Berlin: Germany pledged on Thursday to take a tough stance against xenophobia at the World Cup and dismissed a warning that black fans risked attacks in some parts of the country. “I think during the world championship everyone can feel safe, wherever he will be in Germany. We are prepared,” interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters. “No one who would try to make attacks on foreigners, people of colour, will succeed.”

He was speaking a day after a former government spokesman said non-whites should avoid parts of Brandenburg, the former east German state surrounding Berlin, because “they would possibly not leave there alive”.

Banking on Brazil

Sao Paulo: Banks in Brazil can shorten their hours to give employees a chance to watch the team’s World Cup games on TV, the Central Bank said on Wednesday. Banks and other financial institutions must open for at least four hours on match days, but can otherwise set their own sche- dule, the bank said in a statement.

Under Brazilian regulations, banks must normally be open for at least five hours a day including from noon to 3 pm.

The young and the old of it

London: England’s Theo Walcott will be the youngest player at the World Cup finals in Germany, Fifa said on Thursday. Tunisia’s 40-year-old goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel will be the oldest player at the tournament that starts on June 9.

The 17-year-old Walcott could become the youngest player since Pele at Sweden 1958 to score a goal at the finals. Boumnijel, should he play, will become the fifth oldest player in World Cup history behind Cameroon’s Roger Milla, Northern Ireland’s Pat Jennings, England’s Peter Shilton and Italian Dino Zoff.

Double cover

Dhaka: Fifa president Sepp Blatter has more than doubled the coverage of next month’s World Cup in Bangladesh. Journalists, originally granted only four accreditations, asked Blatter to help when he visited their country to open last month’s AFC Challenge Cup in Dhaka and they have now received six extra passes to cover the tournament.