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 / Brazil
BRAZIL News:
20090328
Brazil
-  Poverty
-  Homes-  Tourist
-  Environment
-  Construction
-  Politics
"Brazil
builds walls around Rio de Janeiro slums." ... "The
government of Rio de Janeiro is building concrete walls to prevent sprawling
slums from spreading farther into the picturesque hills of this world-famous
tourist destination, an official said on Saturday." ... "Officials say
the wall is to protect the remaining native forest but critics fear the
move could be seen as discriminatory and become a blemish symbolizing Brazil's
deep divisions between rich and poor." ... "By year-end the Rio de Janeiro
state government wants to build almost 7 miles (11 km) of walls to contain
19 communities." -By Raymond Colitt with contributions
by Bill Trott -Reuters
20090325
 Hillary
Clinton -  Barack
Obama -  US
-  Mexico
-  Illegal
-  Drug
-  Enforcement
-  Military
-  Health
- Brazil
-  Colombia
"Clinton:
U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War."
... "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday
with a blunt mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies
have been a failure and have contributed to the explosion of drug violence
south of the border." ... ""Clearly what we've been doing has not worked,"
Clinton told reporters on her plane at the start of her two-day trip, saying
that [United States] U.S. policies on curbing drug use, narcotics shipments
and the flow of guns have been ineffective." ... ""Our insatiable demand
for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she added. "Our inability to prevent
weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals
causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."" ... "More than
7,000 Mexicans have been killed in the bloodletting since January 2008,
with the gangs battling authorities and one another for supremacy." ...
"The [Democratic President] Obama administration announced Tuesday that
it is sending hundreds more agents and extra high-tech gear to the border
to intercept weapons and drug proceeds heading south." ... "Last month,
former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called on the United States
in a report to consider legalizing marijuana use and focusing more on treatment
for drug users. Obama has emphasized his support for expanded treatment
facilities, although not for allowing marijuana use. " (1, 2)
-By Mary Beth Sheridan
-WashingtonPost
20090212
Criminal
- Drug
- War
-  Government- Law
- Politics
- Health
- US
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Colombia
-  World
"Latin
American Panel Calls U.S. Drug War a Failure." ...
"As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by
three former Latin American heads of state blasted the [United States]
U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies
to the breaking point." ... ""The available evidence indicates that the
war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro
[Brazil]. "We have to move from this approach to another one."" ... "The
commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo
of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments
as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine
U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments
consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana." ...
"The report, by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, is
the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal
with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it. A
recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction
and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly
decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded
in lowering drug use." ... "The three former presidents who head the commission
are political conservatives who have confronted in their home countries
the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking." ... "The
report warned that the U.S.-style antidrug strategy was putting the region's
fragile democratic institutions at risk and corrupting "judicial systems,
governments, the political system and especially the police forces."" ...
"Latin America, he [former President of Colombia César Gaviria]
said, should adapt a more European approach, based on treating drug addiction
as a health problem." -By José de Córdoba
with contributions by David Luhnow, Louise Radnofsky and Evan Perez
-WSJ.com
20080603
Brazil
-  Satellite
- Photographs
- Global
- Climate
-  Gases
-  Food
-  Animals
-  Farming
- Illegal
-  Business
"New
satellite photos show Amazon deforestation exploding."
... "New satellite photographs show that the destruction of Brazil's fragile
Amazon rainforest has exploded this year, fueling fears that the government's
efforts to stop deforestation have been fruitless." ... "Brazil's DETER
real-time monitoring system found that more than 430 square miles of forest,
an area a bit smaller than the city of Los Angeles, vanished in the month
of April, while about 2,300 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware,
were destroyed between last August and April." ... "That nine-month total
surpassed the entire acreage in the Amazon that was destroyed over the
previous 12 months, according to DETER data. What's worse, the satellites
couldn't see about half of the forest in April due to cloud cover, suggesting
that actual deforestation likely was much greater." ... "That's raised
red flags among environmentalists, who say that soybean farming, cattle
production and illegal logging are destroying the world's largest rainforest
despite the government's attempts to halt the deforestation." ... "Chopping
down and burning the rainforest releases tons of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change.
Brazil is the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely
because of deforestation, according to the U.S.-based World Resources Institute."
... "Worse is yet to come, environmentalists said." ... "The Amazon's dry
season, when farmers do most of their burning and clearing, starts this
month." -By Jack
Chang -McClatchyDC.com
20080121
-
Worldwide
- US
-
 Britain
-  France
-  Germany
-  Canada
- Brazil
-  Argentina
- "Stock
Markets Plunge Worldwide." ... "Stocks fell sharply
worldwide Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor
pessimism over the U.S. [United States] government's stimulus plan to prevent
a recession." ... "U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr.
Day, but the downbeat mood from last week's market declines there circled
through Europe, Asia and the Americas. Britain's benchmark FTSE-100 slumped
5.5 percent to 5,578.20, France's CAC-40 Index tumbled 6.8 percent to 4,744.15,
and Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 plunged 7.2 percent to 6,790.19." ... "In
Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index on the Toronto Stock Exchange fell
4.8 percent. Brazilian stocks plunged 6.6 percent on the main index of
Sao Paulo's Bovespa exchange, and Argentina's benchmark Merval index fell
6.3 percent to close under 1,900 for the first time since August 2006."
-By Toby Anderson with contributions by Cassie Biggs,
Ramola Talwar Badam, Elaine Kurtenbach, and Carl Freire -AP
via -Yahoo
20080116
-
Brazil
- Farms
- Illegal
- Business
-
 History
-  Land
- Plants
- Global
- Weather
-  Science
- "Amazon
deforestation seen surging." ... "[Brazil's National
Institute for Space Research scientist Carlos] Nobre, whose government
agency monitors the Amazon and gathers data, said that 2,300 square miles
of [Brazil's] forest had been lost in the past four months." ... "That
compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July
31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since
the 1970s." ... "Brazil's government has said that policies such as more
controls on illegal logging and better certification of land ownership
were reducing the deforestation that has destroyed about a fifth of the
forest -- an area bigger than France -- since the 1970s." ... "But environmental
groups have warned that rising global commodity prices are likely to fuel
more clearing of land for farms, as occurred in 2004 when Brazil recorded
the highest deforestation rate of more than 10,400 square miles (27,000
square km )." ... "Destruction of forests produces about 20 percent of
man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making conservation of the Amazon crucial
to limiting rises in global temperatures." (1, 2)
-By Stuart Grudgings with contributions by Cynthia
Osterman -Reuters
20070707
-
Global
- Climate
- Earth
-
 Music
- Politics
-  Australia
- United
States -  Japan
-  China
-  South
Africa - Brazil
- Germany
- "Live
Earth Series Starts in Sydney." ... "The Live Earth
global [music] concert series kicked off Saturday with an aboriginal group
dancing and singing a traditional welcome at the first venue in Sydney
[Australia]." ... "Tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking
eucalyptus fronds were the first of more than 150 performers at the eight
concert, 24-hour series to raise awareness about climate change." ... "The
performance was immediately followed by a video greeting from former [Democratic]
Vice President Al Gore, whose campaign to force global warming onto the
international political agenda inspired the event." ... "The biggest names
will appear at Live Earth concerts in London [UK] and the United States,
with more modest lineups of mostly local and regional acts in Australia,
Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil and Germany."
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
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