Brazil's new Agriculture minister is the obedient servant of big agribusiness and will energetically promote deforestation.

Israel arrested members of an anti-Arab hate group, accusing them of various violent acts.

The UK has used bail conditions to arbitrarily ban hundreds of activists from protests.

The bogus charges are dropped eventually, but in the mean time, democracy is the loser.

Russia reports that an unidentified witness saw a Ukrainian fighter plane take off with missiles and land without them, at the time flight MH17 was shot down.

If true, this would not be conclusive proof that Ukraine shot down the passenger jet. There could be other reasons for the fighter to return without missiles.

But is this testimony real? We have only the Russian state's word that the witness made this testimony — and that the witness exists at all.

Is Sony's Crackdown a Bigger Threat to Western Free Speech Than North Korea?