Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim

Brazil has suggested that world leaders meet to give a final push to long-stalled negotiations for a global trade pact, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said Saturday.

“During the course of the discussion, (Brazilian Foreign Minister) Celso Amorim put this option on the table,” said the director-general of the WTO.

“Nobody said no, but we all said during the course of the discussion that if that was to happen, what remains to be done — which is a list of 12-13 fairly technical questions — will need to be simplified,” he added. (more…)

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

I’m in perfect health,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday, following medical tests and a blood pressure scare that forced him to cancel a trip to Davos, Switzerland.

“I’m going to improve the quality of my diet,” the 64-year-old leader told reporters outside a Sao Paulo cardiac clinic that carried out the tests.

But, he insisted, “I’m going to keep traveling” as planned throughout the rest of the year — his last months in power before handing over the reins to a successor to be chosen in October elections. (more…)