NEW YORK – Brazil has recently generated positive headlines with its 2016 Olympic bid victory, as well as its increased economic and political visibility.

Based on current economic trends, it could be one of the world’s five biggest economies — along with China, the United States, India and Japan — by the middle of this century, according to The Economist.

Yet, the evidence of progress has been marred by the nation’s troubling crime statistics — and reports of unlawful methods employed by the security forces. Read the full story

There are 50 murders a day in South Africa, the host country of the 2010 football World Cup. And Brazil, host of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, also suffers from extreme violence. With a view to the high-profile events, the two countries are now attempting to crack down on rampant crime — and are using ruthless tactics to do so.

An orchid, a laptop and a Bible adorn the desk of Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo. She is wearing the blue uniform of the military police, but there is no weapon visible in her small office. Her territory is the Favela Santa Marta, a hillside slum in the heart of the southern tourist zone of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. From the top of the hill, there is a magnificent view of Sugar Loaf Mountain, the statue of Christ the Redeemer and Copacabana beach. Read the full story

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Suspected drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter and set fire to five buses and a school in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, killing two policemen, police and media said.

It is one of the worst recent outbreaks of violence in Rio and comes two weeks after the city was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games, despite worries over its high levels of violence and poor security. Read the full story

Olympic ‘nopes’ beat out hope in Chicago
By Jessica Ravitz
CNN

(CNN) — The announcement that Chicago, Illinois, will not host the 2016 Olympic Games took the hopeful wind out of many in the Windy City.

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The Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games are sure to be a great time for everyone involved. When the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games were announced, there was celebration all over the streets of this Brazilian city.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games come as a surprise to many that assumed that President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Oprah would be able to sway the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to select Chicago as the 2016 Olympic Games venue. Read the full story

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Chicago has been eliminated in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympics.

Hoping to persuade the IOC to award Chicago the 2016 Olympics, Obama and his wife led a heartfelt and, at times, very personal plea Friday. Instead of stodgy technical details, discussions of finances or computer-generated graphics, Chicago took members inside the city to show why it should win the games.

Obama spoke of finally finding a home in Chicago after a nomadic childhood. Michelle Obama recounted how, growing up on the city’s South Side, her disabled father taught her how to throw a ball and a “mean right hook.” Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley invoked the memory of Jesse Owens.

“Like so many young people, I was inspired” by the Olympics, the first lady said. “I found myself dreaming that maybe, just maybe, if I worked hard enough, I, too, could achieve something great. But I never dreamed the Olympic flame might light up lives in my neighborhood.

“But today I can.”

Chicago, competing with Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo for the 2016 Games, was the first of the finalists to make its presentation. Some of its speakers looked nervous and parts of the presentation came off as stilted. It also was surprisingly low-key, with a video featuring blues legend Buddy Guy and slick snapshots of the city the splashiest part of the presentation.

But that’s how it was designed, Daley said.

“It’s not about the words,” he said. “It’s about the heart and the soul.”

Though Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States, it is largely unknown overseas. Or, if people are familiar with it, they see it as the home of Michael Jordan and Al Capone — and not necessarily in that order.

So Chicago showed videos of its picturesque lakefront, where most of the venues will be clustered, and artsy Millennium Park, which will be a gathering place for fans during the games. Schoolchildren read letters to the IOC in another video, and a teacher spoke of a troubled student who turned his life around after joining the wrestling team.

Highlighting the city’s diversity — “It’s a place where our unity is on colorful display,” Obama said — the videos featured people of different colors and nationalities, including a group of veiled women playing basketball.

Bid chairman Patrick Ryan, who made his considerable fortune in insurance, spoke of the many companies that are based in the Midwest, making it “fertile territory” for new Olympic sponsors. He also mentioned the universities in and around Chicago, how they would be a source for research.

In planning the games, Chicago has made the athletes its focus, decathlon gold medalist Bryan Clay and Paralympic champion Linda Mastandrea said. The compact plan puts 90 percent of athletes within 15 minutes of their venues — a not insignificant detail, Clay said, describing a day that begins at 5 a.m. and doesn’t end until midnight.

Athletes would also feel at home in Chicago, Clay said. Pick pretty much any country in the world, and it likely has its own neighborhood in Chicago — the Walgreens in Greektown has English and Greek lettering on the building. Not only does that mean “local” cheering sections for all athletes, but there will be a homestay program for their families.

Chicago will use mostly existing and temporary facilities. While that means there won’t be any grand building, like the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, operations chief Doug Arnot said Chicago will leave a far more lasting — and important — legacy.

“We know that concrete and steel do not build sport, people build sport,” Arnot said.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has had a testy relationship with the IOC, including recent flare-ups over revenue sharing and a USOC TV network. Chicago leaders addressed that head on, repeatedly talking about wanting to be partners with the IOC. Stealing a page right out of Obama’s “Yes, we can” campaign theme, one video even featured residents repeating “Together we can.”

“I see a future in which the Olympic movement and the United States will move shoulder to shoulder toward the horizon, with a shared mission, together as true partners, thanks to an Olympic Games in Chicago in 2016,” said Bob Ctvrtlik, a former IOC member and the USOC’s vice chair of international relations.

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