America is losing its lead in the space race as other countries challenge its dominance on the “final frontier”, the head of Nasa has warned.
The more obvious rivals such as Russia and Europe have been joined by countries as diverse as Brazil, Israel and India, which are all launching their own space programmes.
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Corruption continues to intensify in two-fifths of the world’s nations, nurtured by persistent poverty, political instability and crime.
In percentage terms, the number of countries perceived to be corrupt fell slightly, according to recent surveys by Transparency International, an international watchdog group. But that’s only because the sample size of its annual study has gotten larger [...]

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Today the two leaders, often partners but sometimes rivals, offer starkly different paths toward development, and it is Brazil’s milder and more pragmatic approach that appears ascendant. Amid the decline of American influence in the region, the Brazilian president is discreetly outflanking Chávez at almost every turn in the struggle for leadership in South America.
Chávez [...]

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Asia’s troubles are about to get a great deal worse, because Asia is becoming a victim of the rise in energy prices in an even more spectacular way than higher gasoline prices.
Consider, for example, why it is that China’s steel exports to the United States are dropping at a rate of 20 percent this year. [...]

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As the economic mood darkens, Britain’s wealth generators are moving abroad. So where exactly is everybody heading, asks Terry Kirby
The exodus is accelerating faster than house prices are falling. Refusing to risk their livelihoods on our spluttering financial situation, or have their spirits crushed by fear of rising crime, a new swath of high-flyers, [...]

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The creation of a South American Security Council, which would include oil-rich Venezuela, Chile and Argentina, was proposed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at a meeting of 11 Latin American countries held in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, in May.
The security council would be part of an even larger effort led by Brazil to [...]

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World leaders, alarmed over the spiraling number of hungry in their countries and at their borders, Tuesday urged each other to contribute money, ideas and compassion to feed an estimated 950 million people.
The presidents of Brazil, Iran and Zimbabwe, among others, joined scientists, humanitarian relief experts and diplomats to forge immediate responses and long-term ideas [...]

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In effect, the BRIC countries collectively took the place of the United States as the locomotive of the global economy, helping to haul the rest of the planet along.
But there is a problem. They may not be able to keep it up, because just as it looked like the world had found a new economic [...]

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Speak fraternally but carry a stick. Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
Even as its leaders talk, Latin America is re-arming—or rather some South American countries are. In the broader region, including Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, total defence spending shot up to $38 billion in 2007 from $25 billion [...]

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The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are emerging as the new powers destined to inherit world economic leadership by the middle of the 21st century.
With China and India combined representing more than one-third of the world’s population (2.4 billion) and undisputed leaders in converting raw materials into finished goods, these Asian giants are headed [...]

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THE price of oil may soon hit $200 a barrel—or so, at any rate, believes Shokri Ghanem, Libya’s oil minister. A few years ago such a prediction would have seemed absurd. But the price has doubled in the past year and has risen by 40% this year alone. It touched yet another record, of over [...]

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Are the BRIC countries an emerging threat?
From the article:
The concept of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — was coined five years ago in a research paper from the Goldman Sachs investment bank.
This week, reality takes over from theory as the foreign ministers of the BRIC countries hold their first formal meeting [...]

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 62, talks to SPIEGEL about why Brazil wants to join OPEC, his country’s biofuels program and Europe’s fear of Latin America’s shift to the left. more…

Photo Gallery: Brazil’s Popular President
A New Energy Leader: Brazil Wants to Join OPEC
Brazil’s Rainforests: Is Cheap Meat Bigger Threat to Amazon than Biofuels?
From [...]

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Left-wing governments in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia have all become allies of Iran in recent years, and other countries in Latin America have diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic.
Shannon said Iran wants to ease its international isolation by showing it is able to win friends in Latin America, which has been historically in the [...]

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The Pentagon is going to resuscitate its Fourth Fleet, with the mission of patrolling Latin American and Caribbean waters.
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The plan to install a military base in Paraguay, close to Bolivian gas fields, was denounced by Brazil and Argentina. Ecuador has made it known that the American military base installed in Manta until 2009 will not [...]

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The end of the unipolar moment, underlined by the American fiasco in Iraq and by the ascendancy of China, Brazil and India, raises again questions about the structure of the global system and how Europe fits within it.
After the end of the cold war and with the accelerating pace of globalisation, Europeans were inclined to [...]

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Latin America’s three leading economies – Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico – have dusted off old blueprints for nuclear generators and are developing projects that could more than double the region’s capacity from the power source. Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela are following suit by studying projects to start nuclear energy programs.
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The principal characteristic of twenty-first-century international relations is turning out to be nonpolarity: a world dominated not by one or two or even several states but rather by dozens of actors possessing and exercising various kinds of power. This represents a tectonic shift from the past.
The twentieth century started out distinctly multipolar. But after almost [...]

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South America has a right to beef up its armed forces but is not in an arms race, Brazil’s defense minister said on Monday, as the region raises military spending on the back of high oil, food and metals prices.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who is in Venezuela to discuss a planned South American security [...]

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A joint mission developed by China and Brazil was shot into an orbit circling Earth’s poles to snap detailed images of the globe during an early Wednesday launch from China’s northeastern space base.
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Images from the new high-resolution camera will also be useful in urban planning and military intelligence applications for China and Brazil.
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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -
Aviation chaos, unpaved highways and the threat of energy rationing point to perhaps Brazil’s greatest challenge in its quest to become an economic superpower: How to upgrade its overburdened infrastructure.
The government is planning to spend billions of dollars in coming years to modernize and expand strained roads, power plants and ports [...]

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