World

PEDERNALES/PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador — The death toll from Ecuador's worst earthquake in decades rose to 350 on Monday while traumatised survivors rested amid the rubble of their homes and rescuers dug for survivors in the Andean nation's shattered coastal region.

At least 2,068 people were also injured in Saturday's 7.8 magnitude quake, which ripped apart buildings and roads and knocked out power.

Giving the new tally of fatalities from the city of Portoviejo inside the disaster zone, President Rafael Correa told Reuters he feared the number would rise even further.

"Reconstruction will cost billions of dollars," he also said, chatting with victims and appearing deeply moved as he toured the shattered town in the OPEC nation whose economy was already reeling from the global slump in crude oil prices .

Further north, in the beach locality of Pedernales, survivors curled up on mattresses or plastic chairs next to flattened homes. Soldiers and police patrolled the hot, dark streets overnight while pockets of rescue workers plowed on.

At one point, firefighters entered a partially destroyed house to search for three children and a man apparently trapped inside, as a crowd of 40 gathered in the darkness to watch.

"My little cousins are inside. Before, there were noises, screams. We must find them," pleaded Isaac, 18, as the firemen combed the debris.

Tents sprang up in the town's still-intact stadium to store bodies, treat the injured, and distribute water, food, and blankets. Survivors wandered around with bruised limbs and bandaged cuts, while those with more serious injuries were evacuated to hospitals.

While the full extent of the damage remains unclear, the disaster is dreadful news for Ecuador's economy, which was already forecast for near-zero growth this year due to plunging oil income.

The energy industry appeared largely intact although the main refinery of Esmeraldas was closed as a precaution. However, exports of bananas, flowers, cocoa beans and fish could be slowed by ruined roads and port delays.

The quake could also alter political dynamics ahead of next year's presidential election.

The government's response seemed relatively speedy, with Vice President Jorge Glas flying into the disaster zone within hours and Correa coming straight back from a trip in Italy.

But some survivors complained about lack of electricity and supplies, and aid had still not reached some areas.

Aftershocks

About 230 aftershocks have rattled survivors, who huddled in the streets, worried the tremors could topple their already cracked homes.

"We're scared of being in the house," said Yamil Faran, 47, surrounded by some 30 people in a street in Portoviejo. "When ... the aftershocks stop, we're going to see if we can repair it."

About 130 inmates in Portoviejo took advantage of the destruction and chaos to climb over the collapsed walls of the low-security El Rodeo Prison. More than 35 had been recaptured, authorities said Sunday night.

On Monday, people swarmed into the middle of Portoviejo in search of any materials of value among destroyed buildings, including a social security office. Desks and papers lay strewn around as locals carried off aluminum window frames and cables.

"I have to take some advantage from this horrible tragedy. I need money to buy food. There's no water, no light, and my house was destroyed," said Jorge Espinel, 40, who works in the recycling business.

About 13,500 security personnel were mobilized to keep order.

Some $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.

Domestic aid funds were being set up and Venezuela, Chile and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies.

The Ecuadorean Red Cross mobilised more than 800 volunteers and staff and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was sending a team from Colombia.

Two Canadians were among the dead. Jennifer Mawn, 38, and her 12-year-old son, Arthur, died when the roof of their coastal residence collapsed.

Residents on the Galapagos Islands, far off Ecuador's coast and home to numerous rare species, said they had not been affected by the quake.

The tremor followed two large and deadly quakes that have struck Japan since Thursday. Both countries are on the seismically active "Ring of Fire" that circles the Pacific, but the US Geological Survey says large quakes separated by such distances would probably not be related.

MANTA, Ecuador —The death toll from Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades soared to at least 233 on Sunday as rescuers using tractors and bare hands hunted desperately for survivors in shattered coastal towns.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and collapsing buildings and roads in a swathe of western towns.

President Rafael Correa, who was rushing home from a trip to Italy, said the confirmed number of fatalities rose on Sunday to 233. "The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble," he said via Twitter.

More than 1,500 people were injured, authorities said.

Coastal areas nearest the quake were worst affected, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees. Information was scant from there due to poor communications and transport chaos.

"There are people trapped in various places and we are starting rescue operations," Vice President Jorge Glas said on Sunday morning before boarding a plane to the area.

A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

"There are villages totally devastated," Pedernales' Mayor Gabriel Alcivar told local radio, adding that "dozens and dozens" had died in the rustic zone.

"What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic."

Pedernales 'destroyed'

Authorities said there were 135 aftershocks in the Pedernales area.

One photo on social media purporting to be the entrance to Pedernales showed a torn up road with a crushed car in the middle and people standing behind.

Local TV station Televicentro broadcast images from Pedernales showing locals using a small tractor to remove rubble and also search with their hands for people buried underneath. Women cried after a corpse was pulled out. Locals said children were trapped.

One man begged for help: "Pedernales is destroyed."

In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, rubble lay in the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car.

"It was terrifying, we were all scared and we're still out in the streets because we're worried about aftershocks," said Guayaquil security guard Fernando Garcia.

About 13,500 security force personnel were mobilised to keep order around Ecuador, and $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.

Ramon Solorzano, 46, a car parts merchant in the coastal city of Manta, said he was leaving with his family. Photos from Manta showed Red Cross workers arriving, police hunting through debris, a smashed sculpture and badly-damaged buildings.

"Most people are out in the streets with backpacks on, heading for higher ground," Solorzano said, speaking in a trembling voice on a WhatsApp phone call. "The streets are cracked. The power is out and phones are down."

Worst quake since 1979

Parts of the highland capital Quito were without power or phone service for several hours but the city government said those services had been restored and there were no reports of casualties in the city.

The government called it the worst quake in the country since 1979. In that disaster, 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Among international aid, Venezuela and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies, the Correa government said.

A tsunami warning was lifted on Saturday night but coastal residents were urged to seek higher ground in case tides rise.

"At first it was light, but it lasted a long time and got stronger," said Maria Jaramillo, 36, a resident of Guayaquil, describing windows breaking and pieces falling off roofs.

"I was on the seventh floor and the light went off in the whole sector, and we evacuated. People were very anxious in the street... We left barefoot."

The OPEC member said oil production was not affected, but closed its main refinery of Esmeraldas, located near the epicentre, as a precautionary measure.

BRUSSELS — Around 7,000 people in Brussels marched against militant violence on Sunday, nearly a month after suicide blasts on Europe's institutional capital left 32 dead and several hundred injured, police said.

A group of around 6,000 people left the Gare du Nord Railway Station and were to team up in central Brussels with around 1,000 marchers who started off from Molenbeek, the rundown Brussels district that has gained an unwelcome reputation as a militant haven.

The rally — "A march against terror and hatred" — was organised by civil groups, who had hoped for a turnout of 15,000.

"When our fellow citizens, defenceless civilians, are cut down in a cowardly attack, all citizens should stand up to express their disgust and solidarity," said Hassan Bousetta, a local councillor in the city of Liege, who helped organise the march, told AFP.

"It is a moment of reflexion, a message of compassion for the victims and a moment when citizens come together."

Bearing a banner marked, in French and Flemish, "#alltogether against hatred and terror," the main group of marchers was led by families of the victims, followed by representatives from the various religious communities. 

A dozen members of an association for inter-religious dialogue carried a banner marked "Together in peace", adorned with drawings of doves. A Muslim group carried a placard reading, "Love is my religion and my faith”.

A fire truck, its beacons flashing, symbolised the role of emergency services after the attack, fire service spokesman Pierre Meyes said.

In the group that left Molenbeek, a group of children chanted, "Daesh, off you go, Brussels isn't for you!"

Thirty-two people were killed in the three March 22 bomb attacks, which targeted Zaventem airport and a subway train near the European Union institutions in central Brussels.

The violence tore at Belgium's social fabric, already weakened along linguistic lines between francophones and Dutch-speaking Flemings, and stirred anguished debate about the emergence of militants among the country's Muslim underclass.

On Saturday, Interior Minister Jan Jambon — who has been criticised for his handling of security — said a "significant section of the Muslim population danced" when the attacks took place.

Jambon also accused Muslim residents of Molenbeek of attacking police during an operation last month to arrest a suspect in connection with the deadly attacks in Paris last November.

"They threw stones and bottles at police and press during the arrest of Salah Abdeslam. This is the real problem. Terrorists we can pick up, remove from society. But they are just a boil. Underneath is a cancer that is much more difficult to treat. We can do it, but it won't be overnight," he said.

The march, an initiative gathering more than 100 associations, was initially to have taken place on March 27, but was scrapped at the authorities' behest for security reasons. 

THE HAGUE — From ruling on nuclear testing to bitter border disputes or whether whales can be hunted in Antarctica, the UN's highest tribunal the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is celebrating 70 years of far-reaching global decision-making.

But after seven decades the respected court remains hamstrung in any bid to intervene in the 21st century's most pressing conflicts so far, analysts say.

The ICJ can only rule in disputes when both the countries involved have accepted its jurisdiction, thereby placing conflicts such as the fight by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine beyond its reach. 

A special sitting of the court will be held on Wednesday in the presence of UN chief Ban Ki-moon to mark the 70th anniversary of its opening in the imposing Peace Palace in The Hague.

Set up in 1946 after World War II, the ICJ's 15-judge bench, elected for a term of nine years, is seen as the final word in rows between states and an impartial arbiter when quarrels erupt between neighbours.

"The ICJ has helped settle international disputes involving territorial issues, diplomatic relations, hostage-taking and economic rights," said Aaron Matta, senior researcher at the Hague Institute for Global Justice think-tank.

It has "also served, albeit to a limited extent, as an instrument to protect human rights, but also jurisprudence to meet challenges such as threats to the environment", Matta told AFP.

Because of jurisdictional issues however "in some ways, the court is arguably best suited to low-level or moderate conflicts — these are the ones that more frequently come before it”, said Cecily Rose, assistant law professor at Leiden University.

Also, unlike its younger relative the International Criminal Court, the ICJ does not rule on criminal cases arising out of conflicts.

When states fight 

Back in 1947 when judges steeped themselves in the first case to be brought to the ICJ, the horrors and devastation of World War II were still uppermost in many people's minds. 

Britain sued Albania after two destroyers hit sea mines laid during the war in the Corfu channel near the eponymous Mediterranean island, killing 45 sailors.

In its first judgement, the ICJ held Albania responsible for the explosions, but also ruled that Britain violated Tirana's sovereignty when it subsequently embarked on a mine-clearing operation.

Albania was ordered to pay London £843,947 in compensation — some £29 million (36 million euros/$40 million) in today's money.

Many of some 200 decisions handed down by the ICJ since then were born out of bilateral tensions which the tribunal has helped resolve.

One of the ICJ's biggest achievements "is the number of conflicts that have been avoided thanks to the court", the court's deputy president, Somalian judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said recently.

"I think this is something this court can be proud of," added ICJ president, French judge Ronny Abraham during a rare meeting with reporters.

They cited the example of a long-standing spat between Cambodia and Thailand over access to the ancient temple of Preah Vihear.

In 2013, the court ruled that most of the area around the flashpoint site on the Thai border belonged to Cambodia, ordering Thai security forces to leave.

Cambodia welcomed the ruling, while Thailand said it accepted and withdrew its troops.

The ICJ has also played a major role in hearing cases on global nuclear testing.

Recently the tiny Marshall Islands — scene of US-led atomic tests — sued the world's major nuclear powers aiming to shine a new spotlight on the nuclear threat. The case is ongoing.

Limited jurisdiction 

In what was seen as a major symbolic victory for environmentalists, the ICJ ruled in 2014 that Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic was a commercial activity disguised as science, after Australia brought a case against Tokyo.

Last month however, activists accused Japan of an "empty response" after Tokyo resumed its Antarctic chase, killing 333 whales.

"There certainly would be more festering, long-term disputes between states," had it not been for the ICJ, said Leiden University's Rose.

"It would of course be great to see more disputes about critical ongoing conflicts submitted to... third parties like the ICJ. But the states have to consent to this in some way," she said.

Olivier Ribbelink, senior researcher at the respected Hague-based Asser Institute, said "states respect the court's rulings because they have confidence in the ICJ's impartiality and its carefully-considered judgements”.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's army on Saturday took over an operation to dislodge a criminal gang holding 24 hostages on its island hideout in the prosperous province of Punjab, the military's spokesman said.

The security operation involving more than 1,600 security forces is now in its eleventh day and is an unprecedented use of force by the military in Punjab, which is the political power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The head of the army's publicity wing, General Asim Bajwa, announced that the army had been officially deployed to flush gangsters from the 10km long island in the centre of the Indus River.

"Army troops deployed. Take over charge of op," Bajwa said in a tweet. "Cordon reinforced, Police&Rangers already in op will cont to participate under Army."

On Friday, the Punjab law minister had given the gang 48 hours to surrender or "be wiped out".

Pakistani TV stations reported early on Saturday that the head of the gang, Ghulam Rasool, also known as Chotu, a longtime criminal active in the border areas of the provinces of Punjab and Sindh, had surrendered. But the reports could not be independently confirmed and the army's latest announcement indicated that the siege was ongoing in the afternoon.

While Pakistan's attention has for years been focused on the Taliban and Al Qaeda threat on the Afghan border in the remote northwest, militants and criminals have quietly expanded their influence and won recruits in the country's heartland of Punjab.

At least six police officials have been killed in the battle for the island, launched in a sweeping crackdown after a Taliban suicide bombing killed 72 people in Lahore, the provincial capital, last month.

It was unclear just how many members of the "Chotu Group", blamed for hundreds of cases of kidnapping for ransom, murder and robbery, were trapped on the island but police said their families were believed to be accompanying them.

A police spokeswoman said seven of the gang's leaders had been killed by police and eight injured, while six police officials had died and seven were hurt in clashes. Policemen were among the 24 hostages.

The battle is taking place near Rajanpur, one of the poorest districts in Punjab, where the Panjnad River flows into the Indus, Pakistan's lifeline.

Previous military crackdowns have focused on the lawless tribal regions where the Taliban and other militants are based. Paramilitary Rangers also launched a crackdown on criminals in the violent southern port city of Karachi in 2013.

BRASÍLIA — Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff fought for her political life on Saturday, lobbying lawmakers to defeat a looming impeachment vote while lashing out at "corrupt" critics seeking to oust her.

On the eve of the vote in the lower house of Congress, the 68-year-old leftist leader published a searing column reaffirming her belief that she was the victim of a “coup”.

"They want to convict an innocent woman and save the corrupt," Rousseff wrote in the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.

The political crisis is threatening to destabilise Latin America's biggest economy as it struggles through a crippling recession and prepares to host the Rio Olympics in four months.

Rousseff had planned to address supporters camped out at the Mane Garrincha stadium in Brasilia on Saturday, but she cancelled her appearance in order to press her case with legislators.

"She will stay [at her official residence] for the last negotiations for Sunday's vote," a presidential advisor told AFP.

Organisers hope that more than 100,000 will gather at the rally and the support camp this weekend.

"We came to join the defence of democracy and the government that was legitimately elected in 2014," said Tiago Almeida, 35, a metal worker from the state of Sao Paulo who has been at the camp for days.

Pro, anti-Rousseff rallies 

Rousseff's opponents also plan rallies over the weekend.

Police tightly guarded the area around Congress, which was surrounded with metal barriers.

Pro- and anti-Rousseff rallies are also planned in other cities on Sunday, including the economic capital Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where the Summer Olympics will be held in August.

Lower house lawmakers debated the impeachment on Saturday and were due to vote late Sunday on whether to call for an impeachment trial.

Rousseff faces charges that she illegally used creative accounting to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 reelection. 

She accepts the accusations but defends her behavior by saying that previous governments used similar measures.

In a rowdy opening session on Friday, the government's top lawyer Jose Eduardo Cardozo drew noisy complaints when he repeated Rousseff's claim that the impeachment drive was a coup.

Cardozo said the government was considering further legal appeals.

"This is a historic process, there's no doubt," said House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, one of the leaders of the push to remove Rousseff. 

Cunha has his own problems: he has been charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes linked to a massive embezzlement cartel centred on state oil company Petrobras. He also allegedly hid the money in Swiss bank accounts.

The pro-impeachment camp appears to have the two-thirds majority — 342 out of 513 votes — needed to pass the impeachment motion up to the senate, according to a tally by Brazilian newspapers.

If that happens, Rousseff will be sent to trial in the senate in a process expected to last months.

"The government will fight until the last minute... to foil this coup attempt," Rousseff vowed on Thursday.

The president's governing coalition has been crumbling, starting with the defection of Vice President Michel Temer's PMDB Party.

"We have come to a decisive phase in this process and the best thing for the country is to have a result on Sunday, whatever it might be," said Leonardo Picciani, PMDB congressional leader.

"We have to turn the page and not waste more time in political battles and disputes," he told AFP.

Lobbying against impeachment 

Temer will become interim president if the trial starts in the Senate, and Rousseff would have to step down for six months during the proceedings.

If the senate then voted by a two-thirds majority to impeach her, she would be ousted and Temer would remain president for the rest of the term — until 2018.

Opposition lawmaker Paulinho da Forca told reporters Friday she had already been discussing "the future government" with "president" Temer.

Meanwhile, Rousseff's top ally and predecessor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, rallied support for her in a video message.

"We are going to defeat impeachment, and end this crisis once and for all," he said.

Lula also faces corruption allegations linked to the graft scandal at state oil company Petrobras. 

Rousseff got support Friday from the visiting head of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro. 

The OAS "has made a detailed analysis of the impeachment process against Dilma and has concluded that it does not fit within the rules that govern this process", Almagro said.

"There is no criminal accusation against the president, rather she has been accused of the poor administration of public resources in 2014. This is an accusation that is political in character and that does not merit an impeachment process."

The Uruguayan diplomat said that there was concern over the fate of the most populous democracy in Latin America.

"Brazil has always been an example of democracy in the Hemisphere, and we all need for it to continue to be so," he told reporters after meeting with Rousseff.

TOKYO — Japanese rescuers were digging through the rubble of buildings and mud on Saturday to reach dozens believed trapped after a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck a southern island, killing at least 32 people and injuring about a thousand.

The shallow earthquake hit in the early hours, sending people fleeing from their beds on to dark streets, and followed a 6.4 magnitude quake on Thursday which killed nine people in the area. Rain and cold were forecast overnight, adding extra urgency to the rescue effort.

Television footage showed fires, power outages, collapsed bridges, a severed road hanging over a ravine and gaping holes in the earth. Residents near a dam were told to leave because of fears it might crumble, broadcaster NHK said.

"I felt strong shaking at first, then I was thrown about like I was in a washing machine," said a Tokai University student who remains isolated in the village of Minamiaso in Kumamoto province on the island of Kyushu.

"All the lights went out and I heard a loud noise. A lot of gas is leaking and while there hasn't been a fire, that remains a concern," the student, who is sheltering in a university gym with 1,000 other students and residents, told Japanese media.

Many frightened people wrapped in blankets sat outside their homes while others camped out in rice fields in rural areas surrounding the main towns. About 422,000 households were without water and about 100,000 without electricity, the government said. Troops were setting up tents for evacuees and water trucks were being sent to the area.

The national police agency said 32 people were confirmed dead. The government said about 190 of those injured were in serious condition.

Heavy rain and wind were forecast, with temperature expected to drop to 13°C overnight. Firefighters handed out tarpaulins to residents so they could cover damaged roofs.

"The wind is expected to pick up and rain will likely get heavier," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a government meeting. "Rescue operations at night will be extremely difficult ... It's a race against time."

Self-defence forces personnel in the town of Mashiki, close to the epicentre, were providing food and water.

"I don't mind standing in line. I'm just thankful for some food," said a man in his 60s waiting for a meal.

Japan is on the seismically active "ring of fire" around the Pacific Ocean and has building codes aimed at helping structures withstand earthquakes.

A magnitude 9 quake in March 2011 north of Tokyo touched off a massive tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, contaminating water, food and air for kilometres around. Nearly 20,000 people were killed in the tsunami.

The epicentre of Saturday's quake was near the city of Kumamoto and measured at a shallow depth of 10 km (six miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage.

The quake triggered a tsunami advisory which was later lifted and no irregularities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the area, a senior government official said.

Tsunami alert lifted

The city's 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle was badly damaged, with its walls breached after having withstood bombardment and fire in its four centuries of existence.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, speaking at a G20 event in Washington, said it was too early to assess the economic impact but bank operations in Kumamoto were normal.

The USGS, which is a government scientific body, estimated that there was a 72 per cent likelihood of economic damage exceeding $10 billion, adding that it was too early to be specific. Major insurers are yet to release estimates.

Electronics giant Sony Corp said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers would remain closed while it assessed the damage from the quakes. One of its major customers is Apple which uses the sensors in iPhones.

Toyota Motor Corp. halted production at three plants producing vehicles, engines and trans axles in Fukuoka. Toyota said there was no damage at its plants, but it was checking the status of its suppliers. It will decide on Sunday whether to resume production.

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. stopped production at its Fukuoka plant which produces vehicles including the Serena, Teana, Murano and Note.

South Korea said it had rented five buses to transport 200 South Korean tourists stranded in Oita, to the east of Kumamoto.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said nearly 80 people were believed trapped or buried in rubble. Rescuers managed to pull 10 students out of a collapsed university apartment in the town of Minami on Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp has sued the US government for the right to tell its customers when a federal agency is looking at their e-mails, the latest in a series of clashes over privacy between the technology industry and Washington.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in federal court in the Western District of Washington, argues that the government is violating the US Constitution by preventing Microsoft from notifying thousands of customers about government requests for their e-mails and other documents.

The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The government's actions contravene the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, the suit argues, and the First Amendment right to free speech.

Microsoft's suit focuses on the storage of data on remote servers, rather than locally on people's computers, which Microsoft says has provided a new opening for the government to access electronic data.

Using the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the government is increasingly directing investigations at the parties that store data in the so-called cloud, Microsoft says. The 30-year-old law has long drawn scrutiny from technology companies and privacy advocates who say it was written before the rise of the commercial Internet and is, therefore, outdated.

"People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud," Microsoft says in the lawsuit, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. It adds that the government "has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations”.

The lawsuit represents the newest front in the battle between technology companies and the US government over how much private businesses should assist government surveillance.

By filing the suit, Microsoft is taking a more prominent role in that battle, dominated by Apple Inc. in recent months due to the government's efforts to get the company to write software to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in a December massacre in San Bernardino, California. Apple, backed by big technology companies including Microsoft, had complained that cooperating would turn businesses into arms of the state.

In its complaint, Microsoft says over the past 18 months it has received 5,624 legal orders under the ECPA, of which 2,576 prevented Microsoft from disclosing that the government is seeking customer data through warrants, subpoenas and other requests. Most of the ECPA requests apply to individuals, not companies, and provide no fixed end date to the secrecy provision, Microsoft said.

Microsoft and other companies won the right two years ago to disclose the number of government demands for data they receive. This case goes farther, requesting that it be allowed to notify individual businesses and people that the government is seeking information about them.

Increasingly, US companies are under pressure to prove they are helping protect consumer privacy. The campaign gained momentum in the wake of revelations by former government contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 that the government routinely conducted extensive phone and Internet surveillance to a much greater degree than believed.

Microsoft's lawsuit comes a day after a US congressional panel voted unanimously to advance a package of reforms to the ECPA.

Last-minute changes to the legislation removed an obligation for the government to notify a targeted user whose communications are being sought. Instead, the bill would require disclosure of a warrant only to a service provider, which retains the right to voluntarily notify users, unless a court grants a gag order.

BRASILIA —Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff resorted to the supreme court on Thursday in a last ditch attempt to avert likely defeat in a critical impeachment vote in congress that could lead to her removal from office.

Rousseff's attorney general, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, asked the top court for an injunction to suspend Sunday's lower house vote until the full court can rule on what he called procedural irregularities in the impeachment process.

Rousseff, already struggling with Brazil's worst economic crisis in decades and a historic corruption scandal, has lost support within her governing coalition. She faces the growing likelihood of defeat in the lower house vote, which would send her impeachment to the senate for trial on charges of breaking budget laws.

If the senate accepts her impeachment, Rousseff would be suspended and replaced by Vice President Michel Temer as soon as early May pending a trial that could last six months.

Brazil's largest political party, Rousseff's main coalition partner until it broke away two weeks ago, said most of its members in the lower house will back her impeachment.

Leonardo Picciani, the lower chamber leader for the party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, told reporters that 90 per cent of the 68 members of his caucus would vote to impeach Rousseff.

Rousseff met with her political advisers as her government scrambled to win over undecided voters to block impeachment, but defections by several centrist allies in her diminishing coalition have seriously compromised that effort.

Rousseff's opponents are just nine votes short of victory in the lower house, with 333 lawmakers backing impeachment, 124 opposed and 56 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.

Cardozo asked the supreme court to annul the report to the lower house by a congressional committee that recommended on Monday that Rousseff be impeached. He said her defence had been obstructed in the committee and that testimony from a plea bargain by a former ally turned critic, Senator Delcidio Amaral, should not have been added to the case.

Rousseff had not been expected to resort to the supreme court until after Sunday's vote. Cardozo's request for an injunction was seen as a sign her government now expects defeat.

KIEV — Ukraine's parliament on Thursday appointed pro-Western speaker Volodymyr Groysman as prime minister in a bid to end months of political gridlock and unlock vital aid to the war-tornstate.

Lawmakers voted by 257 to 50 to approve the resignation of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk — condemned by President Petro Poroshenko for losing the public's trust — and select Groysman in the first Cabinet overhaul since Ukraine's 2014 pro-EU revolt.

"We have to accelerate the pace of reforms. I would like to see this government restore the public's trust," the 38-year-old Poroshenko protege told deputies shortly before his confirmation.

Poroshenko himself called Groysman "a politician from a new generation" who could tackle "the real possibility of Ukraine turning into a state of chaos".

The appointment comes with Ukraine embroiled in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in the east that has claimed nearly 9,200 lives and suffering an economic meltdown that has erased people's savings and seen inflation soar above 40 per cent last year.

Ukraine's youngest-ever premier will also have to show quick returns on a fight against corruption that has permeated all levels of government and was one of the factors behind three months of protests that brought down the Russian-backed leadership in February 2014.

EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called Groysman's appointment "a crucial development at a time when new momentum in the country is badly needed”.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped the new government "will not be guided by some sort of phobias or act in the interest of foreign agencies" — a veiled reference to Brussels and Washington.

'Coalition builder' 

The fast-rising new Cabinet chief is a lawyer by training who only two years ago was a relative unknown serving as mayor of the small western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia.

He moved to Kiev and joined the government after the 2014 ouster of Ukraine's Moscow-backed leadership and the country's decision to strike a landmark EU trade and political association pact.

Groysman was elected to parliament on Poroshenko's party ticket in October 2014 and became speaker the following month.

He is seen as a coalition builder who has gained stature by keeping the notoriously rowdy parliament in relative peace.

But some economists worry that the mild-mannered Groysman may lack the toughness needed to stand up to a handful of tycoons who have dominated Ukrainian politics and made the former Soviet republic a breeding ground for graft.

"I do not believe that this government will drive reforms forward," Kiev's International Centre for Policy Studies analyst Anatoliy Oktysyuk told AFP.

"There are too many obstacles standing in his way."

The new government may draw further concern from investors because it no longer features the respected US-born former finance minister, Natalie Jaresko, or two other foreign technocrats Poroshenko enlisted in December 2014 to help stem Ukraine's economic nosedive.

Jaresko's post has been filled by Oleksandr Danylyuk — the deputy head of Poroshenko's administration whom Nomura International strategist Timothy Ash described as "progressive/technocratic".

Both Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak retain their posts in a government that will have a whopping six deputy premiers.

Yatsenyuk's fall from grace 

Yatsenyuk became prime minister days after the downfall of the Kremlin-backed regime and won renown for his scathing criticism of Russia during its March 2014 annexation of Crimea and the pro-Moscow insurrection that broke out weeks later.

But he saw his party's approval plunge to around 2 per cent due to a broad public perception that he was working in tandem with the very oligarchs who had enjoyed enormous clout under previous administrations and whose wings he had vowed to clip.

Yatsenyuk announced that he was quitting on Sunday — almost two months after surviving a no-confidence vote in parliament.

The Ukrainian government has been paralysed since the failed motion because Yatsenyuk's days seemed numbered and intense backroom battles raged over who would fill the new Cabinet's seats.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in February she could not see how funding — suspended since the end of last year because of Ukraine's failure to follow through on some of its economic pledges — could resume until a united new government is formed.