Half a million tourists, dozens of heads of state, and the attention of the world’s media. If there were ever a headache for anti-terror forces, it’s the Olympics.

The Brazilian mother-in-law of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has reportedly been kidnapped in São Paulo and is being held for a ransom of $36.5m (€32m).

Hours after Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, was suspended by a vote to put her on trial for breaking budget laws, the man who took her place unveiled his cabinet: An all-male line-up of 23 ministers.

If Dilma Rousseff is impeached, she will be the 18th elected Latin American president since 1985, excluding Haiti, forced to leave office by means other than the ballot box, says Gretchen Helmke.

The reports and vibes emanating from Brazil have, to be kind about it, not been reassuring

Brazil’s leftist president Dilma Rousseff has suffered a humiliating loss in a crucial impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress and is almost certain to be forced from office months before the nation hosts the Olympics.

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff suffered a devastating blow when the Chamber of Deputies voted to open impeachment proceedings against her.

Embattled Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff lashed out at the two men in line to succeed her if she is impeached, calling her vice president and the lower house speaker “heads of the conspiracy” to remove her from office.

A committee of Brazil’s lower house of Congress has voted 38-27 to recommend the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, who faces charges of breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014.

Brazil’s largest party has abandoned president Dilma Rousseff’s governing coalition, making it tougher for her to survive mounting pressure in congress for her impeachment.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was detained for questioning in a federal investigation of a bribery and money laundering scheme that police said had financed campaigns and expenses of the ruling Workers Party.

Brazil’s Supreme Court handed embattled president Dilma Rousseff two victories in rulings that improve her chances of blocking an impeachment bid by opponents seeking to oust the unpopular leftist leader.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has dug in for a long battle with a deeply fragmented Congress after impeachment proceedings were introduced against her in the lower house.

Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff will face impeachment proceedings in Congress, according to lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha.

The main determinants of an emerging economy’s ability to emerge, sustainably, are politics, policy and the institutions of governance, writes Bill Emmott

A man executed in Indonesia for drug trafficking who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder did not understand what was happening until his final moments, a priest assigned as his spiritual adviser has said.

Indonesia brushed aside last-minute appeals and executed eight people convicted of drug smuggling, although a Philippine woman was granted a stay of execution.

Close to 1m demonstrators marched in cities and towns across Brazil to protest a sluggish economy, rising prices, and corruption — and to call for the impeachment of left-wing president Dilma Rousseff.

Two convicted Australian drug smugglers arrived at an Indonesian island prison where they will be executed by firing squad along with seven other foreigners amid a diplomatic squabble with some of their governments. 

Indonesia has executed six people, five of them foreigners, for drug trafficking despite international appeals to spare them.

In Brazil’s most unpredictable election in decades, it was the candidate with the old-school family pedigree and a calm, presidential air who turned the race upside down with a dramatic late surge.

Brazil’s presidential election has been forced into a run-off vote because no single candidate won a majority of the vote.

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

A is for Asian angst

Russia’s foreign ministry said that a Ukrainian shell hit a Russian border town, killing one person and seriously injuring two others.

With just a half an hour gone last night came an image that perhaps more than any other summed up just what had happened.

Brazil was in mourning today after an overpass collapsed in Belo Horizonte, reportedly killing two people.

The World Cup was launched with a 45-minute ceremony in Sao Paulo - but poor sound and a low-budget feel left an underwhelming impression.

Brazilian police fear street demonstrations will erupt in violence prior to the World Cup’s opening game today in Sao Paulo, as intelligence indicates a few hundred protesters will try to block roads leading to the stadium.

A Villarreal fan throwing a banana at Barcelona’s Dani Alves last weekend may have – inadvertently – helped the battle against a deeply-rooted problem of racism in Spanish football.

US governments have essentially had command over the web since the 60s, but who will step in once the US shortly cedes control, asks Benny Avni

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.

Just two days on from the World Cup draw and Brazil returned to a shocking and vicious reality on Sunday night.

South Africa has released the list of speakers at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela tomorrow.

South Africa is preparing for the arrival of a flood of world leaders for the funeral and memorial services for former president Nelson Mandela.

President Barack Obama’s national security adviser has conceded there are legitimate questions about US spying on its allies, as America sought to soothe Brazil’s concerns about far-reaching surveillance by the National Security Agency.

Barack Obama has discussed the National Security Agency’s surveillance programmes with the presidents of Mexico and Brazil, the White House said.

There are growing security fears for Pope Francis after a pipe bomb was detonated at a site he is due to visit today and frenzied crowds of Roman Catholics mobbed the car carrying him after it took a wrong turn down a street in Rio’s centre.

Mammoth crowds are expected to greet Pope Francis when he celebrates Mass on Rio’s Copacabana beach today.