Most of the five stars on the Chinese flags being used at medal ceremonies at the Rio Olympics are misaligned, officials say, prompting a diplomatic protest and online fury.

Brazil face another embarrassing exit from a tournament on home soil after Neymar slumber through a second 0-0 draw of Rio 2016 against Iraq.

Mercilessly cast as "greedy" and "missing" for failing to fire Brazil to victory in their Rio 2016 opener against South Africa, Neymar and his highly-touted teammates need a big response against Iraq on Sunday.

The Maracana stadium erupts in jeers as Brazil's unpopular interim president Michel Temer opens the Rio Olympics and the hostility spreads far beyond the sports venue.

A joyful sashay through Brazil's extraordinary musical heritage is infused with a social message and a warning over the dangers of climate change as Rio de Janeiro draws back the curtain of the 2016 Olympic Games with a highly charged opening ceremony.

Brazil unfurls a vast canvas celebrating its rainforest and the creative energy of its wildly diverse population in welcoming the world on Friday to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, all to the pounding beat of samba, bossa nova and funk.

Brazil and superstar Neymar are booed off as their quest for a maiden Olympic football gold medal begins with a 0-0 draw against 10-man South Africa.

Brazil's women footballers ensured the opening day of action at Rio 2016 was a happy one for the hosts with a 3-0 win over China on Wednesday.

Brazil has barely got over its World Cup disaster and now it is counting on Barcelona star Neymar to finally deliver a treasured first football Olympic gold medal.

A sharp increase in police killings has cast "a shadow of death" over Rio de Janeiro as it prepares to host the Olympic Games, Amnesty International claim in a report.

Record-seeking Britain pull out all the stops for their Rio Olympics campaign -- to the extent of employing their own plumber for the leaky athletes' village.

Brazil rule goalkeeper Fernando Prass out of their Olympic campaign on Sunday after he injures an elbow warming up.

Brazilian law enforcement agents storm a hideout near Sao Paulo on Sunday and free the kidnapped mother-in-law of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Teenage star Gabriel Barbosa scores a superb invidivual goal as Neymar returns to lead Brazil to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Japan.

Former Inter Milan, Parma and Roma forward Adriano was once earning £80,000 per week in the prime of his career, but these days is without a club and living among gun-wielding gangs in Rio.

Brazilian protesters claim they have extinguished the Olympic torch as it makes its way to Rio de Janeiro.

Neymar highlights the importance of Lionel Messi at Barcelona while hinting that he wants compatriot Gabriel Jesus to join the Catalan giants.

Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law has been kidnapped in Brazil with criminals demanding a ransom of £28 million, according to reports.

The mother-in-law of Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has been kidnapped in Sao Paulo and criminals are demanding 120 million reais ($36.5 million) in ransom, according to reports in a leading Brazilian news magazine.

Brazil hold 10 presumed Islamist militants in isolation cells at a maximum security jail as police comb their computers and mobile phones for information about possible threats to next month's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.