Brazil interim president opens Rio Games amid jeers

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Loud jeers erupted around the Maracana stadium as Brazil's interim president Michel Temer officially opened the Rio Olympics on Friday.

Boos and jeers rang out in the packed stadium as Temer, who took over when impeachment proceedings started against President Dilma Rousseff, started speaking.

As soon as he finished, a loud round of fireworks was set off to drown out the cat calls.

Brazil is in political crisis with several leaders facing corruption cases. Rousseff supporters accuse Temer of being part of a plot against the suspended president.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Brazil's Rousseff scores court win in impeachment case

BRASILIA - Brazil's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Congress must restart impeachment proceedings against Dilma Rousseff from scratch and overhauled the procedure, in a badly needed win for the embattled president.

In an 8-3 decision, the judges annulled an opposition-dominated impeachment commission established by secret ballot in the lower house last week and ordered the procedure be restarted in an open vote.

It also gave the final word on whether to open an impeachment trial to the Senate, where Rousseff has greater support.

Rousseff is accused of fudging the government's accounts during her re-election campaign last year.

The 68-year-old leftist maintains the budgeting maneuvers were accepted practice.

Under the court's ruling, a new commission to decide whether or not to impeach her must now be created in an open vote by the lower house.

If the commission recommends impeachment, the decision will then pass to the full lower house -- and then, the judges ruled, to the Senate.

The march towards the unpopular president's possible ouster was stalled by her allies in Congress, who say opposition legislators violated the constitution in their rush toward impeachment.

They claimed the impeachment commission illegally insisted on secret votes while picking its members, and that it was stacked with Rousseff opponents.

On December 8 the Supreme Court ordered the commission to freeze its work until the challenge was resolved.

The speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, oversaw the controversial session to form the commission and is an architect of the impeachment drive.

Cunha himself has been charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes.

The political crisis and a separate corruption scandal involving state oil giant Petrobras have exacerbated the malaise gripping Brazil, whose economy, the world's seventh largest, is mired in a deep recession.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Clinton snaps at Merkel heels in 'powerful women' list

NEW YORK - German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the Forbes list of the world's most powerful women for the fifth straight year but Hillary Clinton is snapping at her heels, the magazine said Tuesday.

Behind them came Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, US federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde was in sixth place and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff came in seventh.

The top 10 were rounded out by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (No. 8), Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube (No. 9) and US First Lady Michelle Obama.

Newcomers include US pop star Taylor Swift, in at number 64 and the youngest of the bunch at 25.

The annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women includes leaders in eight categories -- technology, politics, business, finance, media, entertainment, philanthropy and billionaires.

Clinton, who in April announced her second run for the White House, was listed at number six last year but as US secretary of state she also ranked number two to Merkel in 2011 and 2012.

"Come next year's US elections, she (Merkel) could lose her title for the first time since 2010 to the one person with a credible and mathematical chance of 'leading' the world," wrote Forbes.

Even if Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for the White House, she has no chance of being elected US president until November 2016 -- after Forbes publishes its 2016 most-powerful women list.

Forbes has put the German chancellor on the list 10 times in the past 12 years, nine of them as most powerful woman. Merkel was first elected in 2005 and won a historic third term in 2013.

Geographically speaking, the United States dominates the list. Fifty-nine on the list are American, including several immigrants.

There are 18 from the Asia-Pacific region, headed by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye at number 11, 12 from Europe, four each from Latin America and the Middle East and three Africans, Forbes said.

Other newcomers include EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, number 36; US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, number 34; and incoming Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner at number 80.

The magazine said the list features eight heads of state and one monarch, who govern nations with a combined GDP of $9.1 trillion and 15 billionaires with a total net worth of more than $73.3 billion.

The top ranking billionaire this year is Oprah Winfrey at number 12 with a personal net worth of $3 billion.

In another measure of influence, the 100 women on the 2014 list have a combined social media footprint that includes 474 million Twitter and YouTube followers, the magazine said.

The list can be viewed at www.forbes.com/power-women

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Disaster for Brazil as Germany run riot

BELO HORIZONTE - Brazil's World Cup dream was smashed into oblivion as majestic Germany ran riot to win an extraordinary semi-final 7-1 on Tuesday and send the South American hosts crashing to their worst ever defeat in their 100-year footballing history.

Sixty-four years after Brazil was plunged into national mourning after their loss in the 1950 final, the hosts were torn apart in a defeat likely to be every bit as traumatic as the fabled "Maracanazo."

Tearful Brazil captain David Luiz immediately apologised to the nation after the rout.

"Apologies to everybody, apologies to all the Brazilian people," said Luiz, his eyes red from tears.

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari echoed the mood of despair.

"We ask for forgiveness," said a shellshocked Scolari. "To the people, please excuse us for this negative mistake."

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff added to the gloom.

"Like every Brazilian, I am very, very sad about this defeat. I am immensely sorry for all of us. Fans and our players," she wrote on Twitter.

Germany star Thomas Mueller, who plundered his fifth goal of the tournament in the thrashing, admitted he was shocked by the scale of the victory.

"I don't know what to say to be honest," Mueller said.

- 'It's totally crazy' -

"I can't believe it. It's something totally crazy. It just went well today," added Mueller, whose team will now face either Argentina or the Netherlands in Sunday's final at the Maracana.

Germany's passage to Rio was booked after a first-half blitz which included a burst of four goals in six devastating minutes.

Mueller opened the scoring on 11 minutes, punishing poor Brazilian marking at a corner to make it 1-0.

Brazil, badly missing suspended captain Thiago Silva, tried to regroup but there was no respite.

Miroslav Klose's cool finish on 23 minutes -- which made him the World Cup's all-time top-scorer with 16 goals -- was the cue for the floodgates to open.

Toni Kroos struck twice in the 24th and 26th minutes to make it 4-0 and then Sami Khedira rounded off another clinical move to make it 5-0 on 29 minutes.

Dead and buried inside half an hour, the crowd at the Mineirao Stadium was stunned into silence.

Many fans burst into tears as they struggled to comprehend the enormity of what had taken place.

After the fifth goal, well before half-time, hundreds of people left their expensive seats.

- Fans anger -

A section of the crowd chanted sexually-expletive obscenities against the team and Brazil's leader Rousseff, who up to now had enjoyed a reprieve from protests over the record $11 billion spent to host the tournament.

Across the nation, other fans shouted at their televisions and abandoned public screenings.

Though Brazil rallied at the start of the second half, the torture continued on 69 minutes when Andre Schuerrle swept in Germany's sixth.

This time boos rang out around the Mineirao as the Germans celebrated.

Schuerrle then grabbed his second on 79 minutes to make it 7-0, and confirm the worst defeat in Brazil's history.

The previous record loss had been a 6-0 reverse to Uruguay in 1920.

Schuerlle's second goal was greeted by a burst of applause as Brazilian fans saluted Germany's wonderful exhibition of attacking football.

A late goal from Oscar was barely applauded by the Mineirao Stadium crowd.

Brazil had gone into the match riding a fervent wave of national emotion, determined to clinch a place in the final to honour injured striker Neymar.

The crowd roared chants of "Neymar, Neymar" just before kick-off, following a spine-tingling rendition of the national anthem that saw captain David Luiz proudly holding up the injured striker's No.10 shirt.

But Mueller's early strike punctured the fervent mood, and when the goals started flying in after Klose made it 2-0 there was no way back for Brazil.

The result was greeted with disbelief by fans across football-crazy Brazil.

Brazil's national media described the result as the "Shame of Shames."

The sport's daily Lance called Tuesday's crushing loss "The Biggest Shame in History."

Alexa Rosatti, 19, a university student watching the game at a popular Sao Paulo bar district said she had feared Brazil would lose.

"But I never thought it would be a massacre," she said.

"I stopped watching for a second and they already had scored a sixth goal."

In Rio, at a street screening that had attracted 30,000 people, Karina Marques, a 17-year-old footballer, predicted a violent reaction from angry fans.

"It's a disaster. It will be chaos," she said. "People will break everything.

"They're going to be furious. The government spent a lot of money for this World Cup instead of investing in health and education."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Brazil's World Cup crowd mostly white, wealthy: survey

BRASÍLIA - Most Brazilians attending World Cup matches are white, wealthy and dissatisfied with leftist President Dilma Rousseff's government, said a survey published Sunday.

Of the Brazilian fans attending Saturday's round of 16 match between the host nation and Chile, 75 percent were men, 67 percent were white and 90 percent were middle-class or wealthier, pollsters Datafolha found.

It said there was little sign in the stadiums of the rising middle class that has emerged under Rousseff and her predecessor, fellow leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Only nine percent of Brazilian fans were from the so-called "C Class," the lower-middle-class income bracket defined as monthly earnings of $500 to $2,000 -- which now covers 49 percent of Brazil's population.

Sixty percent of those interviewed said their incomes were more than 10 times the minimum wage of 724 reals ($320) per month, Datafolha said.

The racial make-up of the crowd was also different from Brazil as a whole: More than half the country's 200 million people have African roots.

Datafolha said 55 percent of those interviewed disapproved of Rousseff's performance, nearly double the figure in its June poll of the general population, when just 28 percent of people said they disapproved of the president's performance.

However, 61 percent of respondents said they did not think it was right that fans shouted a profanity-laced insult at Rousseff at the World Cup opening match in Sao Paulo on June 12.

The jeers caused controversy in Brazil, where many Rousseff supporters said they only reflected the views of a wealthy minority.

Rousseff is up for reelection in October and faces growing discontent over an economic slowdown, rising inflation, accusations of corruption and the record $11 billion spent on the World Cup.

But she currently leads in the polls, with 39 percent of voters backing her candidacy, according to a CNI Ibope survey earlier this month.

Her top rival, Social Democratic Senator Aecio Neves, had 21 percent support, and socialist ex-governor Eduardo Campos, a former ally, 10 percent.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com