Brazil has become both strong confident enough to play an active role on the world stage. In an increasingly multipolar world, Brazil is emerging as a powerful voice representing the Global South in multilateral forums like the G-20, the World Trade Organization and discussions over greenhouse gas emissions.

A singer, instrumentalist and composer, Gilberto Gil is Brazil’s ambassador of culture and he’s played this role both as a musician and as an activist… He’s in South Africa this week for a musical project that explores the cultures of the southern people, called Connecting South.

In keeping with the resolve to further cultural exchanges between Pakistan and Brazil, the Embassy of Brazil has invited five prominent members of the cultural and artistic scene of Pakistan to visit Brazil in May.

Favelas, sprawling shanty towns which are home to tens of thousands of people, are a defining feature of Rio. But the Globo newspaper said their labelling on the map and the absence of wealthier districts and tourist sites gave a bad impression of the city.

Leaders from five of the world's top emerging economies will gather in China mid-next month to discuss economic, financial and security concerns, the Chinese government said on Thursday, setting a date for the "BRICS" summit.

Nowhere have President Obama's foreign policy approaches been in starker relief than during his unfolding travels in South America. Right now the use of military power in Libya is overshadowing his lead-by-example public diplomacy in his own hemisphere.

A day after giving the go-ahead for joint military strikes against Libya, President Barack Obama and his staff tried to refocus his first-ever trip to South America with a brief tour of the city and a speech hailing Brazil’s economic might and vibrant democracy.

President Barack Obama was not in Washington when the first missiles struck targets in Libya. As the US went to war at the weekend – the third on his watch – he left for Brazil to discuss trade.