Former Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldinho is hoping his recent purple patch with Flamengo adds impetus to his bid to resurrect his career with the five-time World Cup winners.

"My objective is to do my best with Flamengo and if the coach needs me I will be ready," said Ronaldinho, who returned home in January 2011 after a two and a half year spell with Serie A giants AC Milan.

Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim resigned after criticizing the government to reporters and will be replaced by ex-foreign minister Celso Amorim, the president's office said Thursday.

Jobim, 65, took the job in 2007 under then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and oversaw a still-pending multi-billion tender for 36 new fighter jets. He stepped down after making derogatory remarks about two female senior government officials.

Global banking giant HSBC said Tuesday it would hire thousands of people in emerging markets by 2014 as it looked particularly to Asia's booming financial sector to power future growth.

"We are planning to hire up to 15,000 people in emerging markets over the next three years," the bank's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told a press briefing in Hong Kong Tuesday.

Shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are among the wealthiest and most discerning in the world. Most major malls in Dubai, for instance, feature couture retailers usually associated in the United States with upscale fashion districts. It is not an uncommon sight to see shoppers with several large shopping bags, loaded into a cart just as a family buying groceries would, only the purchases being Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags. According to Business Monitor International, U.S.$31 billion worth of retail sales are expected this year in the UAE, and will top U.S.$41 billion in less than five years.

As there is more total retail space supply in the country than its entire population -- according to retail surveys, an estimated 5.75 million square meters by the end of 2014, or 1.27 square meters of shopping space for every UAE resident -- online retail has struggled to find room. Because of concerns about fraud, 45% of UAE shoppers said they would not buy online, according to a survey this year by MasterCard.

Brazilians with heavy hips and buxom busts want clothing that suits their voluptuous forms, plus-size fashion advocates say in this country more commonly known for its string bikini.

"If I go to a mall where there are 300 to 400 shops, I will walk and walk and still be unable to find a dress in my size... It's sad and annoying," said Renata Poskus Vaz, a journalist who blogs about plus-size fashion.

Sobbing and playful laughter echo off the walls at Casa Viva, a rehab center in Rio that takes in children who have become addicted to crack, living on the streets like zombies among the trash.

Rio city officials have tallied almost 700 children and adolescents living on the streets who are hooked on alcohol or drugs. Though crack devastated many inner-cities around the world decades ago, it is just starting to do major damage in Brazil.

A small plane crashed early Wednesday near the Brazilian city of Recife after reporting an onboard emergency, killing all of its 16 occupants, rescue officials told Agence France Presse.

The Noar Linhas Aereas plane, which was bound for Natal, the capital and main city of Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil, crashed within 10 minutes of taking off, authorities said.

An 11-year-old boy in Brazil's northeastern city of Mossoro is drawing attention with his purportedly magnet-like qualities.

The Globo TV network has broadcast images of Paulo David Amorim demonstrating how forks, knives, scissors, cooking pans, cameras and other metal objects seem drawn to his body and remain stuck on his chest, stomach and back.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated Thursday the first cable car of the notoriously crime-ridden Complexo do Alemao, as Rio prepares to revamp the slums ahead of world sport meets.

Since 2008, Brazil's second-largest city has been racing against the clock to improve security and infrastructure in its shantytowns before hosting the 2014 World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016.

A new species of mouse has been discovered in Brazil, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation announced Tuesday

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