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The article looks at how private partnerships, real-estate investment trusts and other financial investors are snapping up millions of acres of forest land in the United States, New Zealand, Uruguay and Brazil. Such groups are buying giant paper companies such as International Paper Co. According to the author, large paper companies are under pressure to cash in on unused forest land. The author discusses who the selling of unused forest land has both economic and environmental ramifications.

Presents news briefs on business-related issues from around the world as of October 10, 1999. Increase in sales of Kleenex brand facial tissue during the 1999 back-to-school season in the United States; Fiberglass guard dogs offered by Tradicom in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Failure of the Cambodian Farmers Bank to pay its employees.

The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of sports fishing expeditions in the Amazon that may have been used as covers for Americans to have sex with underage girls, according to newly filed court papers. The investigation and two related actions -- a parallel criminal inquiry in Brazil and an unusual lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia -- could provide a rare look at the business operations of the multibillion-dollar international sex tour industry, which has increasingly focused on Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents news briefs about commerce and finance in South America as of October 1999. Lifting of antidumping duties against sugar and syrup from Canada by the United States Commerce Department; Features of the new debt paper of the Ecuador government; Implication of the revised agreement between Brazil and the International Monetary Fund on Brazil's Central Bank.

The article discusses the jailing of a Franciscan father Anastacio Ribeiro and six coworkers in Brazil for supporting landless farmers who occupied two farms. Ribeiro and the others were sentenced to four years and 10 months. The Franciscans urge readers to send letters to the judge who issued the sentences. Also discussed is a filing of papers with the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a libel suit against the publication.