Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed during a confrontation with police at an airport in northeastern Brazil, the Federal Police said on Wednesday.

The deaths occurred at the Salgueiro Airport in the northeastern state of Pernambuco when the armed group attempted to rob a plane's cargo of money intended for city banks.

The gang overcame security guards and accessed the runway as the plane was landing, before firing at the pilot to stop the plane.

11 Aug 2018; AFP: Politicians and public servants have been linked to the murder of high-profile Brazilian lawmaker and black rights activist Marielle Franco, Brazil's security minister Raul Jungmann said late Friday.

Jungmann, who said the murder may be politically motivated, would not reveal any names at this time because doing so could "hinder progress in the investigation."

Nevertheless "I do not have the slightest doubt that there is nothing that prevents us denouncing them, all of them," Jungmann told reporters.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; Even behind bars, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will secure his leftist party's nomination Saturday and continue to overshadow more likely candidates in the country's most unpredictable presidential election for decades.

Saturday will see three big party conventions, two months before the first round of voting on October 7 in Latin America's dominant economy.

Professor Akshay Venkatesh has won this year's Fields Medal, an award often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics.

The 36-year-old professor grew up in Perth then moved to US and works at Stanford University. He specialises in pure mathematics and number theory.  He was among four mathematicians from around the world to be awarded this year's Fields Medal.

2 Aug 2018; AFP; Kurdish refugee turned Cambridge University math professor Caucher Birkar was among four winners Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro of the prestigious Fields prize, dubbed the Nobel for mathematics, but had his gold medal stolen minutes later.

It was an embarrassing debut for crime-ridden Rio, the first Latin American city ever to host the Fields ceremony, which takes place every four years.