Each year Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, issues a Worldwide Press Freedom Index ranking 168 countries according to how well they respect freedom of speech. In their just-issued new report, the United States ranking has fallen along with France and Japan. The U.S. ranked 17th in the group's first report, published in 2002, but it has now fallen to 53.

On the very day that Walt Disney Company announced that it would limit future food marketing deals to brands that provide healthy food products to kids, there was Kellogg's sugar-crazy Tony the Tiger (again) welcoming kids to Disney's website. Is the company, then, not "Greeeaat!" for its plan to limit calories, fat, saturated fat and added sugars to any product the Disney name promotes?

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer has disclosed that the Australian government contributed $A12,023 ($US9,150) towards the costs of a five-day speaking tour by the conservative Canadian commentator Mark Steyn.