Rio do Janeiro that will host the 2014 World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016 is watched by an estimated 700.000 cameras from private security systems, revealed on Sunday O'Globo one of Brazil's main media conglomerates. According to a report from the Electronic Security Systems companies, the market expands 10% annually and there is one camera for every nine 'cariocas'.
Fears about disruption to next year's World Cup have been raised after the key global football conference Soccerex was cancelled for disputed reasons. Soccerex organizers said Rio de Janeiro's state government had called off next month's event due to concerns about ongoing civil unrest in Brazil.
With one lab suspended and its replacement unfinished, Brazil won't be able to handle drug testing for the 2014 World Cup alone and is looking overseas for help. The executive director of the country's anti-doping authority said the new lab in Rio de Janeiro should be running a year before the 2016 Olympics. But, Marco Aurelio Klein added, the lab won't be ready for the World Cup next June and July.
Around 400,000 Roman Catholics have joined a Tuesday evening ceremony on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to mark the opening of World Youth Day. The highlight of the festival will be a visit on Thursday by Pope Francis.
Rio de Janeiro was the stage for violent protests centred at Palacio Guanabara where earlier in the day Pope Francis had been received by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The incidents occurred Monday night during a demonstration against Rio state governor Sergio Cabral which convened an estimated 1.500 people according to the police.
Pope Francis will not use bullet-proof ‘Pope-mobiles’ on his visit to Brazil next week to allow him more direct contact with crowds despite the security risks, according to a Vatican release.
Brazil's biggest protests in two decades intensified on Thursday despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations, as over 300,000 people took to the streets of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and tens of thousands more flooded an estimated one hundred cities.
Brazil's two biggest cities agreed to revoke an increase in public transportation fares that set off demonstrations that have grown into nationwide protests against poor public services, inflation, corruption and lavish spending in stadiums to host global events.
Demonstrators clashed with police in central Rio do Janeiro on Monday evening as more than 200,000 people turned out to the streets of major Brazilian cities to protest the billions of dollars spent on the Confederations Cup, higher public transport costs, corruption and poor services.
More than a hundred people were arrested and dozens wounded as police in Sao Paulo clashed with activists on Thursday night in the latest and most rowdy in a rising tide of protests against bus, metro and train fare increases in Brazil.