Brazilian Leader Implicated

The owner of the restaurant concession in Brazil’s lower house admitted in a news conference that he made monthly payments to Severino Cavalcanti, the pro-government president of the Chamber of Deputies. Sebastião Augusto Buani, the restaurant’s owner, says he bargained with Cavalcanti to reduce the payments by one-third to $5,400 a year. A votes-for-bribes and campaign funding scandal has engulfed the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva since June.