Brazil’s federal audit court on Wednesday said that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government violated accounting practices last year and broke the country’s finance law by illegally using money from state banks to fill budget holes.
The unanimous finding by the eight judges could open a strong legal avenue for Rousseff’s opponents to begin impeachment proceedings against her in congress amid widespread anger among Brazilians over economic troubles and corruption scandals.
The court’s decision formally approved its earlier report that said Rousseff broke the finance law.
Its recommendation now goes to congress, which will use the court’s report when voting whether to reject or accept the government accounts.
According to that report, Rousseff broke the fiscal responsibility law by delaying repayments to state-owned banks that advanced funds to pay for social programs such as unemployment insurance and low cost housing projects.
The court’s finding is not judicially binding, but may help lawmakers decide whether Rousseff violated fiscal rules.
Adding fuel to attempts to impeach Rousseff, Brazil’s top electoral authority on Tuesday ruled that there are grounds to investigate allegations of irregularities in her re-election campaign last year.
Officials of the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court said the court would investigate Rousseff’s election campaign to see if it was financed by illegal money, including donations originating from the huge kickback scandal that has engulfed state-run oil company Petrobras.
The electoral court’s investigation was requested by the main opposition party, the Social Democracy Party, whose leader, Aecio Neves, narrowly lost to the presidential election to Rousseff in October last year.
If the court found illegal funds in her campaign or other irregularities, it could invalidate Rousseff’s election as well as that of Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer, leading to new elections.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not