Together with the Brazilian government, he oversaw the building of the Itaipu dam on the Parana River.

BBC: NEWS | Americas | Obituary: Alfredo Stroessner

Renault's compact new plant is built on open land near Curitiba, in the southern state of Parana.

ECONOMIST: Double parked

Bolivia is an associate Mercosur member and has already signed up Argentine barges, which carry soyabean and sugar down the Paraguay and Parana rivers.

ECONOMIST: Bolivia waves the flag

Police were called after two men had a row outside a nightclub in Cascavel, a city in the southern state of Parana, on Saturday night.

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Language, geography and history have combined to isolate Brazil from its Spanish-speaking neighbours on the far side of the Amazon rainforest and the Parana basin, let alone from the wider world.

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The largest loaf of bread weighed was baked by a Brazilian on November 13, 2008 in the city of Curitiba in Parana state, south Brazil, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

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The decision, confirmed by a ministry press official in Brasilia, follows Egypt's ban of beef on Monday from Parana state, where a cow that died two years ago had developed atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

MSN: Saudi Arabia bans Brazil beef imports on mad cow doubts

Cattle drowned can be crudely counted (140, 000, says one estimate for Argentina's Santa Fe province, stretched along 800km of the Parana), and the loss of crops ruined by flood or drought can be reckoned, but the long-term effects may take years to show up.

ECONOMIST: The season of El Niño | The

Prior to Saudi Arabia, only Japan, China and South Africa had halted imports of all Brazilian beef since Brazil announced on December 7 that a 13-year-old cow that died in 2010 in Parana tested positive for the protein linked to the development of BSE.

MSN: Saudi Arabia bans Brazil beef imports on mad cow doubts