World Cup 2014: Riot Police Fire Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas in Rio Favela

A riot policeman arrests a demonstrator from a favela in Rio de JaneiroReuters

Thousands of people have been evicted from a favela near the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the venue for the World Cup Final.

Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets and tear gas to oust people living in a shantytown. Cranes and tractors were used to demolish wooden huts built around the buildings - many still full of personal belongings as residents had no time to pack.

Armed police fire pepper spray in efforts at slum clearance in BrazilReuters

Hundreds poured into the street protesting about police brutality and the loss of their homes. Residents retaliated by throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at police officers.

About 12 people on both sides of the conflict suffered minor injuries, officials said. Police made more than 20 arrests.

Images from Globo news network showed thick plumes of smoke coming from burning cars, buses, trucks and buildings. Violent protests broke out in nearby neigbourhoods where a police car was torched and banks looted.

The Brazilian government is struggling to improve its image as it prepares to host football's World Cup in June and the Summer Olympics in 2016.

Police have attacked several favelas in recent months, which are often controlled by drug gangs. Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported that suspected drug traffickers from neighbouring favelas fired guns at the police in this latest conflict.

Rio de Janeiro's high crime rate is of concern for the government, which wants to portray the city as a top tourist destination. Rio had 4,761 murders last year, up 17% from 2012.

A resident of Telerj slum shows what he says is a rubber bullet woundReuters

On 5 April, the federal government sent 2,500 soldiers and marines to occupy the streets of Complexo da Maré, the city's most populous cluster of favelas, through to the end of the World Cup.

Rio and the surrounding metropolitan area are home to some 1.5 million favela dwellers spread out among roughly 1,000 different communities. Most were formed by landless people flocking in from the countryside, the homeless or labourers who couldn't afford to pay high city rents.

Mexican Drug Cartel At War, As Tortured Body of Former Boss's Security Chief is Dumped

Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation at a Mexican Navy airstrip in Mexico CityReuters

The body of the security chief of arrested cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been found on a dusty road in Mexico's Sinaloa state, with fears of a war between rival factions in the kingpin's former empire growing.

Manuel Alejandro Aponte Gomez's body was found with those of two other men, all three bearing signs of torture.

Fingerprints have confirmed one of the bodies as that of Aponte Gomez, and DNA tests are also being conducted, Sinaloa state Attorney General Marco Antonio Higuera said.

Known as El Bravo (The fierce), Aponte was reported to be locked in a power struggle with Damaso Lopez Nunez, "El Licenciado (The Graduate)", for control of the Sinaloa cartel.

An open steel door leads from a tunnel underneath one of the houses of Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman to the city's drainage system in Culiacan, MexicoReuters

A former soldier in the Mexican army, Aponte Gomez was one of the 100,000 people who left the armed forces to join the cartels during the 2000-2006 administration of President Vicente Fox.

After meeting El Chapo, he rose to become his security chief, and a source in the state prosecutor's office told the AFP that Aponte Gomez helped Guzman evade capture by building an elborate series of tunnels between properties in the state capital Culiacan.

Guzman, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drugs lord, was arrested in February in an apartment complex in the coastal resort of Mazatlan after a tip-off from a member of the public.

"The triumph of the [Mexican president Nina Pena Nieto] government in detaining El Chapo shouldn't be underestimated," Leo Zuckermann, a columnist for the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior, wrote after Guzman's arrest. "But the question that should interest us more is whether the arrest will help stop the violence in this country. I fear that the answer isn't promising. In fact, the opposite could happen — that is to say, that there will be an increase in homicides, kidnappings and extortion in the short run."

Crude Oil Futures Rise on Strong US Consumer Sentiment Data

A worker maintains oil pipelines at the Zueitina oil terminal in Zueitina, west of Benghazi, Libya.Reuters

Crude oil futures witnessed mixed trade on 11 April, but logged gains for the week as a whole, as strong consumer sentiment data from the US, the world's leading oil consumer, boosted the outlook for energy demand.

Brent May contract finished 13 cents, or 0.1%, lower at $107.33 a barrel on 11 April.

The European benchmark gained some 0.6% for the week.

US May contract finished 34 cents, or 0.3%, higher at $103.74 a barrel on 11 April.

US crude added 2.6% for the week.

IEA Forecasts

Traders also took in the International Energy Agency's widely tracked monthly report on 11 April.

The Paris-based watchdog has lowered its 2014 outlook for Russian oil demand, by 55,000 barrels a day, to 3.5 million barrels a day. The move follows Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March and subsequent World Bank and International Monetary Fund's downgrades of the nation's growth.

The lower Russian demand forecast will limit the global growth forecast to 1.3 million barrels a day from 1.4 million barrels a day estimated previously. However, that will not alter the global balance much in 2014, senior IEA oil analyst Matt Parry told MarketWatch.

"With the US economy slowly getting back to what is considered healthy, unemployment figures and GDP numbers coupled with heightened confidence give reason for traders to speculate toward an increase in consumption," said Jonathan Citrin, founder and executive chairman at CitrinGroup.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets said in an 11 April note to clients: "Although oil prices are falling slightly [11 April] morning, they are likely to end the week up overall, lent support by news from the IEA which envisages a need for rising OPEC production in the second half of the year after OPEC supply in March declined by around 900,000 month-on-month to 29.6 million barrels per day. According to the IEA, however, the sharp fall in production is likely to be only temporary and should be corrected again in the coming months.

"According to OPEC, the cartel's production totalled 29.6 million barrels per day in March, thus tallying precisely with the demand estimated for 2014. It predicts that global oil demand will increase this year by 1.14 million barrels per day, though it anticipates even greater growth of non-OPEC supply, especially in the US. The plentiful global supply is offset by increased tightening on the west European distillates market: ARA gasoil stocks have once again fallen sharply this week according to PJK International and at 1.4 million tons have hit their lowest level since June 2008.

"This now puts them more than 40% below the five-year average figure. In our opinion, prices so far do not sufficiently reflect the tightness of supply. To date, the gasoil-Brent crack spread has responded hardly at all to the low stock levels - at $14 per barrel at present it is not even half as high as it was in June 2008. We therefore see potential for gasoil prices to climb, and for Brent to be pulled up with them," the German firm added.

Guinea Woman 'Reborn' After Recovering From Deadly Ebola Virus

Staff of the 'Doctors without Borders' ('Medecin sans frontieres') medical aid organisation carry the body of a person killed by Ebola, at a centre for victims of the Ebola virus in Guekedou, Guinea.

A woman has spoken of her "miraculous" recovery from the deadly Ebola virus that is sweeping west Africa, and which has so far claimed more than 100 victims.

The 27-year-old, who gave her name as Fanta, told reporters at a treatment centre outside Guinean capital Conakry that she had spent weeks battling the virus.

"To hear that I had a disease that could not be cured, I was so afraid... It is as if I have just been reborn," she told the Daily Mail.

"The way people were looking at me, I knew I had this really dangerous illness but I'm fine now, thank God. I'm cured."

At least seven other patients in Guinea have shaken off the virus, said the medical charity Medecins San Frontieres (MSF), amid an outbreak which has been called "the most challenging ever" by the World Health Organisation.

Overall, two-thirds of those infected have died, with 101 recorded deaths in Guinea, and 10 in Liberia.

There is no known cure or even effective course of treatment for the virus, which first emerged near the Congo's Ebola river in 1974.

The recoveries in Guinea have given medics battling the illness a sliver of hope, with many in the camp calling Fanta's recovery a "miracle".

"She was lucky, she was very strong. We have had patients who were cured after a hard fight for their bodies to recover, even when it didn't look like they were going to make it," said MSF nurse Catherine Jouvince.

The WHO said it was providing specialist training to 70 staff who would fan out across Conakry to track people who had been in close contact with those infected with Ebola. The agency is also setting up a special emergency response centre in Guinea's health ministry and providing specialist training to staff in the country's main hospital and in medical centres.

Ebola is passed on through infected bodily fluids such as blood, sweat and urine, and previous outbreaks have killed 90% of those infected.

It causes weakness, fever, aches, diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain. Additional symptoms include rash, red eyes, chest pain, throat soreness, difficulty breathing or swallowing and bleeding (including internal).

Gold Prices to Rise With Metal Expected to Build on April's Gains

Gold prices set to rise next week.Reuters

Gold prices are set to rise next week with the precious metal expected to build on the gains established so far this month.

As many as 14 of 22 analysts polled in a Kitco Gold Survey said they expected gold prices to rise next week, while four predicted that prices would drop and four forecast prices to remain unchanged.

Bob Tebbutt of Armour Asset Risk Management said the weakening US dollar is expected to continue to support bullion prices.

Gold's safe-haven investment status could get a boost next week from the uncertainty surrounding global economic growth; the ongoing standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine; and from equity investors eyeing the yellow metal, said Jeffrey Nichols, managing director, American Precious Metals Advisors.

There is "shifting sentiment on Wall Street with regard to equities versus gold. [In 2013] to an important extent, gold-price weakness reflected hedge funds and other institutional investors switching from gold, especially gold ETFs (exchange-traded funds), into equities, especially the tech stocks. Now, the momentum is reversing — causing some investors to reallocate, this time reducing their stock-market exposure once again in favor of gold," Nichols added.

Commerzbank Corportes & Markets said in a 11 April note to clients: "The gold price climbed to a 2½-week high of $1,325 per troy ounce [on 10 April] and [on 11 April] is trading not far off this level, finding support from weaker equity markets. The Japanese Nikkei index, for example, dropped overnight to a six-month low, while the Nasdaq suffered its sharpest daily decline since August 2011 [on 10 April]. The gold price is continuing to find support from the unexpectedly dovish [US Federal Reserve] minutes from mid-week because the US dollar has been tending towards weakness ever since."

"Because physical demand is also generating little impetus at present, the latest price rise is likely to have been driven predominantly by speculation," the German firm added.

Gold Ends Higher

Gold prices ended marginally lower on 11 April, but finished higher for the week as a whole amid hopes that the Fed would put off its plans to raise interest rates in early 2015.

US gold futures for delivery in June finished 0.1% lower at $1,319.00 an ounce on 11 April.

Prices rose 1.2% for the week.

Spot Gold also shed 0.1% to $1,318 per ounce.

India Bullion Imports

Gold and silver imports to India, the world's second-largest consumer of the yellow metal, plunged 40% to $33.46bn ((£19.98bn, €24.09bn), in the fiscal year 2013-14 in the wake of tough government restrictions.

However, the drop in gold and silver imports narrowed in March, recording a year-on-year drop of 17.27% to $2.76bn (£1.64bn, €1.99bn), reported Reuters.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to allow five private sector banks to import gold, in a move that marked a major step towards easing India's tough bullion import restrictions, imposed in 2013 in order to cut the nation's trade deficit.

Argentina Calls UK's Falklands Military Exercise an 'Act of Colonial Aggression'

Argentina Dubs UK's Falklands Military Exercise an 'Act of Colonial Aggression'Reuters

Argentina is heaping scorn on the UK over the scheduled military exercise in the disputed Falkland Islands calling the drill a new "act of colonial aggression" by Britain.

The country's deputy foreign minister Eduardo Zuaín has summoned the British ambassador in Buenos Aires over the exercise, which is to take place between 14 and 27 April.

Argentine foreign minister Héctor Timermanon said: "This action is part of a pattern of behaviour reported by the Lady President's Office on the second of April, pursuant to which the provocations and hostile acts towards Argentina by an extra-nuclear power are repeated."

Argentina also lays claim to the rocky archipelago, known as Las Malvinas in Spanish.

A spokesperson for the embassy of Argentina in London said in a statement: "This action [military exercise] falls within a pattern already denounced by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on 2 April, consisting of provocations and hostile acts towards Argentina from an extra-continental nuclear power."

"This action is a new example of UK's disregard for United Nations resolutions, which call on both parties to resume negotiations over sovereignty and refrain from introducing unilateral modifications in the situation as long as the dispute persists."

Argentina lost the islands in a bloody war with Britain in 1982, but tensions have resurfaced in recent years between the two countries.

Nearly 99.8% of the islanders voted in favour of remaining as a British overseas territory in the referendum in March 2013. The islands have a population of just under 3,000 people.

G20 Warns of Other Options If US Fails to Enact IMF Reforms by Year-end

G20 Finance Ministers and central bankers pose for the family portrait during the IMF/World Bank 2014 Spring Meeting in Washington.Reuters

Finance chiefs from the group of 20 prominent economies in the world have given the US until the year-end to enact long-delayed reforms at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The group added that it will look for alternative measures if the US Congress fails to meet the demand.

The reforms agreed in 2010 would double the IMF's resources and provide more voting power to the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The US Congress has refused to ratify the reforms, as some members opposed them citing high costs at a time when the country is facing huge budget deficits.

"We are deeply disappointed with the continued delay in progressing the IMF quota and governance reforms agreed to in 2010 and the 15th General Review of Quotas (GRQ) including a new quota formula," the G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs said in a final communiqué.

"The implementation of the 2010 reforms remains our highest priority and we urge the US to ratify these reforms at the earliest opportunity. We are committed to maintaining a strong and adequately resourced IMF."

"If the 2010 reforms are not ratified by year-end, we will call on the IMF to build on its existing work and develop options for next steps and we will work with the IMFC to schedule a discussion of these options," they added.

"I take this opportunity to urge the United States to implement these reforms as a matter of urgency," Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings.

US Treasury secretary Jack Lew earlier said that the country was working hard on the implementation of the 2010 quota and governance reforms.

"The Obama administration remains fully committed to securing legislation to back the IMF and update the Fund's governance to reflect the global economy. While the legislation has not passed, there is important bipartisan support for taking action," Lew said.

He added that the treasury has included the proposed legislation in the president's budget request for the fiscal year 2015, and it will continue to work actively with Congress to enact the necessary legislation this year.