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| Dilma Rousseff: Brazilian president suspended as Senate votes for impeachment trial | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff has been suspended by the country's Senate and will now face an impeachment trial. | |
| The Senate voted in favour of putting Ms Rousseff on trial for breaking budget laws by 55 votes to 22. | |
| The was significantly higher than the simple majority of 41 votes needed to suspend her, suggesting she will face a struggle to return to power. | |
| Michel Temer, her vice-president, will become acting president during the trial. | Michel Temer, her vice-president, will become acting president during the trial. |
| Ms Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, has been accused of violating fiscal laws while closing gaps in the budget using money from state banks. | |
| However, she denies allegations of wrongdoing, and insists that the impeachment is politically motivated. | However, she denies allegations of wrongdoing, and insists that the impeachment is politically motivated. |
| The trial will determine whether she can serve out her second term and could last up to six months. | |
| For her to be ousted for good, she would have to be convicted by at least a two-thirds majority of the 81-seat Senate. | |
| Mr Temer would in theory serve out the remainer of her second term, which runs until the end of 2018. | |
| The vote ends more than 13 years of rule by the left-wing Workers Party, which rose from Brazil's labour movement and helped pull millions of people out of poverty - before seeing many of its leaders face corruption investigaitons. | |
| In addition to a towering budget deficit, equal to more than 10 percent of its annual economic output, Brazil is suffering from rising unemployment, plummeting investment and a projected economic contraction of more than three per cent this year. | |
| Additional reporting by agencies |