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Most World Cup teams played two games over the recent international break and here we assess how all of them fared

Live coverage as Brazil prepares for 2014 World Cup kick-off

Nicholson was finally kicked out of her flat in Ramsgate, Kent, last week after a string of complaints about drunken house parties over the past year. The 19-year-old advertised parties at her two-bed flat on Facebook, encouraging people to bring along the super loud instruments, which hit the headlines during the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The instruments can reach 131 decibels - the equivalent of a jet plane passing over your head at just 100ft. During the World Cup a string of players, including former Manchester United ace Cristiano Ronaldo said the noise affected his concentration on...

According to a Eurogamer report, game publisher Ubisoft has implemented a novel security measure - which largely involves the use of the South African vuvuzela horn - in its forthcoming Nintendo DS game "Michael Jackson: The Experience." Going by the report, the continuous buzzing of vuvuzela horns - which became immensely popular during this summer's World Cup - will virtually drown Michael Jackson's cult tunes for people who try to play the hacked version of the game via a downloadable ROM. In addition, as part of its anti-piracy measures, Ubisoft has removed the on-screen prompts on illegally downloaded ROMs of...

The guys at Hyundai come up with the mother of all vuvuzelas

First it was contraception, then abortion. Now the Pope wants to ban something else...Vuvuzelas. News reports indicate that Pope Benedict XVI,a former Nazi Youth and former head of the office formerly known as the Inquisition, is now banning the popular musical instrument which brought millions joy during the World Cup. When Pope Benedict XVI visits England he is expected to draw large crowds but the Vatican's ban of vuvuzelas has not come without considerable controversy. (In case you don't know what vuvuzelas are click here) "Is the Catholic Church just against all fun?" asked one devout Catholic who said he...

NYON, Switzerland – UEFA has banned fans from bringing vuvuzelas into stadiums for European Championship and Champions League matches. UEFA said Wednesday it wanted to protect the culture and tradition of fans singing at European soccer matches from the "negative effect" of the South African plastic trumpets made famous — and notorious — at the World Cup. "UEFA feels that the instrument's widespread use would not be appropriate in Europe," the organization said in a statement. All 53 European soccer nations have been told to enforce the ban at UEFA's national team and club competition matches. Vuvuzelas provided the World...

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to embark on a tour of England next month, Vatican officials are taking pains to make sure his followers know that the massive, open-air events planned on the trip should not be viewed in the same light as rock concerts or sporting events. On Monday, organizers released a list of banned, as well as sanctioned, items of which papal revelers need to be advised. Surge Desk has a round-up: Forbidden Vuvuzelas: That annoying drone heard at the World Cup 2010 will be silenced for England's papal masses. Wine: It may represent the blood of Christ,...

It blasted its way into our eardrums throughout the World Cup - and now the vuvuzela is set to make a big noise in the dictionary. The long South African horn was used incessantly through every match in the tournament. And the vuvuzela is one of more than 2,000 new words and phrases included in the Oxford Dictionary of English for the first time. Other newcomers include tweetup (a meeting arranged through Twitter), cheeseball (lacking taste or style) and a turducken (a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey). Paywall (which restricts website access to...

President Obama’s personal approval rating is much higher than the approval of his policies. No word from the pollsters yet how much the political correctness distorts the results. Michelle Obama (who is trying to make us stop eating cup-cakes and reduce our carbon footprint while she is burning fuel vacationing in Spain) has personal approval over 50%. Really? Do you know anybody who tells you all the time: ‘you are too fat and drive too much’? Most likely, by the time they say: ‘you are too fat’ their approval rating is down to 10%. Barack Obama will be a...

Did you try watching a game of the World Cup? Did you originally just think soccer was boring, but after five minutes of watching want to murder everyone involved with the game? That’s because of the vuvuzela, perhaps the most awful object in existence. I sent my crack research team to find out all they could about those noisemakers (though I forbade them to blow into one) and here is what they found: FUN FACTS ABOUT THE VUVUZELA * The vuvuzela was made in a collaboration of Hitler and Satan. They have sense profusely apologized. * The vuvuzela was created...

If you were into the final minutes of watching a soccer match during South Africa's recent World Cup extravaganza and suddenly you had the overpowering urge to go out and kill somebody, blame the vuvuzela. ...When blown like a trumpet, the vuvuzela produces a loud monotone which musicologists say is pretty close to a B-flat, three octaves below middle C. ...Played by a bunch of rowdy soccer fans, however, a blast from the vuvuzela could strip the chrome off a trailer hitch. ...During the World Cup, TV audiences often heard only the sound of vuvuzelas. Networks examined the possibility of...

What will become of all those millions of vuvuzelas now that the World Cup is over? The answer is they are likely to be recycled into plastic park benches and buckets, according to Barry Turner of the Plastics 2020 Challenge “Many people have come to wish good riddance on the dreaded vuvuzela and I am happy to confirm that their wishes can come true as the instrument is completely recyclable so it need not end up in landfill,” said Turner. “This is just as well as according to the manufacturers over 800,000 were sold in South Africa and up to...

The horns that have blared at World Cup matches in South Africa make an unholy racket — according to a religious edict in the United Arab Emirates. A fatwa by the UAE's General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments declares that the now-famous blast from the plastic vuvuzela is not permitted in the Gulf country if it exceeds 100 decibels — about the sound of a passing train.

Funny LOTR's video on youtube.

FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa - Day 18 - Live Thread: Netherlands vs. Slovakia then Brazil vs. Chile

A drunken German football fan severely beat a police officer with a vuvuzela horn after the national team’s victory over Ghana on Wednesday night, the authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia said on Thursday. Most of the celebrations in the town of Dinslaken just north of Duisburg were peaceful after the game, which more than 10,000 people turned out to watch, the Wesel county police department reported. But at 11:10 pm, one intoxicated 20-year-old fan began taunting a police officer who was directing traffic around a gathering of some 1,500 people. “As he turned to the 20-year-old, the man suddenly began hitting...

Racism used to be defined (and should be defined) as opposition to people or things because of their racial origins. How the times have changed. From Outside the Beltway: Former Black Panther Charles Barron, city councilman from Brooklyn, says only racists would ban vuvuzelas. Which he’d never heard of 30 seconds earlier. Barron's reasoning? IF the vuvuzelas have a black origin, THEN opposition to the vuvuzelas is racist. Nothing about whether the opposition has anything to do with race: Absolutely it's racist, because if that's something that comes out of our culture, it's in our country South Africa, then we...

Lord of The Rings meets its match with the world cup's Vuvuzela

For those of you who don't know what the Vuvuzela is, here's an introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrYb9qtO8OQ