Police in Berlin said on Wednesday they had arrested two men on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city and inviting people to kick them.
Four days before the football World Cup final, tickets for the match in Berlin were selling on the black market for 10 times their original price.
Elton John has become the latest pop star to mock England's failed attempts to win the World Cup.
A German scientist has created the world's smallest soccer pitch -- so minute that 20,000 of them could fit onto the tip of a human hair.
Germany picked itself up slowly from the pain of sudden defeat to celebrate the bright side of a World Cup run that gripped the host nation.
Italian doctors may allow hospitalized ex-Juventus defender Gianluca Pessotto to watch Italy on TV in the World Cup final on Sunday, local media reported Wednesday.
Islamic militiamen have killed two people in central Somalia after opening fire in a cinema where people were watching a banned World Cup match.
A second leading African football official has been implicated in a World Cup ticket scandal, Confederation of African Football (CAF) officials have said.
World Cup hooliganism has spread to the Middle East _ in a small way, at least. After Italy beat Germany 2-0 in the semifinals, rival fans in Beirut fought each other with bottles, sticks and chairs, and seven people had to be treated in hospital, Lebanese security officials said Wednesday.
The foyer in Berlin's biggest brothel sports beer flagons shaped like soccer balls and its big screen theater showed live World Cup matches, but for all the anticipation, the tournament has not led to the huge spike in business the German sex industry had hoped for.
France's president and prime minister set official business aside Wednesday to discuss the country's World Cup semifinal match against Portugal.