Renata Giraldi and Yara Aquino      Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília – President Dilma Rousseff travels to London this afternoon where she will  have an intensive schedule between now and Saturday.

She will attend the opening of the Olympic Games on Friday as the host of the next, 2016, games. The visit to London will be used as a sterling opportunity to promote Brazil as a tourist destiny in view of the upcoming 2014 World Cup and Olympic Games.

Dilma will be accompanied by ministers Helena Chagas of Social Communication (Comunicação Social), Aldo Rebelo of Sports (Esportes), Antonio Patriota of Foreign Relations (Relações Exteriores), Gastão Vieira of Tourism (Turismo), Aloizio Mercadante of Education (Educação) and Marco Antonio Raupp of Science, Technololgy and Innovation (Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação), as well as the president of the Chamber of Deputies (presidente da Câmara), Marco Maia (PT-RS).

During her stay in London, Dilma will attend a reception for heads of state and government offered by queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday, July 25, she has a meeting scheduled with the prime minister, David Cameron, for a discussion of the economic crisis in Europe and the rest of the world.

On Thursday, July 26, science and education will be the focus of the president’s activities. She will visit the London Science Museum in the company of Stephen Hawking and meet with Brazilian students who are participating in the government’s Science Without Borders program (an exchange program that will eventually send 100,000 students, professionals and researchers to study and work abroad in order to reduce a science skills shortage in Brazil). Dilma will sign an agreement that will include British universities in the program.

Also on Thursday, Dilma will inaugurate the Casa Brasil in London that will present an exposition to promote the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as part of a campaign by the Brazilian Tourism Institute.

The Brazilian delegation to the London Olympic Games has 259 athletes, 136 men and 123 women. They will participate in 32 sports.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Dilma viaja hoje à tarde para Londres, onde fica até sábado