RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff cruised through the final television debate with her presidential rival on Friday as another poll showed her heading for a convincing win in Sunday’s runoff election.

Opposition candidate Jose Serra had a last chance to win over undecided voters on Brazil’s most-watched channel, but he opted not to go on the attack in a debate that had no heated exchanges between the candidates.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian presidential candidate Jose Serra has a last chance to win over voters in a televised debate on Friday night after a new poll showed him trailing by double digits ahead of Sunday’s runoff election.

The Datafolha survey released on Friday showed ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff holding steady with a 10-point lead, dovetailing with other polls showing her on track to become the first woman to be elected Brazil’s president.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A severe drought has pushed river levels in Brazil’s Amazon region to record lows, leaving isolated communities dependent on emergency aid and thousands of boats stranded on parched riverbeds.

The drought fits a pattern of more extreme weather in the world’s largest rain forest in recent years and is, scientists say, an expected result of global warming. Last year, the region was hit by widespread flooding and in 2005 it endured a devastating drought.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – It has become a Saturday morning ritual of Brazil’s presidential race — party officials and journalists alike rush to the nearest newsstand, eager to see if this will be the edition of Veja magazine that brings down ruling party front-runner Dilma Rousseff.

The muckraking prowess of Brazil’s most-read magazine, which has already unearthed two major corruption scandals that damaged Rousseff, is likely the biggest remaining wild card in the race now that the ruling party candidate is pulling away in polls with a little over a week to go.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Brazil’s two presidential
candidates made their strongest appeals yet to religious voters
and sharpened attacks on each other on Friday as they drew
battle lines for this month’s runoff vote.

In her first television campaign slot since she narrowly
failed to win the election outright in Sunday’s first round,
Dilma Rousseff of the ruling Workers’ Party began by thanking
God and repeatedly mentioned her faith and “respect for life.”

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Dilma Rousseff’s failure to win enough votes in Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday to avoid a runoff has prolonged the campaign by four weeks and given opposition challenger Jose Serra renewed hope.

Following are some questions and answers on the election landscape and how the runoff vote on October 31 could play out.

SAO PAULO, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Dilma Rousseff’s failure to
win enough votes in Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday to
avoid a runoff has prolonged the campaign by four weeks and
given opposition challenger Jose Serra renewed hope.

Following are some questions and answers on the election
landscape and how the runoff vote on Oct. 31 could play out.