A controlled explosion has been carried out on a bag close to the finish area of the Olympic cycling road race, Rio 2016 organisers have confirmed.

Today marks 100 days to the commencement of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio. But it is a city, and in a country, in turmoil

At the flame-lighting in the ruins of ancient Olympia, Brazil’s sport minister Ricardo Leyser tried to assure the world about the troubled Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

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Athletes competing in next year’s summer Olympics in Brazil will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human faeces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.

A teenage girl has told how a small shark tried to drag her from her board after biting her ankle as she surfed off the Australian east coast.

Usain Bolt has pulled out of the Weltklasse Diamond League meeting in Zurich on Thursday, organisers have announced.

Thousands of Argentine football fans gathered on the golden sands of Copacabana beach gasped and then fell into silence when Germany scored a stunning extra-time goal to claim the World Cup title.

Boost your skin confidence for summer. Lisa Haynes reveals how to get a convincing glow with the help of a self-tan today.

Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta would love nothing more than to win the World Cup in the spiritual home of Brazilian football.

Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta would love nothing more than to win the World Cup in the spiritual home of Brazilian football.

Shrink down your beauty routine to meet your luggage limits. Lisa Haynes unveils the minis to suit your case.

While the rest of the footballing world frets over Luis Suarez, Wenger - who has got to be to be enjoying the whole mess a teeny-weeny bit - is having a ball.

There’s no getting away from football in Brazil this month — which is absolutely fabulous if you’re a fan.

Greetings from Hio — and no, you haven’t read that wrong.

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

Would you buy a car from this man?

Fifa says it is concerned about recent violence in Brazil less than two months before the country hosts the World Cup, but football’s governing body is still confident Brazil will stage “the biggest party on Earth”.

A Rio de Janeiro slum has erupted in violence following the killing of a popular local figure, with residents starting fires and hurling home-made explosives and bottles in the city’s main tourist zone.

Baggage restrictions should not stop you from looking your fabulous self. Get all your beauty booty on board with Rachel Marie Walsh’s lightweight picks.

Will.i.am insists he never agreed to perform at a New Year's Eve concert in Brazil.

Pope Francis’s historic trip to his home continent ended yesterday after a marathon week-long visit to Brazil that drew millions of people on to the sands of Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana beach and appeared to reinvigorate the clergy and faithful alike in the world’s largest Catholic country.

Pope Francis wrapped up a historic trip to his home continent yesterday with a Mass on Copacabana beach that drew a reported 3 million people, who cheered the first Latin American pope in a remarkable response to his message that the Catholic Church must shake itself up and get out into the streets to find the faithful.

Pope Francis has presided over one of the most solemn rites of the Catholic Church, a procession re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion that received a Broadway-like treatment befitting its improbable location, Rio’s hedonistic Copacabana beach.

Pope Francis’s relentless pace on his tour of Brazil is wearing out his aides.

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.

Pope Francis has returned to the warm embrace of Latin America, landing in Brazil to begin his first international trip as pontiff.

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

A late-night outing turned into a six-hour nightmare after an American was gang-raped aboard a public transit van in an incident that has shocked the city as it gears up to host 2014’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Simon Cox insists Giovanni Trapattoni is still the right man to lead Ireland forward and believes criticism of the Italian is ‘short-sighted’.

Rio de Janeiro’s landscape, marked by soaring granite facades that drop into the ocean and white-sand beaches that go on for miles, is now an official world heritage site, Unesco announced.

EXTRAVAGANT firework displays lit up the skies from Sydney to New York in a global New Year’s party as people around the world set aside their worries to welcome 2012.

Revellers erupted in cheers amid a confetti-filled celebration in New York’s Times Square to welcome in the new year, part of star-studded celebrations and glittering fireworks displays around the world to usher in 2012.

IN A snakeskin monokini and pink denim hotpants, Lea T emerges from a faux tropical portico and saunters into the bright lights.

An Australian teenager who spent 10 hours with a fake bomb chained to her neck said today that she is relieved the FBI has arrested a man accused of breaking into her home and tethering the device to her as part of an elaborate extortion plot.

The 2010 Rio Carnival got underway today under a zero-tolerance campaign against petty crime and disorder.

REVELLERS worldwide met the new year with spectacular fireworks displays and joyful parties against a backdrop of tightened security.

A massive power failure blacked out Brazil’s two largest cities and other parts of Latin America’s biggest nation for more than two hours last night, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went off-line.

Rio de Janeiro claimed a stunning victory in the race to host the 2016 Olympics as favourites Chicago slumped to a crushing defeat.

A shootout between Brazilian police and Rio de Janeiro gang members has left five suspects dead near the famed Copacabana beach.

Dancers dressed as slaves pushed a float decked out as the ship that brought the Portuguese royal family to Brazil two centuries ago, marking the final night of Rio’s annual carnival parade.

Manchester United new boy Anderson is happy to push his Christmas turkey to one side in the pursuit of Premier League points at Sunderland on St Stephen's Day.

The façade of a hotel in the Copacabana beach district of Rio de Janeiro collapsed today, killing two and burying as many as 12 people on one of the city’s busiest avenues, the fire department said.