The Brazilian government's attempts to reduce the country's rapidly expanding debt by raising taxes and to stem a decline in the currency by using futures contracts are "stupid" and will only do the opposite, opposition Senator José Serra told Valor Econômico newspaper in an interview published on Monday. Serra, the runner-up in the 2002 and... Continue Reading →

Nationwide street protests Sunday against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff kept the pressure on the government without dealing her administration a fatal blow. More than half a million people, many wearing the yellow jersey of the national soccer team, took to the streets to denounce corruption and economic mismanagement amid calls for Rousseff’s impeachment or resignation.... Continue Reading →

Brazilians took to the streets Sunday in anti-government protests as President Dilma Rousseff tries to rebuild her coalition and outlast a political crisis. Tens of thousands of demonstrators came out by mid-afternoon in the country’s largest cities to denounce corruption and economic mismanagement, in many cases demanding impeachment or Rousseff’s resignation. Waves of people marched... Continue Reading →

More defendants are negotiating and signing plea bargain deals in a massive bribery case focused on Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras as federal prosecutors prepare charges against higher-profile suspects, including politicians. Petrobras' former head of corporate services Renato Duque and Fernando Soares, a lobbyist who helped firms win drillship contracts with Petrobras and is accused... Continue Reading →

Prosecutors and federal police in Brazil have unearthed the country's largest-ever corruption scandal by linking a ring of black-market money changers to a price-fixing and political kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras . Executives from two dozen engineering firms are accused of inflating the value of contracts and funneling the excess funds into their... Continue Reading →

As allegations of corruption and incompetence swamp Brazil’s government, and plummeting commodity prices sap its economy, hundreds of thousands of angry citizens are expected to descend on central squares across the country on Sunday, posing a key test for President Dilma Rousseff. This will be the year’s third mass protest against Rousseff, who is facing... Continue Reading →

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will emerge clean from a wave of corruption probes sweeping the country and threatening the political stability of his successor President Dilma Rousseff, according to the Justice Minister. Investigations haven’t uncovered any evidence that could lead to Lula’s imprisonment or justify Rousseff’s impeachment, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, who is... Continue Reading →

The global oil glut will last through 2016 as the strongest demand growth in five years and faltering supply fail to clear the surplus, according to the International Energy Agency. Record inventories will expand further even as consumption growth doubles in 2015 and supplies outside OPEC contract next year for the first time since 2008,... Continue Reading →