Stray Bullets Rain Down on Violent Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The toll from stray bullets that rain down on Rio from the city's steep hillside slums as police and drug gangs battle with automatic weapons has grown sharply, with one innocent bystander killed or wounded every day.

Businesses and schools in the line of fire have been shuttered. Thousands of children are staying home. Even air travel is affected - domestic jet routes were diverted from Rio's downtown airport when shooting flared up in a slum near Copacabana beach that the planes had to fly over. And travelers avoid driving the Red Line highway to the international airport at night because it passes near one of the worst live-fire zones.

In-the-know tourists and business travelers are shelling out extra for beachfront views, as much to be safe from flying bullets from the slums that line the back of the tony beach communities as for the view. And even in the city's best neighborhoods, apartments facing the hillside slums can be worth 60 percent less than units in the same building that are less likely to be hit.
By MICHAEL ASTOR
Associated Press Writer