Brazil's Rousseff denies offering hush money in graft case

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has rejected allegations that she sent one of her top ministers to bribe an arrested senator in exchange for his silence in a spiraling corruption case.
The leftist leader "vehemently and indignantly repudiates the attempt to associate her name with the personal initiative of Minister Aloizio Mercadante," Rousseff's office said yesterday in a statement after the accusation came to light in a plea bargain struck in the massive graft probe centered on state oil company Petrobras.