Brazil's President vowed Monday to fight drug gangs who sparked a weekend of bloody clashes that killed 21 people in Rio de Janeiro, just two weeks after the seaside city was awarded the 2016 summer Olympics. “We'll do anything it takes and make all necessary sacrifices so we can clean up the mess that these people are imposing on Brazil,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in Sao Paulo. Rio police said the death toll from weekend battles between rival gangs had risen from 14 to 21 because more bodies were found in a notorious slum, where the clashes also downed a police helicopter. Two of the six police in the helicopter died Saturday after the aircraft made a fiery landing on a football field, and a third who was badly burned died on Monday. Lula said the federal government will give more funds to state authorities to fight the drug traffickers that control many of Rio's 1,000 slums, and will provide police with a bulletproof helicopter. Lula did not discuss security preparations for the Olympics, but said Brazil knows “it will take time to resolve the problems of the gangs, organized crime, and the drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro.” --SPA
