RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - The shooting deaths of at least seven people and the arrests of 808 others -- including 101 candidates -- marred local elections held Sunday across Brazil that were expected to give a big boost to the country's ruling coalition and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

SAO PAULO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian voters cast ballots Sunday in local elections seen likely to hand big gains to the ruling party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and its allies.

Nearly 130 million voters were being called out for the polls, which are to select mayors and councillors for the country's 5,563 towns and cities. Voting is compulsory.

SAO PAULO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Voting began Sunday in local elections in Brazil seen likely to hand big gains to the ruling party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and allies.

More than 130 million voters were being called out for the elections, which are to select mayors and councillors for the country's 5,563 towns and cities. Voting is compulsory.

SAO PAULO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Voting was underway in Brazil Sunday in local elections seen likely to hand big gains to the ruling party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and allies.

Nearly 130 million voters were being called out for the elections, which are to select mayors and councillors for the country's 5,563 towns and cities. Voting is compulsory.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Elections to decide the mayors for Brazil's three most populous cities -- Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte -- will have to go to a second, run-off round on October 26, exit polls conducted by the Ibope firm said Sunday.

SAO PAULO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil has enough funds to weather the financial crisis spreading around the world and will forge on with ambitious public projects, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Sunday.

'Brazil runs no risk whatsoever' from the crisis, Lula said as he voted in local elections in his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

BRASILIA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Guards at the official residence of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday shot and wounded a 30-year-old man who ignored warnings and tried to enter the property, officials said.

The man, who was not carrying identification, was taken to a hospital in the capital Brasilia for medical treatment, the president's security service said.

BRASILIA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Isolated shooting incidents in parts of Brazil marred local elections Sunday that were expected to hand big gains to the center-left ruling coalition of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

SAO PAULO, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - The global financial crisis is hitting Brazil's internal credit market and will slow growth in Latin America's biggest economy next year, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Friday.

'Brazil has the means to maintain growth by making adjustments and the government must respond to the challenges thrown up by the crisis,' he said.

BRASILIA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil's central bank said Friday it was implementing new measures to boost market liquidity as Latin America's biggest economy grappled with credit crisis sweeping the world.

BRASILIA, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Half the candidates running for mayor on Sunday throughout Brazil are on trial on a variety of charges including corruption in office, a political consulting group said Thursday.

LONDON, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - London police who mistakenly killed an innocent Brazilian changed their minds about whether he was a suspected suicide bomber moments before shooting him, an inquest heard Tuesday.

MANAOS, Brazil, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said Tuesday he expected oil prices to stabilize between 80 and 95 dollars per barrel.

SAO PAULO, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange suspended operations Monday for a half-hour after the main index Ibovespa fell 10 percent.

Electronic equipment of the main Latin American exchange are programmed to shut down automatically after the index falls more than 10 percent.

Investors then have half an hour to review their sales and purchases.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian mining and metals giant Vale said Friday its price talks with China will not affect iron ore exports to that nation, after the company unexpectedly decided to renegotiate its contracts with Asian clients.

LONDON, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - British police who shot dead an innocent Brazilian mistaken for a fugitive suicide bomber did not have a picture of the suspect, an inquest heard Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday called for a reform of multilateral institutions to enable them to prevent future financial crises.

'The global nature of this crisis implies that the solutions that we adopt must also be global,' he said in his address to the annual UN General Assembly.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday called for a reform of multilateral institutions to enable them to prevent future financial crises.

'The global nature of this crisis implies that the solutions that we adopt must also be global,' he said in his address to the annual UN General Assembly.

LONDON, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - The inquest opened Monday into the death of an innocent Brazilian man in the wake of 2005 suicide bombings in London, amid high security and protests by supporters.

LONDON, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - British police shot dead an innocent Brazilian man at point-blank range having decided 'an instant killing was the only option,' a coroner said Monday, opening an inquest into the 2005 shooting.

SAO PAULO, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - Shares in the Sao Paulo stock market, Latin America's biggest, plunged 6.74 percent Wednesday, following the drop in stock markets worldwide.

The Ibovespa index of Brazil's biggest companies fell 6.74 percent to 45,908 points at closing.

BRASILIA, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced Tuesday that Oslo will donate up to a billion dollars to a government fund here devoted to rescuing the Amazon rain forest.

BRASILIA, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced Tuesday that Oslo will donate up to a billion dollars to a government fund here devoted to rescuing the Amazon rain forest.

GENEVA, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil's police force is responsible for a large proportion of the country's nearly 48,000 homicides every year and officers have a 'carte blanche' for killing, a UN expert said Monday.

SAO PAULO, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Faith is no foil against market forces -- not even if you're flogging the word of God, as the biggest printer of Bibles in the world is finding out.

WASHINGTON, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck in the Atlantic Ocean Wednessday, north of Brazil and east of French Guiana, the US Geological Survey said.

VIENNA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil will have to wait seven or eight years if it wishes to join oil producers' group OPEC, the cartel's Secretary-General Abdullah al Badri said on Wednesday.

SAO PAULO, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - The boom in biofuel production in Latin America, particularly Brazil, is benefiting corporations but not local people, a network of environmental activist groups said in a report released Wednesday.

SAO PAULO, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - Shares in the Sao Paulo stock market, the biggest in Latin America, closed sharply down Monday as traders put fears of diving commodity prices ahead of the US bail-out of troubled mortgage giants.

The Ibovespa index covering Brazil's biggest companies fell 2.4 percent to 50,717 points, setting a new low point for the year.

BRASILIA, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - The presidents of Brazil and Argentina on Monday signed a deal that will let their two countries dispense with converting transactions into dollars when they trade.

SAO PAULO, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - The woman who as a beautiful teen inspired Brazil's best-known song, 'The Girl from Ipanema' was in a Sao Paulo hospital Friday suffering from a gastric problem, she told the news website Terra.

SAO PAULO, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - Shares in Latin America's biggest stock market of Sao Paulo leveled off from a weeklong nosedive late Friday, closing 1.03 percent higher in the wake of a U-turn also in US equities.

The Ibovespa index finished the day at 51,939 points.

BRASILIA, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil's government said Thursday it predicts a record production of sugarcane this year -- 559 million tons, an 11 percent increase over last year's crop.

The bulk of the harvest will go to supporting the country's huge biofuel industry, supplying it with 318 million tons. The rest will go to making sugar.

SAO PAULO, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian mining and metals giant Vale said Thursday a metal leakage in a furnace has forced it to halt production of a ferroalloy plant it owns in Dunkirk, France.

The temporary closure at the Rio Doce Manganese Europe plant came after an August 2007 accident which suspended operations for 60 days.

RIO DE JANEIRO, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian actor Fernando Torres died Thursday in his Rio de Janeiro home after a period of struggling with respiratory problems, his family said. He was 80.

The exact cause of death was not disclosed.

SAO PAULO, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - Brazil's stock market took a heavy beating Thursday, closing down 3.96 percent on the economic pessimism torpedoing equities in the United States and Europe.

The slump, which extended four days of losses, brought the Ibovespa index in Sao Paulo to its lowest level this year: 51,408 points.

BRASILIA, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Iran has formally invited Brazil to join OPEC, but the South American nation -- which recently discovered vast new offshore oil fields -- turned down the offer, Energy Minister Edson Lobao said Wednesday.

SAO PAULO, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Sao Paulo's city-center domestic airport was briefly closed Wednesday after a small corporate plane failed to stop on the runway as it came into land, officials said.

The airport was completely closed to air traffic for an hour following the accident, the state airport management agency Infraero told AFP.