I'm so upset!

War tied to defeat of global lottery

Maryland won't be getting $25 million in new revenue from a high-jackpot lottery after plans for the proposed international game collapsed amid a protest of U.S. military action in Iraq.
Maryland was one of 20 states working toward the development of a lotto-style game that would have allowed 350 million residents scattered throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe and Australia to compete for prizes that could have reached a total of $1 billion in a single drawing.

But negotiations among the 40 lottery partners who had signed a letter of intent fizzled after the United States invaded Iraq in March, Edward J. Stanek, chairman of the International Lottery Alliance and head of the Iowa lottery, said yesterday.

"We were within a month of signing a contract with a deadline that was mutually set. A game had been designed," Stanek said. "Within days [of the Iraqi invasion], four of the countries in Europe pulled back from the project, and said they were not in a position to move forward with it, and were indefinitely postponing their participation."

Stanek said he was told privately that the U.S. role in Iraq was the cause. "It would be highly coincidental if there was anything else involved," he said, declining to name the four countries because their participation in the project had not been made public previously.
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The state is looking at alternatives to pick up the slack, said Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow. And talks continue for a new domestic multistate game with jackpots that would exceed those of the existing Powerball or Mega Millions.

"From my point of view, good riddance," Roogow said. "We are not operating a United Nations with our lottery games."

I can't get too enthusiastic about lotteries in the first place, but Buddy has this one right.

Brazil to fingerprint US citizens

A Brazilian judge has announced that US citizens will be fingerprinted and photographed on entering the country.
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From 5 January, travellers from all countries which need a visa to enter the US will undergo the same checks.

Actually, I believe the fingerprints of visitors to the US will be scanned electronically - there is no ink or printing involved. But, whatever, if Brazil felt they needed better border security, why not?

But that's not the reason:

Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva was reacting to US plans to do the same to Brazilians entering the United States.

He made the order after a Brazilian government office filed a complaint in a federal court over the new US immigration measures.
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"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva said in the court order.

The judge apparently doesn't get out much.