A former leftist militant who never before had run for elected office, Dilma Rousseff has become the first woman to be elected Brazil's president.
Dilma Rousseff will travel with the president Lula to the G20 summit in South Korea on November 10-12, where the leaders of the world's top economies will discuss global currency tensions.
Rousseff pledged in her victory speech to extend a "new era of prosperity" that has lifted 20 million Brazilians into the middle class and thrust the country into the BRIC club of emerging economic powers alongside Russia, India and China. She took 56 percent of the vote. Her rival, Jose Serra of the centrist PSDB party, had 44 percent. Rousseff will continue to push Lula's flagship initiatives, including reforms to give the state a greater role in developing vast new oil wealth and ambitious infrastructure plans as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics two years later. — Reuters
