Brazil Laws

For insight into why Brazil has fallen far short of becoming a global trading and economic power, look no further than the congested docks at its port of Santos, South America's largest and perhaps most inefficient shipping hub. Until Thursday, when 11,000 union workers finally returned to work, trade had been paralyzed by a 15-day strike at the port 70 miles from Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.

After 26 years of deliberation, Brazil is preparing to throw out a 1916 civil code that allows a man to annul his marriage if he finds that his bride is not a virgin.

Reviled as a trademark pirate and bracing for trade sanctions from Washington, Brazil is finally poised to enact a law that would extend patent protection to pharmaceutical products, software and biotechnology.

On a quiet Friday afternoon last month, the governor of Paraiba state, Ronaldo Cunha Lima, burst into a fashionable restaurant in this regional capital, pulled a .

About twice a month, gynecologist Maria Picarde says yes, but this time when a young woman in her cramped office made the request, the doctor shook her head no.

Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello appealed to world leaders to back a $1.2-billion plan to save the Amazon rain forest, government officials said Thursday.