Police will indict 10 former government, airline and airport officials, and seek sanctions for Airbus employees, in Brazil`s worst plane crash that killed 199 people in Sao Paulo in 2007, a top investigator said Wednesday.

SAO PAULO, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Five inmates were killed Saturday in a prison riot that followed an attempted breakout at a penitentiary in northeastern Brazil, prison director Roberto Goulart said.

He said an undetermined number of inmates trying to escape the facility in Alagoas turned their weapons on prison guards when they were discovered and ordered to stop.

The firefight triggered a prison riot by other inmates at the facility that lasted two hours and required the help of militarized police to put it down, Goulart said.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 16, 2007 (AFP) - Environmentalists have lost track of a five-meter (27-foot) Minke whale that they had freed from a mudflat where it got stuck in the Amazon jungle's Tapajos River, 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil's Environment and Renewable Natural Resources Institute (Ibama) said Friday it has called off the search for the whale, which they said swam up the Tapajos after entering the Amazon River at Marajo Island.

WASHINGTON, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega slammed the International Monetary Fund Saturday for having been lax in its handling of a US housing-related credit crisis that roiled global markets.

'Allow me to point out the irony of this situation,' Mantega told IMF policymakers at the opening of annual meetings here of the IMF and the World Bank.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Police killed 694 people during shootouts with gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the first half of this year, according to official figures released Friday.

The State Institute of Public Security said the figure marked a 33.5-percent increase compared to the same period of 2006.

In the deadliest incident, 19 people died on June 27 when 1,350 police officers raided a slum area known as Aleman Complex in the north of Rio.

LONDON, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - The officer in charge of an operation in which British police mistakenly killed an innocent Brazilian after mistaking him for a suicide bomber told a court Friday that she never gave an order to shoot him.

Jean Charles de Menezes died at a London Underground train station in July 2005, two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others and the day after another attempted attack was foiled.

Police thought de Menezes was one of the plotters, Hussain Osman, who was jailed for life earlier this year.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Brazilian police said 12 people were killed, including an officer of the law and a four-year-old girl, during a crackdown Wednesday on drug traffickers in a slum of western Rio de Janeiro.

Three police officers were also wounded during the shootout that broke out when some 500 police officers backed by helicopters and armed vehicles tried to arrest a group of drug traffickers in the Coreira slum, police said.

Rio de Janeiro state health authorities said a four-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet to the chest.

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Brazil and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) have agreed to push for the development and use of biofuels, the regional bloc said on Wednesday after a visit to Burkina Faso Faso by President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva.

Brazil, the world's leading ethanol supplier and the eight-nation bloc agreed to work towards the generation of biofuels in the region, said a statement from UEMOA.

PRETORIA, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - The leaders of emerging powerhouses India, South Africa and Brazil pledged to work together Wednesday to ensure a better deal for developing nations as they seek a common voice on the world stage.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, his Brazilian counterpart Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- who are all eyeing a permanent spot at the UN Security Council -- claimed a meeting of minds on issues ranging from the fight against poverty and stalled world trade talks.

PRETORIA, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - The leaders of emerging powerhouses India, South Africa and Brazil pledged to work together Wednesday to ensure a better deal for developing nations as they seek a common voice on the world stage.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, his Brazilian counterpart Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- who are all eyeing a permanent spot at the UN Security Council -- claimed a meeting of minds on issues ranging from the fight against poverty and stalled world trade talks.