President of Brazil

In 1889 the presidential system of Government started in Brazil. In Brazil, the President is both head of the government and head of the state. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the present president of Brazil from the Worker's Party or Partido dos Trabalhadores. The current President of Brazil is elected for a term of 4 years. The present president was elected in 2000. He was again reelected for a term of another five years from (2007- 2011). In the 2000 presidential elections Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva got about 56.7 million votes. He becomes the first president of Brazil to get the most number of votes in the history of Brazil. Again in 2006 presidential elections he bagged about 58.2 million votes. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the 39th president of Brazil.

The powers, requirements, responsibilities of the President of Brazil are established in the Brazilian Constitution (1988) along with its different constitutional amendments. The duties and powers enjoyed by a Brazilian President are as follows:

# He is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces
# Responsibility of appointing the Cabinet
# Responsibility of appointing the Supreme Federal Tribunal's judges
# He acts as the representative of Brazil abroad
# Controlling the government
# Significant law making powers

The requirements to become a President of Brazil according to the 1988 constitution are as follows:

# He must be 35 years of age
# He must be a citizen( native born) of Brazil
# Resident of Brazil
# He must be an elector with all the electoral rights and he must belong to a political party

Long Island Railroad

Lirr, The travelers were stranded and frustrated at Penn Station Long Island yesterday after rail service was halted in both directions due to switch problems.

A fire which occurred just before 11 knocked out a switch to the east of Jamaica Station, which affects all lines except for the Port Washington line. The lines serve between 230,000 and 240,000 people a day, according to the LIRR.

“I am more than frustrated, aggravated me,” said Anthony Sabato, 23, at Penn Station, which had been trying to get to West Islip from 10:30 am

Pilaccio Nick, 58, who had just finished working a shift from 4 am to 12:30 pm at the Post Office on the street and was anxious to get home to Babylon, said, “is a very bad problem” .

Long Island Rail Road officials said they did not know how soon the train lines are running again.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is honoring LIRR fares.