Rio de Janeiro - Former FIFA president Joao Havelange on Wednesday asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to choose Rio de Janeiro as the host city of the 2016 Olympics.

"At my age, unfortunately, I no longer have ambitions in sport. But I do have one wish, which is to offer Brazil and South America the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Havelange, one of the most important sports personalities in Brazil.

Havelange, 92, made his speech in French before members of an IOC evaluating commission currently visiting Rio.

IOC inspectors led by Moroccan former athlete Nawal El Moutawakel on Wednesday held closed-door consultations with Brazilian authorities to hear about Rio's plans for the 2016 Games.

BEML Limited, second largest maker of earth moving equipment in Asia, announced that it has established an assembly division, BEML Brasil Industrial Ltda, at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Shri Pradeep Kumar, Secretary (Defence Production), Govt of India inaugurated the BEML BRASIL INDUSTRIAL LTDA in the company of His Excellency Shri BS Prakash, Ambassador of India to Brazil and Shri V RS Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director, BEML LTD.

Rio de Janeiro  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday spoke about the nationalization of troubled banks, in a speech before the 2009 World Economic Forum for Latin America.

Before more than 500 businessmen, bankers and government officials gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Lula stressed the fundamental role that the state has to play to bring about recovery from the ongoing financial and economic crisis, which demands the creation of a new world order.

Rio de Janiero - Brazil's state-run energy company Petrobras has announced the discovery of a new offshore oil find. The light-oil field, referred to as Iguacu, is located in the Santos Basin in the Atlantic Ocean about 340 kilometres off the Sao Paulo coast at a depth of 2,140 metres, Petrobras said Tuesday.

The find was made in a new well in the BM-S-9, or Carioca field, that was discovered in April 2008. Petrobras did not give estimates of the field's size or volume.

The oil giant heads a consortium with Britain's BP Group and Spain's Repsol that jointly explores the field.

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's government awarded the national planemaker Embraer a defence contract worth 1.4 billion dollars for developing a new military cargo plane. The KC-390 cargo plane, which is expected to have a capacity of 19 tons, is to be developed jointly with Brazil's Air Force over the next seven years to replace old Hercules-C-130 planes.

The Air Force is expected to place an initial order of 22 jets.

Rio de Janeiro - Troubled Brazilian international Adriano will not return to Inter Milan for the foreseeable future, the striker told reporters in Rio de Janeiro late Thursday. Adriano, who did not return to Italy after going to Brazil for two World Cup qualifiers, said that he was taking time away from football to "rethink his career".

"I just did not like living in Italy," he said.