Officials Try to Quell Rising Concerns Ahead of Rio Games

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Executive committee members of the International Olympic Committee met in Switzerland Wednesday to discuss growing worries over the Zika virus and Brazil’s readiness to host the Games this summer.

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Laurent Gillieron/Keystone, via Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Colorful placards in the Olympic Park here, the home of the International Olympic Committee, detail cultural, architectural and environmental trivia about Brazil, the site of this summer’s Olympics. Introducing Rio de Janeiro as home to 41,000 plant species and the biggest urban rain forest in the world, the placards advertise “all you need to know about the Rio Games before you even get there.”

But some timely facts are missing: Brazil is in the midst of a deepening financial crisis. The country has also been hit hard by the Zika virus, an international outbreak that the World Health Organization last month declared a public health emergency.

On Wednesday, officials of the…

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