Brazilian police have encircled a building next to the Maracana football stadium in Rio de Janeiro which an indigenous community took over six years ago. The building, a former indigenous museum is meant to be demolished as part of preparation for next year’s World Cup, but indigenous leaders say they are prepared to defend their right to stay in the area.
Salvage experts say the wreck of Costa Concordia cruise ship will be removed from the waters off Italian island of Giglio by September at the latest. They made their promise on the eve of the anniversary of the disaster in which more than 30 people died. From Rome, here is Alan Johnston
The stricken ship lies capsized in what is a marine nature reserve cutting her up there could be hugely damaging to the local environment. So the plan is to lift the vessel upright, then refloats and tow her away to the mainland where she will be dismantled. It’s a vast engineering project and there’ve been delays. But giving the latest time schedule, officials said that it might be possible to remove the Concordia as early as June.
The Haitian president says the way international aid is distributed in Haiti isn’t working. Michel Martelly was delivering a speech to mark the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated much of the country. He said aid donors needed to cooperate more closely with the Haitian government which have directly received only a third of the aid pledged. Mr. Martelly said non-governmental agencies had spent most of the aid on emergency operations rather than reconstruction.