Police raid gang-controlled slums in Rio; 14 dead

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Police raided gang-ruled shantytowns Wednesday, setting off clashes that killed 14 people as authorities try to halt a wave of violent crime that has rattled rich and poor alike in a city that Brazil hopes to make a showplace for the 2016 Olympics.

Police invaded the Vila Cruzeiro community and surrounding slums early in the day, engaging in intense gunbattles. Twenty-five people were detained.

"We didn't start this war," police spokesman Henrique de Lima Castro Saraiva said. "We were provoked. But we will emerge victorious."

Over the past three days, 21 people had been killed and about 150 arrested during sweeps by 17,500 officers, Lima Castro said. Two officers suffered minor wounds in Wednesday's fighting.

A wave of recent gang violence has shaken Rio. Authorities say gangs are lashing back in response to a law-enforcement drive to regain control of territory the past two years. The police force has been assigned an additional 1,200 officers to fend off attacks.

"We are stepping up our efforts," Lima Castro said. "We will be even more trenchant tomorrow."

Most of the violence was concentrated in the city's poor northern and western neighborhoods. Robber gangs have erected roadblocks where they have stopped cars and buses and set 29 vehicles on fire since the clashes began Sunday. One man was killed Wednesday when he refused to stop at a roadblock.

Police said they had not yet identified all the dead or determined what connection, if any, they had to drug trafficking or other crimes.

"Bystanders may be affected," Lima Castro said.

As bodies arrived at the Getulio Vargas state hospital in northern Rio, desperate relatives insisted their loved ones were innocent victims and lashed out at police and drug dealers alike.

"Congratulations, congratulations for killing another innocent victim," screamed a distraught man who identified himself as the father of 14-year-old Rosangela Barbosa Alves. Barbosa was killed by a stray bullet at her home in Vila Cruzeiro.

The father did not want to give his own name for fear of retaliation.

"There are three children (who were shot and killed) ... and no one does anything," added a weeping female relative of Barbosa who also declined to be identified. "The criminals are never killed."

The relatives of another victim, identified by the health department as Rafael Felipe Goncalves, 29, wrapped his body in a blanket and carried it down a steep slope leading to the hospital. He had been shot in the head and was dead on arrival.

"He is not a criminal," cried a man who identified himself as the victim's brother.

Security officials say the roadblock robberies and other gang violence are aimed at bringing a halt to a police campaign to force the groups out of the city's numerous shantytowns, where they have long ruled with impunity.

Thirteen shantytowns have been freed of gangs over the past two years. The plan is to liberate 40 - a small fraction of Rio's more than 1,000 slums - in time for the 2014 World Cup.

Police said a note found on a burning bus Wednesday warned that if law enforcement continues to push drug dealers out of the slums, Rio won't be able to host the Olympics.

Rio state Public Safety Director Jose Beltrame said security forces will not be deterred.

"This is not an easy task, but it is also an opportunity to build a better city," Beltrame told Globo TV on Wednesday. "We are not giving back one millimeter. Their threat shows we are on the right path. They're being affected."

Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, urged calm.

"What the bandits want is panic," he told CBN radio Wednesday. "We are facing a desperate reaction from criminals. But we are not going to despair."

Police have responded to the roadblock robberies by deploying riot officers on expressways into the city of 6 million people and sending patrols into more than 27 gang-controlled shantytowns to find gang members they hold responsible for the attacks.

Violence has plagued Rio for decades, but most has been contained within the slums that cling to the hillsides. Now, a few of the recent attacks have spilled into middle-class and wealthier neighborhoods closer to the beach, spreading fears that police are losing control of the city.

"The scary part is that now it's getting close to us. Before the violence was always far away," said Olga Silveira, who was milling around a plaza in the wealthy Ipanema neighborhood where police on Wednesday blew up a large, empty wooden box mistakenly feared to contain explosives. "Now we're feeling it on our flesh. The criminals have discovered the power they have and they want to show it."

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo and Flora Charner in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

- AP

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC101125-0000012/Police-raid-gang-controlled-slums-in-Rio-14-dead

Word of the Day: Venerate

Venerate - verb

1: to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference

2: to honor (as an icon or a relic) with a ritual act of devotion

Adoring fans venerated every item touched by the rock star's hands.

...

Ou seja, venerar.

Boy, 4, finds £2m treasure

A TREASURE hunter aged just four struck gold when he unearthed a pendant worth an estimated £2million.

Little James Hyatt made the discovery on his first outing using a metal detector.

His stunned father Jason, 34, dug down eight inches into the mud to find the golden trinket, about the size of a 50p piece.

He said: “James was so excited. He’s one of the luckiest people ever. He’d put his hand down the sofa and pull out a tenner.”

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The find has just been officially declared treasure and will be offered for sale to the British Museum and other institutions. Similar finds have fetched £2.5million and the proceeds will be split between James’s family
and the landowner.

The square pendant, known as a reliquary, was in a field in Hockley, Essex. It is believed to date back to the early 1500s and due to its quality to have been owned by a person of high rank. It is engraved with Mary, mother of Jesus, clutching a cross on the front and five bleeding hearts of Christ on the back.

Around the sides are carved the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar – the three kings who followed the star to Bethlehem to see the newborn Christ.

Mr Hyatt, a web designer from Billericay, essex, said: “the metal detector was bigger than James.



Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Boy, 4, finds £2m treasure

Quanto tempo leva pra falar inglês fluentemente?

Pois então, quanto tempo leva pra aprender inglês? Em quanto tempo conseguirei ser fluente?

A resposta é muito relativa, uma vez que tudo passa pela quantidade de esforço feito pelo aluno. Levando em conta os cursos regulares, para um aluno começar do básico e terminar o avançado, 5 anos (ou 10 semestres). Cada semestre, geralmente, tem carga horária entre 30 e 36 horas (mais ou menos 2 horas semanais por 4 meses). Sendo assim, para concluir do nível básico ao avançado neste regime, levaria entre 300 e 360 horas de aula, além de algumas horas de estudos extras que poderiam ser feitos de qualquer forma pelo aluno, lendo textos, vendo filmes ou vídeos, ou até mesmo fazendo exercícios por conta própria. Já segundo o professor Michael Jacobs, autor de muitos livros sobre ensino de inglês, o processo leva em torno de 1200 horas de estudo. Assim, se um aluno estudar religiosamente 1 hora por dia, levaria 1200 dias, ou seja, mais ou menos 3 anos e 3 meses.

Claro que existem muitas variáveis envolvidas nesse cálculo, assim como aptidão, idade, motivação, etc. De qualquer forma, cursos que oferecem inglês fluente em um período de tempo muito curto, como 6 meses ou 1 ano, geralmente não cumprem a promessa, afinal, aprender uma língua nova é um processo complexo.

Grammar And Vocabulary Of American And British English

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Grammar And Vocabulary Of American And British English

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Word of the day: all soul's day

All soul's day - In Western Christianity, All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. This day is principally observed in the Catholic Church, although some churches of the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it.

...

Ou seja, dia de finados. Também já tinha ouvido que o equivalente a ''finados'' seria o Memorial Day, que é o dia quando são lembradas todas as pessoas que morreram em guerras defendendo os EUA.