The world’s net rate of forest loss has slowed markedly in the last decade, with less logging in the Amazon and China planting trees on a grand scale.

Yet forests continue to be lost at “an alarming rate” in some countries, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 finds the loss of tree cover is most acute in Africa and South America.

But Australia also suffered huge losses because of the recent drought.

“It is good news,” said the
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25 April 2010 – Tunnel 47, 47 St Thomas
Street, London SE1
The charity Action for Brazil’s Children (ABC)
is organising a corporate 5-a-side football tournament to raise
money for the Brazil team that is taking part in the first ever
international football competition for street children, the Street Child
World Cup in South Africa. The charity tournament will be played at
Tunnel 47, the new indoor 5-a-side pitches by London Bridge
station. For further information contact Alex Kerr:
alexander@abctrust.org.uk;
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Seductive, melodic vocals and bossa-nova style guitar from legendary Brazilian songwriter, whose music radiates warmth
3 July 2010 / 19:30
Barbican Hall

http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=10121

What does a country like Brazil want with 36 brand new fighter aircraft, five new submarines, 50 helicopters, a range of new missiles and tanks, as well as state-of-the-art radar equipment?

What it wants, quite simply, is to be acknowledged as an undisputed regional superpower.

Read more http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8580628.stm

http://www.koko.uk.com/listings/maria-rita-18-05-2010

TAM Airlines in association with TenSamba and JungleDrums present: Maria Rita

One of the biggest stars in contemporary Brazilian music is returning to the UK this coming May, after delighting audiences at a sold out concert in the capital almost 2 years ago.

Maria Rita shot to fame in 2003, with self-titled debut album earning her both critical and public acclaim worldwide as well as a series of awards in her home country and six Latin Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist in
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/southamerica/brazil/7479134/Brazil-a-guide-for-beginners.html

Chris Moss offers a guide to Brazil, ahead of this year’s celebrations to mark the bicentenary of Latin America’s fight for independence.

Three months before the first ball is kicked in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Brazil is already anticipating the economic benefits of hosting the 2014 finals.

The initial prediction from Brazil’s Ministry of Sport is that around 600 thousand foreign football fans will visit Brazil during the 2014 finals, which will take place in twelve cities: Curitiba and Porto Alegre in the south; Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the south-east; Cuiabá and Brasília in central Brazil; Manaus in the north; and Fortaleza, Natal, Recife
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Brazilian energy entrepreneur Eike Batista, who made the biggest leap up Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people this year, is anything but shy about his rapid ascent into the big billionaires club.

A half-German college dropout who for years struggled to emerge from the shadow of his well-known father, Batista has long said that he wants nothing less than to be Brazil’s and the world’s richest person.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1122235020100311?type=marketsNews