Brazil

Brazilian great Kaka announces retirement from football

Kaka, who played most of his career at AC Milan and Real Madrid, revealed his decision in an interview with the Brazilian O Globo channel.

The attacking midfielder won the Italian Serie A with Milan and the 2007 Champions League and collected league and cup titles with Real. He also won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, who he was capped for 92 times from 2002 to 2016, and the Ballon d'Or as best player in the world in 2007.

He was the last player to win the award before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo began their decade-long duopoly at the top of the game.

Elliot Ragomo on the verge of making history in Brazil

He is been tipped by Minas Tenis club in Brazil to play in the LNF Brazilian national professional futsal league.

Currently the club is looking at Ragomo’s International Transfer Certificate (ITC) to qualify him to play in the professional league.

If his ITC goes well he will be the first foreign player to play in Brazil on professional level.

Ragomo has been directly trained under the best futsal coaches in Brazil, who are currently leading the national senior futsal team and national U-17.

Zika virus: Brazil says emergency is over

The number of cases dropped 95% between January and April, compared to the same period a year ago, officials said.

The virus has been linked to the birth of babies with abnormally small heads. The threat was at its peak as Brazil prepared to host the 2016 Olympics.

The World Health Organisation lifted its own international emergency in November last year.

The Zika virus has been linked to severe birth defects in almost 30 countries.

Venezuela indigenous group flees crisis for Brazil

The authorities have declared a social emergency to seek government funds to help with the influx.

The Warao say they travelled around 2,000 km (1,250 miles) and are fleeing hunger and Venezuela's worsening economic and political crisis.

Warao people have also gone to the northern Brazilian state of Roraima.

In Boa Vista, the state capital, city authorities say more than 500 Warao arrived across the border but were deported because of concerns about vagrancy and begging.

Brazil jails eight militants over Rio Olympic plot

The men were arrested shortly before the beginning of the Games, in August, after the FBI alerted the Brazilian authorities.

They are all Brazilian nationals.

The ringleader, Leonid El Kadre de Melo, has been given a prison sentence of 15 years.

His lawyer said her client was on hunger strike.

The other men have been jailed for five to six years. All say they will appeal.

Brazil qualify for Russia 2018

The five-times champions beat Paraguay 3-0 yesterday for their eighth successive win in the South American qualifying competition.

That in itself was not enough to confirm their participation in Russia but Peru's surprise 2-1 win over Uruguay in a later game guaranteed Brazil a top-four finish.

With four rounds of fixtures remaining, Brazil have 33 points, followed by Colombia (24), Uruguay and Chile (23). Argentina (22) are currently in fifth place, which earns a two-legged playoff against the top-ranked Oceania region side.

Can tilapia skin be used to bandage burns?

They are covered in fish skin — specifically strips of sterilized tilapia.

Doctors here are testing the skin of the popular fish as a bandage for second- and third-degree burns. The innovation arose from an unmet need. Animal skin has long been used in the treatment of burns in developed countries. But Brazil lacks the human skin, pig skin, and artificial alternatives that are widely available in the US.

Finkler to head home to Brazil to meet new daughter

Finkler had planned to be in Brazil for the birth but Rafaela arrived early.

The 31 year old Finkler will miss Saturday's home match against Melbourne City and the fixture away to the Brisbane Roar a week later and return to New Zealand on February 27th for the Phoenix' clash against in Auckland on March 4th.

Finkler has played 18 of 19 games this season, scoring two goals and registering a lone assist.

He has come off the bench in the last two games for the eighth-placed Phoenix, both ending in 3-1 losses to Western Sydney and Sydney FC.

 

Brazil sees sharp rise in yellow fever cases

They said there had been 63 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne illness so far this year, up from seven in the whole of 2016.

Most of the cases have been in rural areas of Minas Gerais state, a Ministry of Health statement said.

The government has sent two million doses of yellow fever vaccines to the state.

The governor of Minas Gerais has declared a 180-day state of emergency.

What is yellow fever?

§  Caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes

Drugs gang 'kills 33 inmates' in Brazilian jail

The local secretary of Justice Uziel Castro told the BBC he blamed the deaths in the prison in the state of Roraima on a drug gang.

He said some bodies had been found decapitated after the incident in the Penitenciária Agrícola de Monte Cristo.

But the situation was now under control, he added.

Sunday's 17-hour prison uprising in Manaus was the deadliest in Brazil in years.

Officials say police have managed to recapture 40 of the 87 prisoners who escaped.