SAO PAULO (AFP) ― American star Jennifer Lopez added a dash of glamour to the colorful World Cup opening ceremony on Thursday in a vivid contrast to the violent antitournament protests in the city.J-Lo, wearing a carnival-inspired and revealing green outfit, appeared from a trapdoor along with rapper Pitbull to sing the official World Cup song with Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. The ceremony was held ahead of the opening game between Brazil and Croatia. With her participation not confirmed unt

BEIJING  (AFP) -- A team of Chinese baby pandas lined up to predict World Cup scores have been given the red card by authorities hours before kick off, the animals' keepers told AFP Thursday.The pandas were billed by Chinese media as China's answer to deceased soccer soothsayer Paul the Octopus, after they were originally set to predict match results by picking food from a choice of baskets and by climbing trees.But representatives at the pandas' breeding base in southwestern Sichuan province sa

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ― Say you’re one of the 600,000 foreigners expected to attend the World Cup in Brazil, where hardly anyone speaks a language besides Portuguese, and you find yourself in the hospital and unable to communicate with the doctor. What do you do?A Korean nonprofit company has a solution: A phone number where foreigners can get real time language assistance in seven languages.Called the Before Babel Brigade, the service was developed during the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Jap

SAO PAULO (AP) ― FIFA president Sepp Blatter has proposed that soccer team managers should be allowed to challenge referee’s decisions during games.Blatter’s surprise announcement at FIFA’s Congress on Wednesday reverses an earlier pledge that goal-line technology was the only camera review of decisions that he would support.The FIFA boss suggested that managers could be given two challenges per match.A similar challenge system was introduced in Major League Baseball this season for a limited nu

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ― The World Cup hasn’t even begun and already there’s been a training ground run-in between two Dutch players and Cameroon’s entire team delayed its flight to Brazil in a dispute over their tournament bonus.Prodigious talent often goes hand-in-hand with oversized egos and managing them can be a fulltime job for team leaders in the pressure-cooker environment of the sport’s showcase event.Sometimes, players’ feelings need as much massaging as their muscles.“Conflict is inevita

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ― Was it a goal, or wasn’t it?The question shouldn’t need to be debated in the next five weeks in Brazil, where goal-line technology will be used for the first time in a World Cup.Fourteen cameras ― seven trained on each goalmouth ― have been hung up in all 12 World Cup stadiums. The cameras will record 500 images per second, and a computer will digest the frames. Within a second of a ball crossing the line, the referee’s special watch will vibrate and flash “GOAL.”End of the

Marseille striker Jordan Ayem scored a hat trick after entering the game as a substitute Monday as Ghana won its warmup match for next week's World Cup by beating South Korea 4-0.Ghana plays the United States next Monday in Natal, Brazil. The Black Stars eliminated the Americans from the World Cup in 2006 and 2010.Forward Abdul Majeed Waris left the game in the fourth minute with a left leg injury and was replaced by Ayem, who scored in the 13th minute when his shot from 15 yards deflected off d