Brazil's top court rules that ex-president Lula Silva can be jailed

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court judges voted on Thursday to reject former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plea to avoid prison.

After over 10 hours of the session, there were six votes against the habeas corpus and five for it, Xinhua reported. The deciding vote was cast by court President Carmen Lucia Rocha.

With the habeas corpus denied, Lula can be arrested any time, which will prevent him from participating in the 2018 presidential elections.

He is facing accusations of corruption and money laundering and is alleged to have received an apartment for favouring certain companies in government contracts. However, Lula denies owning the apartment.

Lula was found guilty and sentenced to prison for nine-and-a-half years in 2017.

On January 24, an appeals court rejected a motion to overturn his conviction for money laundering and accepting bribes. The court also stiffened his initial sentence, increasing it to more than 12 years.

Panama bribe scandal: Ex-president's sons got $50 mn from Brazilian firm

Two sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli are suspected of receiving more than $50 million in undue payments from a Brazilian construction giant at the centre of an international bribe scandal, Panamanian prosecutors have said.

The Attorney General's Office alleged in a statement that there were several multimillion-dollar transfers to Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enriquez Martinelli through accounts in Panama and abroad in 2010-2014.

It said the allegations are based on information from a cooperating witness in the investigation: Andre Campos Rabello, the former Panama manager for Brazil's Odebrecht.

The family has denied involvement by the sons in the bribery scandal and alleges persecution by political foes.

The former president, who also denies any wrongdoing, is currently detained in the United States facing possible extradition to Panama on charges of embezzlement and political espionage.

Odebrecht has acknowledged paying nearly $800 million dollars in bribes in a dozen Latin American nations in return for favours and works contracts.
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Pakistan rejects BRICS declaration, says no 'safe haven' on its soil

Under mounting international pressure to act against the terror groups, Pakistan on Tuesday rejected a declaration by the BRICS nations, including China, saying there was no "safe haven" for terrorists on its soil.

Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations at the BRICS Summit in China's Xiamen yesterday and expressed concern over threat posed by terror groups, including those based in Pakistan.

The 43-page declaration, adopted at the end of the BRICS plenary, expressed "concern" over the security situation in the region and the violence caused by the Taliban, ISIS, al- Qaeda and its affiliates including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Hizb ut-Tahrir.

"We reject the declaration (released by member countries) at the BRICS Summit," Pakistan's Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir said during a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Defence.

Dastgir claimed that Pakistan has no "safe haven" for terrorists on its soil.
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MP wants women-only carriages on UK trains to combat sexual offences

The concept of Indian-style women-only carriages on UK trains should be adopted to combat sexual offences against women which have nearly doubled recently, a British MP has said.

Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson believes it is "worth consulting" on the policy after such crimes nearly doubled in the past five years.

The concept, which is in force on trains in India, Japan, Brazil and Mexico, had been first raised for the UK to emulate by Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 but had been shot down as a move that would promote "segregation".

"It [women-only carriages] would be worth consulting about. It was pooh-poohed (when Corbyn suggested it), but these statistics seem to indicate there is some merit in examining that," said Williamson, who serves as the shadow fire minister in the Oppositon.

"Complemented with having more guards on trains, it would be a way of combating these attacks, which have seen a very worrying increase in the past few years. I'm not saying it has to happen, but it may create a safe space. It would be a matter of personal choice whether someone wanted to make use of it," he said.
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Brazil turmoil: Prez Temer accused of bribery, oppn demands impeachment

Brazil's President Michel Temer reeled on Thursday from a report that he authorised payment of hush money to a jailed politician in a scandal threatening to plunge Latin America's biggest country into political meltdown.

Markets plummeted on opening as investors reacted to the crisis, as well as turmoil around US President Donald Trump, with fears that Temer's centre-right government will be hamstrung in its attempt to push through austerity reforms.

Demands for Temer's impeachment and new elections sprang up from opposition lawmakers, while small crowds appeared in Sao Paulo and Brasilia overnight shouting: "Temer out."

In another blow for the veteran leader of the PMDB party, the prosecutor general asked for authority to arrest his key ally Senator Aecio Neves from the PSDB party on bribery charges.

The Supreme Court suspended Neves and was to decide later on his arrest. Officers could be seen entering Neves' property in Rio de Janeiro and his sister Andrea was arrested in Belo Horizonte.

The crisis leaves Temer, 76, facing two immediate problems.

The first is his own political survival, and the second is the survival of the reforms which he says are needed to whip Brazil's floundering economy back into shape after two years of recession.

Temer's office announced that he was cancelling his previously scheduled back-to-back meetings with party leaders. Brazilian media reported that he could make a public statement.

Temer, who took over after the impeachment last year of Dilma Rousseff, was reported late Wednesday by O Globo newspaper to have been secretly recorded agreeing to payments of hush money to Eduardo Cunha, the disgraced former speaker of the lower house of Congress.

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