A "feliz ano novo" to all of you. The news from Rio de Janeiro:

It's been very quiet in Brazil over the holidays (unless you consider the fireworks!). The government has been in its first official holiday recess, proclaimed by President Lula after a successful (in his view) first year in office. An editorial cartoon showed Lula skateboarding from 2003 to 2004, with thumbs up, saying, "So far, so good." The newspapers have mostly been filled with overseas news (the earthquake in Iran, the Mars landers) and year-end overviews.

The New Year has been greeted with the fingerprinting controversy, called "The War of the Fingerprints". An 8-hour queue was reported at Rio's Galeão airport for arriving American tourists. Brazil's ill-prepared police force sent one technician to deal with the 10 flights arriving from the US in close order. American response has ranged from the "I'm never coming back again" to the "we understand why Brazil is doing this, but they should have their house together before they 'go live'". A judge in Rio state is considering temporarily suspending the measure locally in order not to prejudice the state's economy by the loss of tourist revenue, an important seasonal factor between Christmas and Carnaval. In São Paulo, the fingerprinters took only a right-thumbprint in order to speed the process from 6 minutes to 1.5 minutes per passenger.

Yesterday, Lula and former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso jointly received the Notre Dame prize, awarded them for their competent management of the transition from one democratically elected government to another.

News in the Staheli case has been limited. I've only seen one reference over the holidays - DNA material found under Michele Staheli's fingernails was confirmed to be from a male, but it did not match the family's driver or any of the condominium security people. The investigation has slipped from the papers of late.

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