| At least 27 people were killed in two impoverished suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, in what was suspected to be the work of vengeful police officers. The killings occurred late Thursday in Nova Iguacu and Queimados, crime-infested suburbs 22 miles northwest of Rio, according to Claudia Guerreiro, a spokeswoman for the Rio Public Safety Department. "There are strong indications that the massacres could have been a reprisal ... for the arrest of eight police officers suspected of killing two men in police station," Guerreiro said Friday. She said the killings were apparently committed within several minutes of each other by the same group of heavily armed men. In Queimados, the gunmen mowed down 12 people. In nearby Nova Iguacu, 15 people were killed at a bar, she said. |