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       Brazil's Congress Names Impeachment Panel Stacked Against Rousseff

   by Reuters

   The lower house of Brazil's Congress voted Tuesday to appoint a
   committee stacked with opponents of President Dilma Rousseff to study
   whether to impeach her for breaking budget rules, a blow to the leftist
   leader battling for political survival.

   In a secret ballot, lawmakers voted 272-199 for a list of committee
   members drawn up by the opposition and pro-impeachment members of the
   centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), the biggest party
   in Rousseff's governing coalition.

   It was a clear defeat for Rousseff in the first battle of an
   impeachment process started last week that threatens to paralyze
   Congress for months, distracting policymakers from Brazil's worst
   recession in decades.

   The vote was also a slap in the face for the leader of the PMDB in the
   lower house, Leonardo Picciani, who has backed Rousseff since she
   appointed two ministers from his wing of the party to secure support
   and fend off impeachment.

   Picciani's loss of face in the high-profile secret vote underscored the
   deep divisions within his party, which has veered away from the
   government in recent months as the economy plunges and a vast
   corruption scandal rattles the capital.

   The sweeping investigation into bribery at state-run oil company
   Petroleo Brasileiro SA threatened to further strain Rousseff's fragile
   coalition Tuesday, as a veteran lawmaker in jail was reported to have
   decided to negotiate a plea bargain.