Brazil

The first sign of trouble was a glitch that appeared in the air speed sensors. Inside the sleek cockpit of Air France Flight 447, according to aviation experts, the crew would within minutes be confronted with a cascade of mysterious system failures. The atmosphere of a routine international flight would vanish. Warning lights would be flashing and alarms would sound as one high-technology system after another of the highly automated jetliner began going off line.

At its bankruptcy filing last June, General Motors Corp. announced drastic cutbacks in its domestic and international operations but kept its South American subsidiary off the auction block. In a recent interview at the regional headquarters here of what is now General Motors Co., GM-Mercosur President Jaime Ardila explained why. Simply put, he said GM's Brazil operation, the company's third-largest after those in the U.S. and China, is the company's "most valuable asset" in profitability and growth potential.

If there is ever to be an answer to what caused Air France Flight 447 to fall from the sky, the best clues probably lie on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean amid rugged volcanic ridges and steep trenches, some plunging deeper than the Grand Canyon. Search planes scouring the area Tuesday spotted a seat, an orange buoy, a tank and a fuel slick about 400 miles off the Brazilian coast.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it would invest at least $1 billion in Brazil to expand its operations in Latin America's biggest country. The U.S. retail giant will open 80 to 90 stores beginning in 2009. Wal-Mart opened its first store in Brazil in 1995 and today has 318 stores employing 70,000 people.

On the eve of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's visit today to the White House to discuss trade, energy and global warming issues, U.S. diplomats reacted coolly to his other agenda item: his offer to mediate with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Lula has received the approval of Chavez, a longtime critic of U.S. policy, to act as a "bridge" between the two countries, whose relations have been rocky in recent years.

It was about six weeks ago that Diego Armando Maradona started talking nonstop, and he is still at it. If volubility is a sign of nervousness, then Argentina's national soccer coach is running scared -- and for good reason. In the most important of the 40 World Cup qualifying matches being played worldwide this weekend, Argentina hosts Brazil in Rosario on Saturday. It is a match Maradona's team has to win -- both for the prestige and for the points. Only the top four teams from South America are guaranteed a spot at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

First it was world champion Italy. Now it's the $94-million man. Things don't get any easier for the U.S. team at soccer's Confederations Cup in South Africa today, what with the Brazilians lining up to take shots at the Americans in Pretoria. And shoot they will.

Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti and formally accused her Sunday of killing him at a posh seaside tourist resort. Police said 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues was taken into custody after contradictions in her interrogation and presented a formal accusation against her. Prosecutors will later decide whether she will be charged.

Suddenly, Los Angeles is feeling a little like Sao Paolo. First, two large Carnaval-related events will take place this weekend -- a festival in Santa Barbara and the annual Brazilian Carnaval at the Palladium Saturday. Then, a DJ-centric dance party dubbed Made in Brazil returns to Hollywood early next month after a well-received August turn at the Avalon, and automaker Scion is sponsoring an art exhibition of emerging Sao Paolo street artists at the Choque Cultural Gallery, which debuts Feb.

Brazil, the world's largest emerging-market debtor for decades, became a net foreign creditor for the first time in January. International reserves, swelled by investment inflows and record exports of agricultural commodities and oil, probably exceeded gross foreign liabilities last month by about $4 billion, Banco Central do Brasil said Thursday.