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World Cup chit-chat: Shakira's 'Waka Waka' polled favourite song
Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira's 2010 World Cup song topped the list of best World Cup song in a poll that was held recently.
The Daily Express had asked its readers to vote for their favourite official song from the last five tournaments and the stylish singer’s 2010 World Cup's catchy tune emerged as a clear winner with 59 per cent votes.
Ricky Martin's 'The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida)' for the France World Cup in 1998 came second with 25 per cent of the votes, while Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull's song, 'We Are One (Ole Ola)', for this year's Brazil competition gained only 19 per cent of the votes.
The 37-year-old welcomed son Milan with partner Gerard Pique of FC Barcelona in January.
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Uruguay's Suarez bullish about World Cup after surgery
Striker Luis Suarez promised Uruguay fans he would be at the World Cup finals after successful keyhole surgery on a knee injury on Thursday.
Suarez, who helped Uruguay to fourth place at the last World Cup in South Africa four years ago, will need 15 to 20 days to recover but Uruguay team doctors are not ruling him out of the tournament in Brazil, which runs from June 12 to July 13.
"Many thanks to all of you for your support. Relax, because I'll get there and work hard these days to be 100 percent to help my team mates," Suarez said on the local sports website.
"Yesterday... Luis Suarez, after the normal warm-up (for practice) felt an intense pain in his left knee... An MRI scan confirmed partial lesion of the external meniscus," a Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) statement said.
"This morning he had an arthroscopy with a partial resection of the meniscus, there was no evidence of other lesions in his knee... His participation in the World Cup in Brazil is not ruled out."
The statement said Suarez, top scorer in the English Premier League last season with 31 goals for Liverpool, sustained a knock in the club's final match of the season.
The 27-year-old Suarez has little room for manoeuvre before Uruguay play their first match in Group D, against Costa Rica in Fortaleza on June 14. Uruguay also face England and Italy in the first round.
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Germany's Lars Bender out with thigh injury
Germany midfielder Lars Bender has been ruled out of next month's World Cup in Brazil with a thigh injury, the team said on Friday.
Two days after Germany started their preparations with a training camp in northern Italy, the Bayer Leverkusen player had to pull out of the 27-man provisional squad, Germany said in a brief statement.
The three-time World Cup winners have been drawn in Group G along with Portugal, United States and Ghana.
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Donovan surprisingly left off US squad
Landon Donovan, the United States' all-time top scorer, has been surprisingly left out of their 23-man squad for next month's World Cup, US Soccer said on Thursday.
Donovan was part of the provisional 30-man squad, which has gathered at a pre-tournament camp in Palo Alto, California, but did not make the final cut selected by coach Juergen Klinsmann ahead of the June 12-July 13 tournament in Brazil.
The 32-year-old forward has played for the United States in the past three World Cups and was long considered the face of American soccer.
"It is certainly the toughest decision of my coaching career to tell a player like him, with everything he's done and what he represents, to tell him that you are not part of that 23 right now," said Klinsmann.
"I just see some other players slightly ahead of him. He's been part of that final 30 roster in terms of the last 10 days and he did everything right, he was always positive, he took it in the best way possible," added the coach.
Donovan took a short break from the game last year and missed some crucial qualifying games for the finals but was back for the 2013 Gold Cup and his omission will shock many fans.
Former Germany striker and coach Klinsmann has long made it clear however that Donovan should not be considered an automatic selection and last April said that the player had fallen down his pecking order.
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Protest puts Sao Paulo business district on edge
Several thousand demonstrators marched through an expensive business district of Brazil's largest city on Thursday to protest against urban developments for the soccer World Cup that they say have left many homeless.
"I don't want a World Cup in Brazil, I want a roof," they chanted as they passed the luxurious Iguatemi shopping center, demanding government housing for those who have been pushed out of their homes by soaring real estate prices.
"You can send in troops, but if you don't look after the people there will be no Cup," a banner said.
The demonstration took place peacefully, although it snarled traffic and forced shops to close. Other recent protests have seen clashes with police and rioting, raising fears that violence could disrupt the World Cup that kicks off in three weeks at Sao Paulo's new Arena Corinthians stadium.
The march was organized by a group called the Homeless Worker's movement, which represents 4,000 families living in a tent city on land a few miles from the stadium that they say priced them out of their working class neighborhood.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has promised the squatters low-cost government housing to resolve the dispute. But her government has warned that it will call in troops if necessary to prevent protests disrupting the soccer games.
Authorities in the 12 cities hosting World Cup games are bracing for a repeat of last year's massive demonstrations by Brazilians angered by the high cost of building stadiums instead of improving deficient public services.
Organizers of Thursday's march said they would continue protesting during the World Cup.