And while we are at it...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2777310a12,00.html
Quote:
Rio to fight Brazil fingerprinting of US visitors
07 January 2004
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's top travel destination, on Tuesday appealed a court order requiring US tourists to be fingerprinted and photographed.
Rio's deputy attorney general Alberto Guimaraes Junior, also said compensation was being sought from the federal government for losses in tourism earnings. He gave no estimate of the value being claimed.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rio's special secretary for tourism Rubem Medina said that the identification system, which began on Jan. 1 in response to a similar US programme for travellers entering the United States, could halve the number of US tourists to Rio.
"We make an enormous effort to attract and win over US tourists, and a decision like that one puts us at risk of losing everything," he said.
Some 20 per cent of the 350,000 foreign visitors to Rio every year are US tourists, Medina said.
Some US tourists arriving to Rio de Janeiro on Monday were kept waiting up to eight hours, causing many of them to miss connecting flights or a day of sightseeing.
"Ours is all electronic scanning and in and out in a heartbeat. Here it's 15 minutes, 20 minutes per person," said Lorin Hall, a US tourist who arrived in Rio over the weekend.
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I begin to think that I'm the only one who tries to find more then one source, to verify his postings, or at least understand what the post is about. I don't see what’s so hard about it.
Lets think of it this way. US changes its stance on Brazil's fingerprinting, brain says 'Why would they do that so soon, there must be a reason'. Fingers type 'www.google.com' and put in Brazil fingerprinting. I find the first story explaining the problem. Then I see a nice link to click up top about the latest story.
I'm not trying to be an ass, it comes naturally, but come on, throw me a bone here.