Air France's insurance company Axa on Friday said it will appeal a Brazilian court ruling ordering the French carrier to pay compensation to the family of a victim in a major jet crash in 2009. "We will appeal this decision. This ruling cannot constitute a precedent," French insurer Axa said in a statement, adding that the Brazilian judgment did not meet certain criteria for receiving compensation.

Canada's Bombardier has won a 22 million dollar contract for signaling systems for an electric railway system in the Peruvian capital, a company official told AFP Thursday. The contract through Bombardier Transportation's unit in Brazil calls for traffic control systems for Lima's Line 1 railway of 21.

A Rio de Janeiro state judge Thursday ordered Air France to pay 1. 15 million dollars in compensation to the family of a state official who died in the 2009 crash of an Air France passenger jet into the Atlantic. Former state attorney general Marcelle Valpacos Fonseca perished along with 227 other passengers and crew of the Airbus A330 that crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1.

Brazil's gross domestic product fell 0. 2 percent last year, its worst performance since 1992, despite strong 4. 3 percent growth in the fourth quarter, officials said Thursday. The industrial sector suffered the worst setback, shrinking 5. 5 percent, followed by agriculture, which dropped 5. 2 percent, while the service sector grew 2.

British oil giant BP on Thursday unveiled a major strategic deal that will hand it further assets in Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico and its first foothold in Brazil. The London-listed firm will pay US firm Devon Energy 7. 0 billion dollars (5. 1 billion euros) in cash for the assets, the group said in an official statement, which announced the "broad-ranging deal.

The foreign ministers of Brazil and Germany differed sharply Wednesday on whether to threaten Iran with United Nations sanctions over its disputed nuclear program. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle said after talks here they agreed it was crucial to allow the creation of a new nuclear power, but clashed on the issue of sanctions.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Wednesday on President Barack Obama to put his weight behind a quick resolution to a US-Brazilian trade dispute. Brasilia on Monday announced it would raise tariffs on imported American cosmetics, appliances and cars worth 591 million dollars to counter what the World Trade Organization ruled were unfair US cotton subsidies.

Brazil and Germany joined international condemnation Wednesday of Israel's plan to build 1,600 new settlement homes in east Jerusalem, saying the "wrong move" was damaging to the peace process. Visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the settlement activity announced Tuesday by Israel's interior ministry, during a high-profile visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, was "the wrong move at the wrong time.

A US senator on Tuesday warned advocates of escalating a trade dispute with Brazil that the South American giant would have "a lot of friends" around the world if Washington took such action. "You would be shocked at how much international support Brazil has. I think if you were to go in that direction, Brazil would have a lot of friends," said Republican Senator Mike Johanns, a former US agriculture secretary.

Brazil is on track to reap a record grain harvest this year, including a big increase in soybean production, the government said Tuesday. The Institute of Geography and Statistics projected the country's soybean harvest at 66. 9 million tons, up 17. 4 percent over last year, and corn at 52. 4 million tons, up 2.