Hundreds of army troops backed by armored vehicles have cordoned off nine Rio de Janeiro slums and on Tuesday were conducting house-to-house searches for automatic weapons stolen last week by suspected drug gang members from a military base.The army’s action, which began over the weekend, was a rare military confrontation with the gangs that all but run much of the city. The last time Brazil’s army restored order in the city’s slums was in 2003. Full Story