The Brazilian leader criticized the United States’ stance at the meeting and claimed that even though the agreement reached was only partial, the conference managed to solve part of the problem.

In his weekly radio show, Café com o Presidente (Breakfast with the President), Lula said that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions must be a priority to heads of state, especially those from developed countries.

According to him, historically speaking, the United States and European countries have emitted more pollutants, and are therefore more responsible for the planet’s warming. The president singled out the United States, which under George Bush and now Barack Obama have never ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

“With its attitude, the United States has led many European countries, plus Japan, which are signatories of Kyoto, to want to end the protocol and leave nothing in its place, so that they too will not be committed to targets.”

The heist was discovered Sunday night – hours after the games ended. Officers followed the tunnel from the company’s safe some 110 yards (100 meters) underground to a house, Sao Paulo police said in a statement.

Police said the home, abandoned when they arrived, had been occupied for about four months. Its former occupants were considered suspects, but there were no immediate arrests.

Officials with the armored car company – Transnacional Transporte de Valores e Seguranca Patrimonial Ltda – told officers that 10 million reals ($5.9 million) were missing, according to the statement.

Last month, top organised crime investigator Felix Murga said police had arrested four suspects who confessed to murdering up to 60 people.

He said they were selling their fat for thousands of dollars a litre.

But the macabre tale now appears to be nothing more than a tall story - or a big fat lie.

At least to an outsider, the communities of subsistence farmers in the Juma Sustainable Development Reserve are remarkably similar. There’s no electricity, unless you count the generators that power up some evenings for a few hours, and no running water, unless you count what happens when kids rush up the slope with jugs they filled up in the river.

Since 2007, families in Juma have had one more thing in common: they are being paid monthly stipends of 50 reais — about $30 — by the Amazonas state government for agreeing not to destroy another square inch of primary forest for planting or pasture. Across the 2,277 square mile reserve, 321 families — that is, virtually all of them — have signed on. In other reserves acrosss the state, there are almost 6,000 more.

The dispute between the two South American countries has escalated dramatically in the last few months because of an agreement allowing greater US forces presence in Colombia and President Hugo Chavez’ national alert calling the military and civilians to prepare for “a possible war.”

Colombia immediately shot back saying it was taking the case to the Organization of American States and to the United Nations Security Council.

“I don’t think anything at all will happen,” said Jobim following a meeting in Brazilian capital Brasília with visiting Israel president Shimon Peres.

“We believe it can be solved through dialogue, talking. Brazil’s position has always been one of moderation.”

But it was Chavez the most enthusiastic of both, comparing Lula to Jesus Christ. The leaders visited together a soy field in El Tigre where Brazilian technology is being used. Chavez was happy mainly due to the fact that Brazil Senate’s foreign relations committee has approved the admission of Venezuela into the South American common market, the Mercosur.

“President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came as Christ, announcing the good news,” said Chavez. “It is beneficial to all to create a large market for South America. Mercosur is going to become a new hub of economic power.”

Two people - a crew member and a passenger - are as yet unaccounted for.

It was the largest number of arrests ever ordered in an investigation of human rights abuses during the ‘’dirty war’’ waged while Gen. Augusto Pinochet ruled in 1973-90.

Judge Victor Montiglio said the 129 were members of the army, air force and uniformed police who worked for the Dina secret police agency, which has been accused of many of the political killings and other rights violations of the Pinochet era.

The alleged crimes were said to have been committed as part of Operation Condor, the Colombo Operation and the Street Conference, campaigns aimed at the leftist opponents of military regimes in Chile and other South American nations.