Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of an ambitious slum development project , known by it's Portuguese acronym PAC, in the Manguinhos slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mar. 7, 2008. Lula visited three slums where construction works, aimed at reducing crime, will begin on public transport, education, parks and in other areas. The PAC, which some view as electoral propaganda, also includes major infrastructure contracts such as shipbuilding for the government-owned Petrobras oil company. The contracts are mostly responsbile for a rebirth of Brazil's shipbuilding industry and has helped fueled an economic boom.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)
A worker cuts sugar cane in a field belonging to the Moema sugar mill in Orindiuva, about 530 km (330 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 4, 2008. The Moema mill is one of dozens in Brazil which produce ethanol, as well as sugar, as part of Brazil's sugar can boom. Ethanol production began during the in 1970s during the nation's military government as a national security measure for energy independence. The independence never happened and ethanol gradually fell out of fashion, but those first steps have put Brazil at the forefront of the world's Bio-fuel boom as the fuel makes a comeback. More ethanol per acre is made from cane than from corn, and for less cost. The mills even use part of the cane to produce electricity run the plant. Aside from the fuels used in the field machinery, plants are energy self-sufficient. (Australfoto/Douglas Engle)
