Latest update: 02/08/2010

- Brazil - elections - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Dilma Rousseff, the new Lula?

Campaigning to become Brazil's next president is underway. The nation will vote at the beginning of October, and although current president Lula Da Silva won't be running, he's still influencing the electorate. This is where his right-hand woman Dilma Rousseff comes in. Opinion polls suggest it could be a tight race between her and opposition candidate Jose Serra, and Rousseff is already gaining ground.

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23/05/2012 - CANADA

Students in Quebec march against tuition fee hike

Student protests in the Canadian province Quebec are into their fourth month. Hundreds were arrested at marches to mark 100 days since the protests began. Students are demonstrating against an 80 percent rise in tuition fees in Quebec, the Canadian province that has until now enjoyed the country's lowest rates for higher education.

23/05/2012 - EGYPT

Egyptians head to the polls

Egyptians go to the polls in the country's first truly contested presidential election on Wednesday. With an array of candidates to choose from, voters will decide who's the best man to lead them through the last phase of the country's troubled democratic transition that began with Egypt's revolution in January last year. Cairo correspondents Kathryn Stapley and Sonia Dridi talked to some of the activists whose protests in Tahrir Square changed the course of Egypt's history.

22/05/2012 - EGYPT

A troubling time for Egypt's Coptic Christians

Egyptians go to the polls tomorrow to vote for a new president for the first time since Hosni Mubarak was ousted during the revolution last year. Two of the front-runners in the presidential race with a realistic chance of winning are devout Islamists, which is troubling for Egypt's Coptic Christians. They are Egypt's largest religious minority and many of them don't think any of the candidates are capable of protecting them from the religious violence that has been steadily increasing.

22/05/2012 - WEST BANK

'The Battle of the Empty Stomachs'

Palestinians nicknamed it "the battle of the empty stomachs". For weeks, 1,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails refused food and drink in what became the longest ever mass hunger strike. Israel finally capitulated and a deal was reached, allowing those in isolation back onto the general wards, and visas for those family members wishing to visit from Gaza. In exchange, prisoners agreed not to carry out "security activities" such as recruiting for terrorist missions.

21/05/2012 - SERBIA

Serbia's new president - nationalist or not?

Serbia has elected a new president - and it's not the one that most people were expecting. Tomislav Nikolic has unseated Boris Tadic, the man in power since 2004. Observers are worried about the new head of state, who used to be part of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party. He once said he would prefer to be allied with Russia than join the EU, but he has since toned down the rhetoric, saying he will take Serbia to Europe after all.

Comments (3)

Brazilian Opinion

by Anonyme - 26/10/2010 - 03:19

Whoever wrote previous comments doesn't know the real political scenario in Brazil. I'm a brazilian who lives in Sao Paulo and what I can say is that Dilma's and her political party (PT - Partido dos Trabalhadores or Workers Party) are trying to use an well known mechanism. The mechanism consists in gradually replace representative democracy by direct democracy. The real intention is to devalue, to minimize the institutions that represent the people, as Legislative, Judicial, military, prosecutors, police, press, etc., transferring "power" for NGOs, social movements, unions, pension funds, state, etc., infiltrated by supporters of the new regime, and possibly utilizing referendums and plebiscites (voting is compulsory in Brazil and is easy to manipulate poor people votes in exchange for any small personal benefit). No need to wear, and not assume the burden of a direct combat against representative democracy, simply make it irrelevant, without voice. This kind of action has been practiced for decades. The goal is to reach a point where the "public outcry" will "require" a new regime. Simple as that. Until then, they will keep up appearances of democracy when in fact we will be in a dictatorship.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

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The interviewed IS an opposition's representant

by Anonyme - 03/09/2010 - 17:12

It is important to say that VEJA Magazine is considered the own opposition in Brazil. Three families in Brazil have 75% of the press (TV, Radio, etc.), and they represent the right. I suggest you to bring always two visions of the facts. José Serra is a big risk for brazilian economy. He is the kind of guy who believes it can solve everything. He also is known as a terrible oppositor (dark night moves).

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Ribeiro is talking what his

by Anonyme - 03/08/2010 - 22:27

Ribeiro is talking what his employers tell him to say, Serra's government in São Paulo was a fiasco, with no significant progress in any level, it was timid and unresponsive to major problems such as public security, health or education. São Paulo, the richest state in Brazil has the 14th rank in education, the police is ineffective and widely affected in corruption and undiscriminated violence. I don't know where Veja's correspondent found element to declare Serra as the most prepared to be the next president in Brazil.

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