazon sees another murder

15 June 2011 Last updated at 08:47 GMT Small-scale farmers are often in conflict with illegal loggers in the Amazon A rural worker has been shot dead in Brazil's Amazon - the sixth murder in a month in the region, amid conflicts over land and logging.

The body of Obede Loyla Souza was found in dense forest close to his home in the northern state of Para.

The 31-year-old had argued with illegal loggers in the area, the Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission said.

Violence in the Amazon prompted the Brazilian government last month to offer more protection for activists.

Police believe Mr Souza was killed last week, but news of his death was only confirmed on Tuesday.

He was found close to his home in a settlement for landless rural workers near the town of Pacaja.

'Marked man'

The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) said Mr Souza had received death threats after a run-in with loggers, who were reportedly cutting down trees illegally.

"There is in this region a really dangerous group of loggers," Hilario Lopes Costa from the CPT told the Associated Press.

"He had a fight with one of them over the cutting of these trees and he was a marked man from then on."

Local residents told the CPT they had seen four people in a pick-up truck drive to the camp where Mr Souza lived.

Forensic tests showed he was killed by a shot to the head.

Since May, there have been six murders in the states of Para and Rondonia.

Police say not all were linked to land disputes.

However, some of those targeted had been threatened.

Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo were found murdered on a nature reserve near Maraba in Para state, where they had been working for the past 24 years.

According to family and friends, the couple had received numerous threats in the past two years for their environmental activism.

Their deaths were followed days later by the killing of rural leader Adelino Ramos in Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia.

The government said it would increase protection for those activists considered most at risk and boost co-operation with state governments to tackle the violence.

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Huge rise in Brazil deforestation

19 May 2011 Last updated at 08:25 GMT Official satellite images shed a new light on the pace of deforestation Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased almost sixfold, new data suggests.

Satellite images show deforestation increased from 103 sq km in March and April 2010 to 593 sq km (229 sq miles) in the same period of 2011, Brazil's space research institute says.

Much of the destruction has been in Mato Grosso state, the centre of soya farming in Brazil.

The news comes shortly before a vote on new forest protection rules.

Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said the figures were "alarming" and announced the setting up of a "crisis cabinet" in response to the news.

"Our objective is to reduce deforestation by July," the minister told a news conference.

Analysts say the new figures have taken the government by surprise.

Last December, a government report said deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon had fallen to its lowest rate for 22 years.

However, the latest data shows a 27% jump in deforestation from August 2010 to April 2011.

The biggest rise was in Mato Grosso, which produces more than a quarter of Brazil's soybean harvest.

Some environmentalists argue that rising demand for soy and cattle is prompting farmers to clear more of their land.

But others see a direct link between the jump in deforestation and months of debate over easing an existing law on forest protection.

"You have 300-400 lawmakers here in Brasilia sending the message that profiting from deforestation will be amnestied, that crime pays," Marcio Astrini from Greenpeace told Reuters.

"The only relevant factor is the Forest Code. It is a gigantic rise."

The Chamber of Deputies has delayed voting on the Forest Code amid at times acrimonious argument but could consider the issue again next week.

The Forest Code, enacted in 1934 and subsequently amended in 1965, sets out how much of his land a farmer can deforest.

Regulations currently require that 80% of a landholding in the Amazon remain forest, 20% in other areas.

Proponents of change say the law impedes economic development and contend that Brazil must open more land for agriculture.

However, opponents fear that in their current form some of the proposed changes might give farmers a form of amnesty for deforested land.

The changes were put forward by Aldo Rebelo, leader of Brazil's Communist Party (PCdoB) and backed by a group in Congress known as the "ruralists" who want Brazil to develop its agribusiness sector.

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Brazil launches anti-poverty plan

2 June 2011 Last updated at 14:57 GMT Rosineide Lima da Silva and her family could be in line to benefit Brazil has launched a welfare scheme to lift millions out of extreme poverty by 2014, which President Dilma Rousseff calls her government's key priority.

The project aims to build on current programmes, which are credited with raising 20 million Brazilians out of poverty over the past decade.

Brazil's economic growth has led to an overall increase in living standards.

But some 16 million people still live in extreme poverty, defined as having 70 reais ($44; ?27) or less a month.

"A country that has grown like Brazil can't be content with just having a big social programme like the Family Grant," Social Development Minister Tereza Campello told BBC Brasil.

This refers to the cash transfer scheme that pays up to 242 reais a month, usually to mothers, depending on their income and number of children.

In return, they must ensure their children attend school and are vaccinated.

Cost of living

The aim of the Brasil Sem Miseria (Brazil Without Poverty) scheme is to expand the Bolsa Familia, as well as health and education programmes, and direct more money to Brazil's poorest regions.

President Rousseff took office vowing to eradicate extreme poverty

One of the key objectives is to ensure the most destitute can access these programmes, Ms Campello said.

"And for that we need to change the mindset that it is up to a poor person to come to the state, and ensure that the state reaches out to the poor person."

Rosineide Lima da Silva, who lives in a poor district on the outskirts of Brasilia with her three children, said she tried but failed to sign up for benefits.

"I never got a cent from the government. And every month, things just get more expensive," said Ms Lima da Silva, who supports her family on the 250 reais she earns a month as a manicurist.

According to the 2010 Census, 16.2 million people - 8.5% of the population - are classified as being in extreme poverty.

Of these, 59% live in the north-east of Brazil, historically the country's most impoverished region.

"We want to eradicate extreme poverty by 2014 and make Brazil the first developing country to achieve the first of the UN's Millennium Development Goals," said Ms Campello.

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