Researchers aided by the EU play a major role across the globe in developing valuable ideas, writes Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

A UN report shows Brazil is winning, and exporting, its anti-austerity policies, writes Hans Zomer

In Brazil, there are still large swathes of rainforest that serve as reserves, where uncontacted Amazonian tribes live.

Police in Sao Paulo fear protests may disrupt the opening match of the World Cup between hosts Brazil and Croatia at the Arena Corinthians later today.

As the World Cup kicks off, the Brazilian government and FIFA will be hoping that the world’s attention turns to the soccer field, and away from the strikes and complaints about the organisers’ ineffectiveness.

Tune in to BBC 2 at 9pm tonight for Welcome to Rio, a documentary series exploring Rio's shanty-towns, the favelas.

The latest outbreak was too violent, and too close to a popular tourist area, to be ignored, Patricia Rey Mallon writes.

It’s 50 days to the World Cup and here are 50 of the biggest talking points.

Europe must co-operate internationally if it is going to tackle society’s greatest challenges, according to the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

Brazil’s failings in delivering this summer’s World Cup has been highlighted by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who said no previous host country has been so far behind in its preparations.

US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has said he would be willing to help Brazil’s government investigate American spying on its soil – but only if he is granted political asylum.

Abusive price hikes of hotel rates and plane tickets during next year’s World Cup will be monitored by a committee created by the Brazilian government.

Meet the boys and girls from Brazil who have begun a year’s study at University College Cork as part of the world’s largest scholarship scheme.

ON Jul 20, in a basement of the London offices of Britain’s Guardian newspaper, a senior editor and an IT expert used angle grinders and sledgehammers to destroy computer hard drives containing copies of secret files leaked by Edward Snowden, the computer whiz who disclosed details of top-secret US and British government surveillance programmes to the press.

More than 5,000 anti-government protesters marched near the Maracana stadium before a major football match, venting their anger about the billions the Brazilian government is spending on major sporting events rather than public services.

Police and protesters fought in the streets into the early hours today as an estimated one million Brazilians swarmed through more than 80 towns and cities in the biggest demonstrations yet against a government viewed as corrupt at all levels and unresponsive to its people.

Thousands of demonstrators have flooded into a square in Brazil’s economic hub, Sao Paulo, for the latest in a historic wave of protests against the state of public transport, schools and other public services.

International fashion giant Zara has come under fire from a human rights group after Argentinian police swooped on sweatshops making clothes bearing its labels.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has arrived back home in Caracas after 10 days of medical treatment in Cuba.

A €136m boost to colleges and the economy could result from a deal to send thousands of Brazilian students here over the next four years.

Sepp Blatter's unopposed re-election as FIFA president last year should be the subject of an internal investigation into whether he unfairly exploited his position, according to a Council of Europe assembly committee.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked for talks with Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff next week as concerns grow about the collapse in the relationship between the organisation and the 2014 World Cup hosts.

SPANISH clothing store Zara is under investigation by Brazil’s labour ministry after a supplier was accused of slave labour.

Brazil’s 2014 World Cup party began in earnest today but against a background of bickering between organisers and the government, concerns over preparations and a protest by those who claim the tournament is adversely affecting the livelihoods of thousands.

THE Brazilian government has confirmed the existence of an uncontacted tribe in a south-western area of the Amazon rainforest.

THE Brazilian government is proposing that Unesco name the city of Rio de Janeiro a World Heritage site.

SPECTACULAR species previously unknown to the outside world are being discovered in the Amazon rainforest at a rate of one every three days, according to environment group WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

The threat of new mudslides forced city chiefs to begin evicting 2,600 families from at-risk areas as they began a slum demolition programme on flood-hit Rio de Janeiro's hills.

A student whose short, pink dress caused a near riot at a private college and led to her expulsion will be allowed to return to classes.

Second-quarter figures today showed Brazil has emerged from recession, as strong domestic consumption helped the economy grow.

IT’S not often that world superpowers worry about competition from little Ireland.

AS CERTAINTIES crumble every day it may be asking a lot for us to consider, much less accept, that one of the everyday pleasures of Irish life has become a threat to the environment.

The Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as last year, Brazil says, in a sharp reversal after three years of declines in the deforestation rate.

FOOTBALL legend Pele was held at gunpoint by a gang of youths in Brazil who robbed him of his gold necklace, mobile phone and watch, media reports said.

One of Brazil’s last uncontacted Indian tribes has been spotted in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border, the National Indian Foundation says.

BRAZIL has admitted that some of its meat processing plants exported beef to Europe that did not meet traceability standards.

Brazil descended into air chaos again today after the nation’s leading airline cancelled dozens of flights to and from the country’s busiest airport.

The Brazilian government has ordered an internet site to remove an advertisement in which a Brazilian man offered to sell his wife for 100 reals, or £25.

Brazil’s health minister signed a memorandum of understanding with the Clinton Foundation that would allow the country to obtain anti-Aids medicines more cheaply.

THE student visa of Jean Charles de Menezes expired more than two years before he was wrongly shot by police, a British Home Office spokeswoman said last night.

THE parents of the Brazilian man shot dead on a London Underground train yesterday wept as they recalled how he was trying to save enough money by working abroad to return to his homeland to become a cattle rancher.

SENIOR British police officers last night insisted there would be no change to a controversial shoot-to-kill policy after an innocent man was gunned down.