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Dozens of heavily armed commandos could be seen Thursday frisking residents and going house to house in the Mare complex of slumsElite special forces raided a slum in Rio de Janeiro Thursday after officers providing security at the Olympics made a wrong turn and encountered gunfire. One police officer was shot in the head, and was recovering at a local hospital. The officers from Brazil's national security force were using a GPS device to navigate unfamiliar streets when they took a wrong turn off a highway leading to Rio's international airport. Their truck was sprayed with bullets, and one officer,...

Brazil's microcephaly epidemic continues to pose a mystery -- if Zika is the culprit, why are there no similar epidemics in other countries also hit hard by the virus? In Brazil, the microcephaly rate soared with more than 1,500 confirmed cases. But in Colombia, a recent study of nearly 12,000 pregnant women infected with Zika found zero microcephaly cases. If Zika is to blame for microcephaly, where are the missing cases? Perhaps there is another reason for the epidemic in Brazil. According to a new report by the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), the number of missing cases in...

The 2016 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin today, but for some it has already begun with a bang. Upon their arrival in Rio, a bus full of Chinese basketball reporters was caught in a roadside gunfight. Six locals were killed in the exchange, but no Chinese casualties have been reported. Initially, the Chinese-language Basketball Magazine posted on Weibo that Chinese national basketball team players had been caught near the flurry of bullets, where they would have presumably suffered from flashbacks to their two exhibition matches against Team USA last month. However, Basketball Magazine later corrected this report. Upon arriving...

Brazen thieves have no fear as they snatch bags and phones from pedestrians wandering through the streets of the Olympic city. Rampant theft in broad daylight ..., sheer animals

NBC is interrupting the coverage of the opening ceremonies ever few minutes for at least three minutes of really BAD advertisements. But then the opening ceremonies are pretty bad themselves. . . among the worst of the modern era. How many of our Fellow Freepers are finding this as off-putting as I am? Then the Brazilians used it for a huge propaganda push for the dire consequences of Global Warming, not even "Climate Change!" Good Grief. . . Comments?

Full Title; Police fire tear gas at angry mobs outside Olympic opening ceremony as anti-Games demos hit cities across Brazil Police have fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting close to the Maracanã Stadium, where the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is under way. Protesters, many furious over the presence of Brazil's acting president Michel Temer at the ceremony, waved placards calling for his removal. Angry protest have also broken out in São Paulo, the country's largest city, where mobs demonstrated against overspending on the Olympic games during one of the country's worst economic crises in history.

Pele apologized for disappointing BraziliansPele says his poor health will keep him from lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics. In a statement on Friday, the 75-year-old soccer great says "I'm not physically able to attend the opening of the Olympics."

Odd as it may sound, Olympic competition once included art, and medalists included musicians, painters, and poets. One was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the 1912 Stockholm Games’ gold medalist in poetry and — by sheer coincidence, surely — also the modern games’ founder. “O sport,” the nobleman’s winning “Ode to Sport” waxed, “you are beauty,” and “audacity,” and the “pleasure of the gods.” A century on, the Olympics still embody beauty, but the audacity they now conjure is not what Coubertin had in mind, but a celebration of cheating and a saga of lost innocence — financially, athletically, and politically.

A Russian vice-consul shot and killed a robber who attacked him on Thursday afternoon in Rio de Janiero, according to Brazilian state run news agency Agencia Brasil. Media reports said the diplomat struggled with the robber during the attempted mugging, before managing to take the assailant's gun and shoot him. Russian state news agency TASS has published a report completely denying the shooting occurred, quoting Rio's Russian Consul General as saying the diplomat was not involved "in a shootout."

You "ARE" forgiven forever whether others forgive you or hold onto their guile "I" have forever set you free for I AM GOD and not man . So now walk in my forgiveness and take hold of this freedom and just fly for the Heavenlies "ARE REAL" and Zion is yours "Today" for you "ARE" seated with Me in Heavenly places even NOW ! Galatians 5:1 Walk by the Spirit 5 It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which...

Drivers in Rio de Janeiro were facing gridlock as the dedicated Olympic Lanes came into use - and brought cars across the city to a standstill. Over 100 miles of special traffic lanes set aside for the transportation of Olympic athletes and staff began to operate on Sunday. Motorists face fines and points on their licence if they stray into the lanes, which connect all the Olympic zones.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Worried about possible terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s government is working closely with American law enforcement and intelligence services to identify threats and thwart potential disasters at the Games.

Shocking new pictures of the filthy waters in Rio have revealed yet more concerns for Olympic athletes in Brazil who have been told not to put their heads under water. Ganabara Bay will host the triathlon, sailing and some swimming events at the Games and last week a floating corpse and a severed arm were found floating in the water. A study has shown viral levels in the bay is up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the United States or Europe.

An Olympic athlete and his accompanying cameraman have been robbed of their luggage at a Rio hotel during a carefully designed theft which started with them being vomited on. Chinese hurdler Shi Donpeng had just arrived at his hotel in Brazil ahead of the start of the Olympics on Friday and was exhausted after the long journey from China.

The Rio de Janeiro you see advertised in videos promoting the Olympics is the iconic one everyone knows: Ipanema, Sugarloaf Mountain, the statue of Christ the Redeemer. But that’s just a tiny slice of this sprawling metropolis of 12 million people, most of whom live miles from the beach. You can see the other Rio, their Rio, as you drive into town from the international airport, past the walls enclosing the freeway: a sea of red cinderblock shacks stacked precariously atop one another, with narrow roads snaking in between. One in seven Rio residents make their home in so-called favelas...

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen will be robbed during a scene in the Olympics opening ceremony in a brutally honest reflection on life in Rio de Janeiro, it was reported today. Details of the unexpected twist, which will be watched by an estimated 900 million viewers on Friday night, were revealed last night on social networking sites by spectators who watched a full dress rehearsal yesterday.

My love abounds in the riches of the fruit from My Tree. So come and partake of Me in Mercy and Grace. Bathe yourself in My humility and find Peace in all you do for I AM a Wellspring of knowledge and as you seek MY Face I will adorn you in My manifold Spirit so you to may walk in the fullness of My ways and not lack anymore. Philippians 4:19 19 And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Brazilian firemen stole Zika-protective shirts from Australia's residence during an evacuation, when a laptop was also pinched and other computer equipment rifled through. Australian team boss Kitty Chiller says she crossed paths with the thieves at the height of Friday's fire drama at the Olympic athletes' village. At the time, Chiller's initial thought was the shirts may have been given to the firemen by Australian team members as thanks for helping them evacuate.

Saudi Arabia will send four women to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, doubling its female participation after two women competed for the first time at the 2012 London Games. Hosam al-Qurashi, executive director of the Saudi Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press on Sunday that two of the women will participate in track and field, one in judo and one in fencing. The track and field athletes are Sarah Attar, who competed in 2012, and Cariman Abu al-Jadail. Judoka Wujud Fahmi and fencer Lubna al-Omair are the other competitors. …

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the former chief executive of investment bank Grupo BTG Pactual SA will stand trial for obstruction of justice, documents from a federal court in Brasilia showed on Friday. Lula was previously under investigation in various jurisdictions in a sprawling corruption probe focused on state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) but is now officially a defendant. The case dates to last November, when former Senator Delcidio do Amaral and Andre Esteves, the founder and former CEO of BTG Pactual, were arrested for allegedly trying to stop a...