United States Vice President Joe Biden is planning to be among the crowds at this summer's World Cup soccer tournament. The White House announced Monday that Biden would travel to Brazil for the event in June. He also plans to attend a U.S. national team game.
A team of French and Brazilian researchers warn that chikungunya virus is poised to invade, and become epidemic in the Americas according to research published ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.
A dozen people were hurt and 27 arrested Friday in clashes between police and some of the roughly 5,000 squatters occupying a vacant industrial property in Rio do Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city. Militants among the squatters set fire to several vehicles including a police patrol as they sought to remain on the site in the impoverished Engenho Novo neighborhood just steps away from the iconic Maracana stadium.
Brazilian TV is showing footage of a woman being robbed while being interviewed on television about crime near Rio de Janeiro’s main train station. The images of the interview conducted Wednesday by TV Globo were posted on its G1 internet news portal and come just a few weeks before the beginning of the World Cup.
The metropolis of Sao Paulo may have to ration water this year if reservoir levels are not replenished, Brazil's largest water and sewage utility said, an increasing possibility as the southeast region heads into its dry season.
As if problems with the delayed stadiums was not enough, and with less than 10 weeks until the start of the World Cup, work on crucial new airport terminals has fallen behind in most of the dozen Brazilian host cities, heightening the risk of overcrowding and confusion during the tournament.
With only 68 days to the World Cup some 2,700 Brazilian troops seized control Saturday of the Mare favela, shantytowns complex, which is considered Rio de Janeiro's last major drug-gang stronghold and located in a strategic area for security reasons: a through area for the city's airport and the Maracaná stadium.
Uruguay's Football Association (AUF) has been suspended by South American soccer body CONMEBOL, a move the AUF said did not affect the national team's participation at the World Cup. The announcement Uruguay would be in Brazil was confirmed by statements from FIFA president Joseph Blatter from Costa Rica.
Brazilian police backed by troops occupied a massive favela next to Rio de Janeiro's international airport without firing a shot to secure one of the city's most violent neighborhoods long run by drug dealers.
The Brazilian government announced on Monday, 80 days before the start of the 2014 World Cup, that the military will help occupy several favelas, or shantytowns, in Rio de Janeiro to guarantee security in an area currently controlled by violent drug trafficking outfits where some 100,000 people live.