Sao Paulo - The global financial crisis unleashed panic Monday in the stock exchange in Sao Paulo: just 18 minutes after the starting bell in the largest stock exchange in Latin America, trading was suspended after the leading index Bovespa fell over 10 per cent.

When trading resumed, stocks continued to fall in relation to the previous day's closing, and trading had to be suspended again, this time for an hour.

Sao Paulo  - For the first time in close to a decade, the Brazilian stock exchange in Sao Paulo had to suspend its activities for half an hour Monday, after its Bovespa index crashed 10.6 per cent.

The drop happened at 2:49 pm (1749 GMT), following news of the apparent rejection by the US House of Representatives of the 700- billion- dollar bailout plan devised by the White House for the US economy.

Trading resumed, but could be closed down again , most likely for an hour, if the slide reaches 15 per cent.

Sao Paulo  - A businessman and his father were arrested Tuesday for hiring a policeman dressed as Santa Claus to kill the businessman's illegitimate daughter in 2001, according to media reports.

The two men have been accused of hiring a military police officer to kill the woman, who was apparently laying claim to the family's inheritance.

Dressed as Santa Claus, the hired hit man shot at her three times while she was waiting in her car at a traffic light in southern Sao Paulo.

The woman, who survived, is now a 29-year-old publicist.

Sao Paulo - Brazilian Federal Police on Tuesday arrested former Sao Paulo mayor Celso

Sao Paulo - Several million people took part in the world's largest gay pride parade in the Brazilian commercial capital Sao Paulo which wound down early Monday after 10 hours of partying.