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Brazilian foreign sales totaled US$ 3.121 billion last week, a slight reduction when compared to the previous week. Imports, in turn, maintained their rhythm of growth, reaching US$ 2.347 billion.
With this, the trade balance surplus in the week was US$ 774 million and in seven working days in November, the total has already reached US$ 1.264 billion. The general trade balance figures in the second week of November, disclosed today, November 13, by Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, show that the accumulated surplus reached US$ 39.155 billion in the period, more than the US$ 38.133 billion registered in the same period last year. The good performance of foreign trade is the result of total exports of US$ 117.909 billion from January to now, against imports equivalent to US$ 78.754 billion. If sales continue growing, 16.4% when compared to exports in the same period in 2005, imports are growing even more, 25.3%. Chicken Brazil exported 255,892 tons of chicken in October, a reduction of 1.61% when compared to the same month in 2005. The shipments generated US$ 310.5 million, 11.83% less than in October last year. The figures were supplied by the Brazilian Poultry Exporters Association (Abef). Although poultry sales continue falling in the year on year comparison, the October results were significantly greater than the September results, presenting growth of 22% in volume shipped and 23.43% in revenues. In the accumulated result for the year, exports totaled almost 2.2 million tons, 8.46% less than in the first 10 months of 2005. The shipments generated US$ 2.571 billion, a reduction of 10.15% when compared to the period from January to October last year. According to the Abef, the reduction in exports was caused by a reduction in the global consumption of chicken meat due to cases of avian flu in countries in Europe and Asia, aligned to the appreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar, which has reduced the profitability of international sales of the Brazilian product.
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
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