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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — An Italian tourist was killed Thursday in a shantytown near the center of Rio de Janeiro in an area fought over by rival drug trafficking gangs, police said.
Authorities identified the dead man as Roberto Bardella and said another Italian tourist, Rino Polato, was found unharmed at an entrance to the Morro dos Prazeres favela early in the day.
The men were touring South America on motorcycles that were found in the favela, officials said. Investigators believe the Italians got lost in the favela.
The city's pacification effort has a police station in the slum, but the program has been deeply affected by budget cuts amid a financial crisis for the Rio de Janeiro state government.
Police have been attacked in the favela several times in recent years.
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