Associated Press
  BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazil has announced that it will allow foreign institutions to cancel chunks of the country’s staggering foreign debt in exchange for commitment to save pieces of the Amazon rain forest.
   Officials’ home the so-called debt-for-nature swaps will help Brazil reduce its $123 billion foreign debt while protecting its vast wilderness, including the Amazon rain forest.
   Economy Ministry spokesman Pedro Luis Rodrigues said Tuesday foreign institutions wanting to invest in environmental programs would be able to buy Brazilian debt at a discount of 25 percent. The trades will be limited to $100 million a year, Rodrigues said, and the money received will be placed in a specially created fund to administer environmental projects.
   The Low ceiling on the value of the swaps was to avoid fueling inflation, which surpassed 350 percent in the past 12 months.