Reuters

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian opinion polls released this week show a mixed scenario for the approval ratings of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration, with two surveys indicating a decline while a third one sees an improvement.

Approval of his government fell to 33% in May from 35% in February, a Genial/Quaest poll showed on Wednesday, matching the disapproval rate, which declined just 1 percentage point.

While Lula's... (continue reading...)

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's automakers' association Anfavea said on Wednesday that sales of new vehicles in the country rose 17.6% in April from the previous month to 220,842 units.

Auto production in the month totalled 222,115 vehicles, up 13.5% from March, it added.

(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; writing by Andre Romani; editing by Gabriel Araujo)

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hatem Khaled

CAIRO\GAZA (Reuters) - As battles raged on the outskirts of Rafah on Wednesday with Israeli forces closing in, Palestinians were on the move again, abandoning neighbourhoods of the southern Gaza city and leaving them as ghost towns.

Israel has threatened a major assault on Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are holed up there, but more than a million people are sheltering in the... (continue reading...)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank can press ahead with interest rate cuts this year but needs to rethink how it forecasts inflation and sets policy based on these projections, Belgian policymaker Pierre Wunsch said on Wednesday.

The ECB all but promised a rate cut on June 6 but sent few signals about subsequent moves given high services inflation and worries that a delay in monetary policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve could also... (continue reading...)

BERLIN (Reuters) - German premium carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday rejected claims that it has been trying to prevent the formation of a union at its Alabama plant.

The group "respects the decision of the employees to establish a trade union organization, and it will monitor the election process and will make sure that every team member has the opportunity to cast a secret vote", Mercedes' board member Renata Jungo Bruengger said at the annual... (continue reading...)