Brazil

A potential increase in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve (Fed) after this week's FOMC meeting would confirm that the U.S. economic expansion remains on track, but higher rates could bring risks to some emerging market sovereigns, said Moody's Investors Service in a note on Dec. 14

Two Turkish arms manufacturers have ranked in the top 100 for total 2014 arms sales, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Dec. 14. Russian arms sales also soared, though overall arms sales declined over the course of the year.

I went to the COP21 climate summit in Paris, invited by the TEMA Foundation.

The delegations worked for two weeks to try to agree on a joint action plan. The aim was to sign an agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius to stop climate change, which leads to natural disasters, death, migration and famine.

The lawyer of Bulgaria's weightlifting federation believes that a doping ban imposed on Bulgarian weightlifters will be overturned in time for them to take part in the 2016 Olympics, Reuters has reported.

Eduardo Kobra, from Brazil, took the Grand Jedi Master from Star Wars and pictured him carrying a placard that reads, “Stop Wars”, in a colorful mural in Miami.

Theodora Nte Morais Moschouri, the Greek contestant in the 65th annual Miss World pageant, was kicked out of the final stage of the beauty contest due to take place in Sanya, China, on December 19, at the Beauty Crown Grand Theater. The young Greek entrant was “sent home due to inappropriate behavior, though the reason has not been confirmed yet.”

The richest tenth of the world's people produce half of all carbon emissions, while the poorest half - most threatened by droughts and super storms linked to climate change - produce only one tenth, Oxfam said on Dec. 2. 

Are you one of those people who feels that they can post racist tweets in the comfort of their own home? Activists in Brazil are finding people who send abusive posts and are posting these messages on giant billboards near their home. The campaign is led by the civil rights group, Criola.

The destruction of Brazil's Amazon forest, the world's largest intact rainforest, increased by 16 percent in 2015 from a year ago, as the world readies to hold a climate conference in Paris. 

Satellite data for the 12 months through the end of July released on Nov. 26 showed that 5,831 square km of forests were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon, an area half the size of Puerto Rico. 

Mud from a dam that burst at an iron ore mine in Brazil earlier this month, killing 12 people and polluting an important river, is toxic, the United Nations' human rights agency said on Nov. 25.