Bus strike strands thousands in World Cup host city Rio

Thousands of passengers across Rio de Janeiro endured long lines and tense commutes on Thursday as a bus strike and related vandalism disrupted the workday in Brazil’s second-biggest city. The strike renewed concerns about services and public order one month before Rio and 11 other Brazilian cities play host to the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament. It came two weeks after the death of a dancer in a police shootout prompted riots in a slum near the city’s most popular tourist district. By early afternoon, the consortium of private companies that operates Rio’s municipal bus network said that more than 300 of its vehicles had been vandalized, many of them in Rio’s sprawling western suburbs.