Over in Brazil,... former Brazilian President "Lula" da Silva has been banned from running in elections this year, after the appeals court upheld the corruption-related convictions on Wednesday local time.

The court's verdict was delivered in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where thousands of his supports gathered, as da Silva vehemently denied the corruption charges, stating that he's a victim of political witch-hunt to stop him from running. This comes after he was found guilty of accepting a luxury apartment and refurbishments worth more than 1-million US dollars as a bribe, to secure lucrative contracts for construction firm OAS with Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras. With the latest decision,... his initial sentence of 9 years and 6 months has been increased to 12 years and 1 month.