The Ayrton Senna Institute in the bustling city of São Paulo opened months after the Formula One driver's fatal crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. The non-governmental organisation, the brainchild of Senna, offers educational and employment opportunities to disadvantaged and often disillusioned youths. As the world commemorates the life of the motor racing champion, the institute reflects on...
Motor sport fans around the world mark the 20th anniversary of the death of one of Formula One's greatest ever drivers, Ayrton Senna. Friends and family hold a memorial service at the Imola race track for Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the other driver killed on what is known as one of the darkest weekends of racing in the sport's history. In Senna's home country of Brazil, Corinthians of São Paulo...
UK Space Agency says object was part of payload that launched with communications satellite in French Guiana last year A Brazilian fisherman has landed a wall-sized slab of space junk emblazoned with the union jack while fishing in a remote Amazonian river. The fisherman, named in local reports as Manoel Alves dos Santos, 73, found the debris, which is believed to be from the launch of Europe's most...
Track where Senna died to be open to public for four days Part of proceeds will go to Ayrton Senna Institute The gladiatorial virtuoso who still sets the standard The day a million Brazilians mourned their golden boy The track where Ayrton Senna lost his life is set to be the focal point this week of commemorations marking the tragedy's 20th anniversary. Brazil's three-times Formula One world champion...
Despite the looming World Cup and Olympics, constitutional reform and powerful drug lords have kept redevelopment of Rios squatter settlements at bay but the price is poverty and anarchy The granite hump of Providencia gazes down like a stern guardian on the old port of Rio de Janeiro. It offers probably the finest viewpoint over any city I know. Rios great bay stretches inland to distant mountains....
John Coates says Rio can deliver 'excellent' Olympics 'Things are moving in the right direction' Days after his dire warning about preparations for the 2016 Rio Games , International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates has moved to defuse tensions with the events organisers. Coates now says Rio can deliver an "excellent" Olympics after contacting IOC executive director Gilbert Felli,...
The International Olympic Committee has revealed it has taken an unprecedented step of embedding experts in Rio, after saying the lack of construction progress is 'critical'. Vice-president of the IOC John Coates says the preparations are the worst he has experienced and admits work hasn't even begun on several venues Continue reading... ...
It's a sport that's gaining popularity globally as a fitness trend with ambitions for inclusion in the Olympics but it still has an image problem As Rio prepares itself for the football World Cup, another, very different sporting event took place in the city this weekend. The third annual Pole World Cup saw more than 150 men and women from 36 countries competing for a £20,000 top prize. Yet competitors...
International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates warns on readiness, saying it is worse even than Athens 2004 Five years after Rio de Janeiro became the first South American city to be awarded the Olympics, preparations for the 2016 Games have been damned by a senior International Olympic Committee official as the "worst ever". Continue reading... ...
Choosing whether to vaccinate children in rich countries may seem like a 'First World Problem' ... except when it isn't Earlier this month, Jenny McCarthy, the anti-vaccine movement's loudest proponent, disavowed her earlier arguments . Instead, she claimed that she never told anyone not to vaccinate their children and that she simply opposes doctors giving children multiple immunization shots at...
Street protests continue to rock Brazil and, frustrated by mainstream media coverage, a new group of citizen journalists is using digital tools to tell a different side of the story When the battered body of a young Brazilian professional dancer, Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira, was found in the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela in Rio de Janeiro, local people refused to believe the police statement...
Man reportedly killed in shoot-out after favela residents take to streets to protest at suspicious death of dancer found by police The suspicious death of a young dancer prompted a deadly shoot-out in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday night as favela residents set barricades ablaze and clashed with riot police. With less than two months before the start of the World Cup , the violence in the Copacabana resort...
Rio de Janeiro is now desperately behind schedule for the 2016 Olympic Games. Sport's mega-events should not be allowed to traumatise this magnificent, complex city Has Rio de Janeiro the guts? The city is now desperately behind schedule for its 2016 Olympics one insider put it at 10% ready, where London was 60% ready at the same stage. But a visit earlier this month left me with an intriguing question....
Campaigners fear legislation being introduced for the tournament will be used to suppress anti-government protests Human rights campaigners have sounded the alarm about proposed Brazilian anti-terrorism legislation that they fear will be used to crack down on legal protests during the World Cup. The government says that it needs the new law before the tournament, which kicks off on 12 June, because...
A new breed of funders in emerging economies could offer sustainable, relevant funding for local development needs Forget Gates. Move over Oprah. Emerging economies too have their homegrown titans of philanthropy, providing a potentially better attuned and more sustainable income source for local humanitarian and development needs. Continue reading... ...
What can the rest of the developing world learn from Brazil's economic development and narrowing inequality gap? Researchers explain the three elements of sustained growth Brazil isn't getting the best press at the moment, with ongoing problems with the construction of the World Cup stadiums and protests about public services . Recently economic growth in the country has slowed , with some commentators...
No one should have to fear that the price of intimacy will be a ruined life. And the law can help Parting from someone you love is never easy. It often means watching the affection and intimacy you once shared turn into bitterness and resentment. It often means sorting out who sees the children when, who lives where, and who gets what. Now imagine that in addition to all that sorrow and chaos, you...
Brazil's most famous city prepares for World Cup hosting duties. Known for its signature beaches and iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio is the second largest city in Brazil. The city's Maracanã stadium will host seven World Cup games, including the final on 13 July Continue reading... ...
The targeted murders of journalists in Syria means that the war-torn country has entered the annual "impunity index" produced by the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ). Syria joins Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, and others on the list of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free. There was some (slight) good news. Four countries on the index the Philippines,...
It has never been more important to protect the environment but it has never been more deadly This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed what 99.9% of those who work on environmental issues already knew: we need to change something pretty drastic if we want to avoid a rise in temperature of less than 2C. The message is finally becoming clear: protecting the environment...