Brazil has entered a billion dollar plus deal to buy 36 French fighter jets. The US had hoped land this deal but France got it in the end, says the Los Angeles Times.The purchase is part of a general expansion by Brazil of its armed forces, in part to protect natural resources such as oil in deep waters off the Brazilian coast. Venezuela has also been expanding militarily. It spend 3 billion dollars on Russian aircraft, tanks and AK-47s. Colombia for its part has been given $4 billion in military aid from the US.

US arms manufacturers who still lead the world in exports, despite the Brazil-France deal. Italy is the world’s second largest arms exporter after the US.

“Business asks Ireland to stop blocking EU Treaty”, reads this headline in the Wall Street Journal. Major Irish-based corporations such as Intel and Ryanair are “putting their clout and cash behind a campaign for a Yes vote” in the upcoming second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland is the only country to put the treaty to a public vote as its Constitutions requires.

Ryanair is contributing half a million euros to a Yes campaign. It’s even re-painting one of its planes with the slogan, “Vote Yes for Europe.”

All the major political parties except Sinn Fein support the Treaty. Other groups oppose it on the grounds that it is an undemocratic document that and would lead to a more intrusive, centralised Federal Europe.

The New York Times reports on a devastating drought that is hitting Kenya, a country usually not associated with such problems. The Kenyan government is beginning to respond, sending food to the worst hit areas but foreign aid is being heavily relied on. The UN recently said 4 million Kenyans urgently need food. The government was recently implicated in a scandal where officials illegally sold off thousands of tons of the nation’s grain reserves, this as famine was looming.

As if this isn’t bad enough, The Daily Nation in Kenya reports on looming heavy rains. Another “El Nino” cycle is forecast and after years of drought with the earth baked to a crusts, flooding is expected. Measures are being taken to evacuate families from Budalang-I and other high-risk areas which floods every rainy season.

Another Kenyan paper, The Standard, publishes this cartoon which criticises the government’s ability to respond to natural distasters, whether it is widespread drought or flooding.

The Independent in the UK features a photo of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez alongside film director Oliver Stone at the Venice Film Festival. “Even A-listers like Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie don’t attract this level of security,” the paper notes.

Chavez is the star of Oliver Stone’s new movie “South of the Border” in which he is portrayed as being at the forefront of a left-wing consensus sweeping across Latin America.

Chavez spent 30 minutes on the red carpet signing autographs and posing for photos. In the auditorium, he was given a standing ovation.