BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 16 (Reuters) – President Dilma
Rousseff faces on Wednesday the biggest test yet of her ability
to harness her coalition and tame surging inflation in Brazil
when Congress votes on a rise in the national minimum wage.

Rousseff, who last week ordered $30 billion in budget cuts
for 2011, has held firm in the face of calls from union leaders
and their backers in Congress to allow an increase in the
monthly minimum wage beyond her proposal of a 6.9 percent rise
to 545 reais ($326). [ID:nN11131412]

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Feb 11 (Reuters) — President
Dilma Rousseff is facing intense political pressure to water
down $30 billion of budget cuts that seek to cool Brazil’s
overheated economy and restore its fiscal credibility among
investors.

Ministries and labor unions are already clamoring for
special treatment or to be made exempt from the 50 billion
reais in cuts, which Finance Minister Guido Mantega unveiled on
Wednesday and said could not be made without “pain.”
[ID:nN09134882]

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – President Dilma Rousseff will swing the budget axe this week but probably not hard enough to convince markets that inflation stoked by Brazil’s public spending splurge is under control.

In the most closely watched decision of her young presidency, Rousseff’s government will detail cuts expected to total about 40 billion to 50 billion reais (£15-£18.6 billion), seeking to turn the page on a fiscal mess left by her popular predecessor.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A large fire swept through Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival center Monday, destroying thousands of costumes and floats and throwing preparations for Brazil’s annual festival of hedonism into chaos.

Television images showed thick plumes of smoke rising over central Rio early in the morning from a blackened section of the City of Samba complex, where the city’s best Carnival groups spend months preparing their spectacular annual parades.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A widespread drought in the Amazon rain forest last year was worse than the “once-in-a-century” dry spell in 2005 and may have a bigger impact on global warming than the United States does in a year, British and Brazilian scientists said on Thursday.

More frequent severe droughts like those in 2005 and 2010 risk turning the world’s largest rain forest from a sponge that absorbs carbon emissions into a source of the gases, accelerating global warming, the report found.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilians, long the great nomads of global soccer, are being lured home as European clubs struggle financially and local teams backed by a booming economy gain the clout to attract big names like Ronaldinho.

The 30-year-old two-time World Player of The Year left AC Milan this month and signed with Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo, becoming the latest in a string of homecomings in the past few years including big names such as Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Fred and Elano.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Brazilians, long the
great nomads of global soccer, are being lured home as European
clubs struggle financially and local teams backed by a booming
economy gain the clout to attract big names like Ronaldinho.

The 30-year-old two-time World Player of The Year left AC
Milan this month and signed with Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo,
becoming the latest in a string of homecomings in the past few
years including big names such as Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Fred
and Elano.