Brazil protests ramp up, with 800,000 in streets

RIO DE JANEIRO: Hundreds of thousands of people rallied across Brazil Thursday, as a protest movement over the quality of public services and the high cost of staging the World Cup gathered steam.

The mounting pressure on the government of President Dilma Rousseff in the face of the biggest street protests the South American country has seen in 20 years prompted her to cancel a trip to Japan planned for next week.