RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Brazil’s central bank
will likely call a halt to this year’s flurry of interest rate
hikes on Wednesday as it responds to growing signs of a
slowdown in Latin America’s largest economy.

With annual inflation running above 7 percent, policymakers
will be reluctant to start reducing the country’s lofty
borrowing costs just yet and are expected by economists to
leave the benchmark Selic rate at 12.5 percent.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – His cartoons are edgy, bold, and a thorn in the side of the Arab world’s tottering authoritarians — a gift to protesters from the unlikely setting of an apartment in beach-side Rio de Janeiro.

Carlos Latuff, a 42-year-old leftist whose only family link to the Middle East is a Lebanese grandfather he never knew, has become a hero of the tumultuous Arab Spring with rapid-fire satirical sketches that have helped inspire the uprisings.

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil’s long boom appears to be over.

After several dynamic years that saw it earn a reputation among some Western investors as “the near China,” Brazil now looks to be downshifting into a pattern of economic growth of around 3 percent to 4 percent for the foreseeable future.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Brazilian fans plan
match-day protests against Ricardo Teixeira, the head of the
country’s football association, to demand he step down from his
role at the 2014 World Cup.

The protests, involving more than 20 fan groups, come after
police opened an investigation into corruption allegations
against Teixeira, who has dominated Brazilian football for two
decades and heads the local organising committee for the World
Cup in Brazil.