Brazilians are hoarding water in their apartments, drilling homemade wells and taking other emergency measures to prepare for forced rationing that appears likely and could leave taps dry for up to five days a week because of a drought.
The new chief executive officer of Brazil's Petrobras said on Tuesday that he has full autonomy to dictate its own fuel-pricing policy and protect cash, even as he questioned the size of losses stemming from a giant corruption scandal.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's popularity has plunged by nearly half since her recent re-election as a severe government corruption scandal, an economic slowdown and surging prices for electricity, gasoline and bus fares left voters feeling misled.
Brazilian federal police said on Thursday they had started questioning João Vaccari Neto, the treasurer of the country's ruling Workers' Party, as a corruption probe focused on state-run oil company Petrobras widened to include political figures.
