In brief: Poll finds plunging support for Rousseff

SAO PAULO – Public approval of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government has suffered a steep drop in the weeks since massive protests broke out across this country, according to Brazil’s first nationwide poll released since the unrest began.

For the first time, polling shows she would be forced into a second-round runoff vote in next year’s presidential election.

Published Saturday by Folha de S. Paulo, the country’s biggest newspaper, the Datafolha survey found 30 percent of respondents rated Rousseff’s government as “great/good,” a sharp fall from the 57 percent who gave it that rating three weeks ago.

Biden, Correa discuss asylum for Snowden

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden has spoken with Ecuador’s president about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s request for asylum in Ecuador, the White House said.

Biden and President Rafael Correa had a wide-ranging conversation Friday, a spokeswoman said, without providing more details.

The U.S. believes Snowden is holed up in a Moscow airport’s transit zone. He may be waiting to see whether Ecuador or another country may grant him asylum. Snowden is charged with violating American espionage laws.

Rights panel affirms forces’ atrocities

LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission says it has credible reports security forces are killing, torturing, illegally detaining and raping civilians in fighting an Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria. The extremists have killed more than 1,600 people since 2010.

A new report says troops also have torched homes and tried to hide evidence of gross violations by disposing of bodies.

The government body issued an interim report Sunday saying its investigators are unable to visit the area where soldiers have cut mobile phone and Internet connections in a military emergency covering one-sixth of the sprawling country, Africa’s most populous.