Brazil's Olympics/World Cup

...over the weekend, in a chilling outburst of violence, drug traffickers wielding what the police say they believe was a large-caliber weapon shot down a police helicopter just one mile from Maracana stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held and the World Cup final will be played two years before the Olympics.

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(An armored police vehicle sits near two public buses set on fire by drug gangs trying to distract the police from their battle for the control of a slum, in Rio de Janeiro October 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes))



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(Police work to extinguish the burning remains of one of their crime-fighting helicopters after it was shot down when trying to intervene in a battle between two opposing drug gangs, in a Rio de Janeiro slum October 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Alexandre Brum-O Dia))