Brazil is threatening to break the patent of US-based Abbott Laboratories as it pushes ahead with its programme to supply its people with free AIDS drugs.

The crisis may have been averted for the moment, however. As Reuters and the Associated Press report, President Carlos Mesa has resigned, as he did last March during similar protests. This time, however, Congress has accepted his resignation and named Supreme Court President Eduardo Rodriguez as the interim leader, after the two congressional leaders first in line for the post declined the position.

Brazil - The Brazilian Deputy Roberto Jefferson told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo that the ruling Workers' Party payed Brazilian deputies 30 million Brazilian Reals (US 12 million) every month. Deputy Roberto Jefferson is the President of the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) and he is accused of directing a corrupt scheme that involves the Brazilian postal service. The PTB is an ally of the government.

Figures released by the Brazilian government have shown that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has increased.

In the period August 2003 to August 2004, 26 000 square kilometres of the rainforest was felled. This number is up 6% from the 12 month period prior to August 2003. The total proportion of felled Amazon now stands at 17.3%, according to the World Wildlife Fund. This has led many environmentalists to worry that the cattle and soy trade are being put above the environemnt.

The 2003-2004 period saw the second largest tree felling, per area, in the Amazon's history. The worst was 1994-1995. The year prior to August 2003 had been another bad year for deforestation, it now being the third worst in history. That 2002-2003 period had led Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government to adopt an action plan to target deforestation. This included creating some of the largest reserves on earth and making closer satellite surveillance of threatened areas.

Rumsfeld justifies his position with the fear that such arms could end up in the hands of the FARC, a guerilla group in Colombia seen as a terrorist threat by the American government.

Nice try, but no one is South America is buying it, especially after the U.S. government supported politically and financially a failed coup d'état against Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez not long ago.