Curitiba, Brazil

Lula begins jail term: Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva surrendered to police last Saturday to begin a 12-year sentence for accepting favours from construction companies. Lula, a popular left-winger previously seen as a front runner in this year’s presidential election, denies the charges and says they are politically motivated. His imprisonment followed days of high drama. On Thursday, the supreme court voted to jail him, and set Friday as the deadline for Lula to hand himself in. For two days, however, he remained holed up in a union building in São Paolo, with crowds of supporters trying to stop him leaving to hand himself in. Hundreds have now set up a protest camp outside the prison in Curitiba where he has been taken to begin his sentence.