To many of those unfamiliar with them, Rio de Janeiro’s favelas—dense urban settlements of cheap, sometimes illegally built dwellings and shops—are objects of fear and curiosity. Outsiders associate these neighborhoods with extreme poverty, drugs and crime, and rarely visit, though they housenear...
Rio's favelas have long been thought of as no go areas, but Google is literally putting them on the map.Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images The favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro have had a lot of bad press in the run-up to the Olympics. We've seen stories ofviolence,gun battlesand...