Brazil Senate committee votes to put president on trial

A Senate impeachment committeevoted on Thursday to put suspended Brazilian President DilmaRousseff on trial in the full chamber for breaking budget laws,opening the way for her to be removed from office.

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The 21-member committee voted 14-5 to try Rousseff forallegedly manipulating government accounts to allow more publicspending in the run-up to her 2014 re-election. The Senate willvote next Tuesday whether to accept the charges and begin thetrial that should reach a verdict at the end of the month.

Rousseff was suspended from office for 180 days in Mayby a Senate vote, with Michel Temer taking over as acting president.

The scandal is among the numerous problems including the Zika virus, deep budgets cuts, severe water pollution, slow ticket sales and rising fears around security plaguing Brazil in the run-up to the Olympic Games, which get underway on Friday.

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