Consumer Reports' 2014 Top Pick for theBest 10 Cars

 Luxury car: Audi A6

 Midsize SUV: Hyundai Santa Fe

 Sports sedan: BMW 328i

 Small SUV: Subaru Forester

  Tesla Model S

 Midsize sedan: Honda Accord (4 cyl.)

 Minivan: Honda Odyssey

 Green car: Toyota Prius

 Pickup truck: Ram 1500

Compact car: Subaru Impreza

Dominoes Tricks

Inside Brazil's most overcrowded prison

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Noeli Borges is lining up outside the Central Prison in this city waiting to visit her incarcerated teenage son, jailed for allegedly being caught with drugs.

"I've been told the conditions are horrible inside the jail, is that true?" I ask her. "Horrible?" she shot back without delay. "No, welcome to hell."

To see for myself, I accompanied a visit of local judges on a recent inspection of the prison.

The day we visited, the jail had 4,470 inmates. It has a capacity for 2,069.

Welcome to Brazil's most overcrowded prison, one of the worst places in the country to be incarcerated.

Entering the Central Prison is a surreal experience of a network of hallways and staircases that passes by cells that are supposed to hold four inmates, but where it's obvious eight to 10 are crammed inside at night.

One of the main prison blocks that houses several hundred inmates was emptied for our visit.

On the hallway floor, dozens of mattresses were piled up, bags of clothes hung from the walls next to crude, handmade, electricity lines that were stitched together. If there were to be a fire, there would be little help, as the extinguisher was missing.

All the doors were ripped off the individual cells by the inmates. In the prison block, inmates mix freely amongst themselves and guards rarely enter this area.

One cell was turned into a makeshift kitchen. It was filthy with a layer of black grime covering everything, a cockroach scurrying about, raw sewage dumped out the window into the prison yard below.

There were several open shower heads, next to a hold in the ground that was a toilet.

In the prison yard, flies circled around a pile of rubbish in the open sun.

Prisoners used rope to pass down food and who-knows-what-else to inmates in cells below or in an adjacent yard.

In the hallways of the main complex, new inmates with nowhere to go are left standing, sometimes for days, in a holding area.

Prison guards prevented us from freely interviewing inmates.

'Absurd number'

"The Central Prison is a symbol of everything a prison should not be," said Jose Brzuska, an outspoken local judge. "It has an absurd number of prisoners."

Gelson Treiesleben, the superintendent of the state prison system, says he can't solve the problem until three new jails are built in the state, all of which are still under construction.

"I cannot improve the conditions without taking some inmates out of there, and I can’t build new jails from one day to the next," he said.

A new central kitchen has been built, a special wing exclusively for gay and lesbian inmates, and tuberculosis testing is now being done.

But Lisiane Alves, the president of the state association of public defenders, said the entire complex needs to be imploded.

"It's a dungeon," she said of the prison conditions. "A concentration camp of psychological deterioration of humans."

Brazil's prison population has gone from about 130,000 in 2000, to 563,700 today.

A recent audit found that Brazil has capacity for 363,500 inmates nationwide, meaning the country has about 202,000 more inmates than they have space.

Only the United States, China and Russia have more people incarcerated than Brazil.

Back outside the Central Prison, mothers, wives and girlfriends of inmates wait in line for visitation.

They all carry big sacks filled with snacks, toilet paper and soap, all of which are in short supply in the jail.

"If I bring toilet paper my son will be able to clean himself," Mrs Borges tells me. "If I bring soap, he will be able to take a shower. But if I don't bring these things, he won't be able to."

And her son? He's 19 and been incarcerated for three months. The Central Prison is so overcrowded, he's yet to have his first court appearance.

Bad year for US Congress

Very little achieved by US Congress throughout 2013, with a similar scorecard expected over 2014.

It’s safe to say, 2013 was a bad year for the US Congress. From seemingly endless political showdowns to a partial government shutdown, America’s top legislative body managed to accomplish very little – except argue. In order for a bill to become law in the United States, both chambers - the House of Representatives dominated by Republicans, and the Senate, controlled by Democrats - must approve it. This didn’t happen. It’s just one reason very few laws of importance to Americans were passed.

Instead, 2013 was the year the US Congress chose to govern by crisis. On the rare occasions where Congress did agree, it only seemed to do so at the 11th hour, and after much fighting and political finger-pointing. Now, Congressional politicians are paying the price. Congressional approval ratings are at historic lows. The outlook for 2014 isn't much better, and that's frustrating ordinary Americans like community organiser Nkechi Feaster.

She told Al Jazeera that some days, it is hard to stay motivated. She's frustrated with her elected representatives.

“They're not working for me. They’re not working for the average American citizen,” she said. “I think that Congress and certain government officials live a pretty cushy and unrealistic lifestyle.”

Low ratings

This is a view shared by most Americans. Approval ratings in 2013 averaged just 14 percent, which is among the lowest approval ratings for Congress in its history. Politicians did not agree on gun control laws, raising the minimum wage or immigration reform to allow more than 11 million undocumented immigrants a chance at citizenship.

That's because, in part, US politicians also had record levels of inactivity in 2013. The US Congress passed just 60 bills in 2013. That’s far less than the 295 Congress passed in 1947 when then President Truman labeled the legislative body, a "Do Nothing Congress". Despite the fact that Congressional members collect a minimum salary of $174,000 a year, most pressing domestic issues in 2013, went unaddressed.

Melanie Sloan is the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government watchdog group. She told us Congress has not only been missing in action, it is done serious harm.

"To call this one a "Do Nothing Congress" is really generous, she said. “Because, rather than simply do nothing, they have done real damage to the country. They’re hurt our economy, they’ve hurt the international economy, they’ve left children out in the cold, not going to school, They’ve made sure that people aren’t eating and they’ve made the Defense Department not ready. These are just a few of the things that have happened," said Sloan.

Indeed, some of the biggest stories to come out of Congress in 2013 had little to do with legislation and a lot more to do with political point-scoring. Instead of taking up high priority issues, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted more than 40 times, to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law. That of course, led to a partial government shutdown in October which lasted 16 days.

The upper chamber, the US Senate, wasn't much better. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, held up legislation for a day to protest healthcare reform, at times reading from the children's book, Dr. Seuss, to run out the clock on the session.

"Congress is finishing this year less popular than a cockroach,” the top Senate Democrat, Harry Reid, told reporters.

Different strokes

Big projects that Congress have been left unfinished as lawmakers bolted for Christmas recess. Politicians failed to approve legislation that would allow thousands of Americans to do the same. Lawmakers failed to extend federal unemployment benefits so just days after Christmas, more than a million Americans lost financial support they relied on while they searched for work. This, despite the fact that long-term unemployment in the US is still at its highest level since World War II. Congress did not stop there. It also failed to confirm Janet Yellen as the Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve.

Feaster shakes her head.

"Congress is not living in the world that everyone else lives in. They have much more security that they've created for themselves. They maintain it for themselves while everyone else has been forgotten about."

"I think it's frustrating for the vast majority of Americans. I think Americans want to see an effective government. They don't want to see things like government shutdowns and yet we've set up a situation where we're likely to see reoccurrences," said Sloan.

Sloan told us she has few hopes next year will be any better. 2014 is an election year. Come November, the politicians in the House of Representatives and much of the Senate will be up for re-election. Precedent shows this is historically a recipe for legislative inactivity and few bi-partisan agreements on Capitol Hill. More political warfare is likely, as politicians focus not on legislating but on campaigning to keep their seats.

"People look at our government shutdown and how really childish it is and say that our government is just a bunch of small children running amok," said Sloan.

"It’s not surprising that America’s stature is really shrinking around the world."

By Kimberly Halkett

NSA leaker Edward Snowden: 'Mission's already accomplished'

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden said his "mission's already accomplished" after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies.

Snowden told The Washington Post in an interview published online Monday night that he was satisfied because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government's collection of bulk Internet and phone records, an activity that has grown dramatically in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said. "I already won."

"As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated," Snowden told the Post. "Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."

President Barack Obama hinted Friday that he would consider some changes to NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records to address the public's concern about privacy. His comments came in a week in which a federal judge declared the NSA's collection program probably was unconstitutional. A presidential advisory panel has suggested 46 changes to NSA operations.

Snowden was interviewed in Moscow over two days by Post reporter Barton Gellman, who has received numerous leaks from Snowden. The interview was conducted six months after Snowden's revelations first appeared in the Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Gellman described Snowden as relaxed and animated over two days of nearly unbroken conversation, fueled by burgers, pasta, ice cream and Russian pastry.

In June, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint charging Snowden, a former NSA contractor, with espionage and felony theft of government property. Russia granted him temporary asylum five months ago.

The effects of Snowden's revelations have been evident in the courts, Congress, Silicon Valley and capitals around the world, where even U.S. allies have reacted angrily to reports of U.S. monitoring of their leaders' cellphone calls. Brazil and members of the European Union are considering ways to better protect their data and U.S. technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are looking at ways to block the collection of data by the government.

Snowden, now 30, said he is not being disloyal to the U.S. or to his former employer.

"I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA," he said. "I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it."

Asked about the Snowden interview, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said: "Mr. Snowden faces felony charges here in the United States and should be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible, where he will be afforded due process and all the protections of our criminal justice system."

Are Africans ready to put race behind them?

Mandela urged both black and white South Africans to think of themselves as citizens. But are people ready for that?

Here's a conversation on Twitter which occurred during former South African President Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Soweto.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe got very loud cheers from people in the stadium when he arrived for the memorial at Johannesburg's FNB stadium on Tuesday.

Someone tweeted: "If I was a white African I would ponder a lot on the enthusiastic welcome given to Mugabe. Oh shit. I am."

Response to tweet: "I thought you were a South African. African equates to 'black' #justsaying".

Then this reply, from someone else: "Dialogue between the black+white African is key & yet we shy away 4rm [sic] it! We haven't talked since #madiba made us in court rooms."

The sometimes uncomfortable issues about land reforms and indigenisation are still simmering, just below the surface, clearly. Some African countries, like South Africa, choose not to talk this openly about the issue, while others are more than willing to do so, even showing off about it. (Mugabe's Zimbabwe is very much in the latter camp.)

So what makes one indigenous to Africa? Is it the colour of one's skin or that one was born on the continent?

Are white-skinned people who are born in Africa Africans? If they are not, then what are they?

Nelson Mandela encouraged the different races to forgive and move on as Africans. But we know there is still a long way to go before his dream is fully realized. The simple truth is that, even today, some blacks don't like whites and some whites don't like blacks.

Those comments on Twitter suggest we need to feel comfortable enough to talk about this. What makes us Africans?

But are blacks and whites ready to do that?

By Haru Mutasa

Convicted Egyptian women eye new protests

Alexandria, Egypt - Ola Ezzat is already making plans to protest again, just two weeks after she and 20 other women were sentenced to 11-year jail terms for their activism.

Ezzat, 18, a student at Ain Shams University, was convicted on November 27 for taking part in a peaceful protest in this Mediterranean city in Egypt. Seven of the defendants were minors, the youngest just 15 years old.

On Saturday, however, an appeals court lessened the verdict - three years' probation for the girls, one-year suspended sentences for the adults - and allowed the defendants to go free, with a warning not to break the law again.

When this happened I was sad. For my daughter, I was crying inside. But for what's happening in Egypt, I support her.

- Alaa Eddin , father of Ola Ezzat, one of the convicted protesters

But in an interview in her family apartment in Alexandria's Sidi Bishr neighbourhood, Ezzat said her friends are already discussing more protests.

"This is our right, and we cannot only exercise it the first time," she said.

Ezzat and her family are outspoken supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate who was elected last year and overthrown by the army in July. They insisted that Morsi, "the legitimate democratic president", would eventually return to power. A hand-drawn portrait of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Brotherhood, hangs over the couch in their living room.

For a family such as the Ezzats, however, the political has also become intensely personal. Ola's brother joined the sit-in at Raba'a al-Adawiya square, one of two pro-Morsi protests where hundreds were killed in August; several friends were shot in front of him, he said.

Four other family members are in jail, including her cousin and uncle, who have been held without charge since August.

The case against the girls has highlighted not just the flaws in Egypt's deeply politicised judicial system, but also the desperate need for reconciliation. Countless Egyptians have been affected by the crackdown on the Brotherhood; their numbers grow daily, and their anger at the government is an intractable obstacle to the political "road map" laid out after Morsi's ouster.

"We need to do this to remember the martyrs of Raba'a … everyone has friends or family who have been killed or arrested," said Ezzat, explaining why she plans to protest again.

'It was a political verdict'

The facts of the case have been widely criticised, not only by Morsi's supporters but also by human rights activists and political factions opposed to the Brotherhood. Even politicians such as Hamdeen Sabbahi, a Nasserist who is trying to position himself as the pro-army presidential candidate in next year's elections, called publicly for a pardon.

Many compared the ruling to Alexandria's best-known criminal case, the murder of Khaled Said, a businessman whose brutal killing at the hands of police became a rallying point for the 2011 revolution. The officers who beat him to death were sentenced to just seven years in prison.

"It was a political verdict in the first place," said Amr Ismail from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "The government was surprised by the reaction that the first verdict caused. Even people who hate the Muslim Brotherhood were shocked."

The protest on October 31 was the first by a group calling itself "7 am", which hoped to catch the attention of commuters on their way to work or school.

Prosecutors accused the girls of blocking the Corniche, the main seaside road in Alexandria. Ezzat denied this, saying they stood on the shoulder.

Some of the pro-Morsi protests have turned violent, with protesters attacking police and local residents. State media accused the Alexandria women of carrying weapons, but no evidence was put forward to support that claim.

The women were also charged with destroying property, but the only example offered in court was a scratched glass door on a nearby building; damages were estimated at 50 Egyptian pounds, about $7.

"They didn't even prove that the girls were the ones who did this," Ismail said. "Their witnesses said the people who scratched the glass were men."

Ayman al-Dabi, one of the lawyers who represented the jailed women, said the harsh verdict was meant to intimidate women and stop them from joining protests.

"If you manage to scare 50 percent of those people by making them think they're going to face tough consequences, then they will stop going down in the street," said Dabi, whose niece was among those arrested. "This was a security plot gone wrong."

'We couldn't speak'

Ezzat's parents said they did not even take the case seriously at first, because of the contrast between the charges against the girls and the evidence.

"At first I thought it was a joke, and they would be released after a few hours," said her father, Alaa Eddin. "But then I asked a police officer what happened, and he said, 'This girl is dangerous, she has broken the law.'"

The girls were first held in Alexandria for about 48 hours, Ola said, detained in a dirty cell strewn with garbage. "The policeman asked if we were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and we said, of course, and that is our right," she said. "And he told us, you don't understand, you have a big case against you."

They were eventually transferred to a jail in Damanhour, a Nile Delta city about 50km southeast of Alexandria, and held for nearly a month until their trial.

"When we went into the court, we were expecting to go to prison but for a short sentence. One year, two, three," Ezzat said. "When we heard it was 11 years, some of us were shocked, crying, we couldn't speak to each other … And after a while we started laughing, hysterically laughing. We couldn't understand what had happened."

Public reaction was equally shocked, particularly after newspapers started to publish photographs from the courtroom, showing young girls in white prison clothes and headscarves standing inside a metal cage. An adviser to interim President Adly Mansour told reporters the girls would receive a pardon after their appeals were finished.

No pardon has been issued, and if the girls are arrested at another protest, the suspensions on their jail sentences could be lifted. Ezzat's parents, however, said they would support her right to continue protesting.

"When this happened I was sad. For my daughter, I was crying inside," her father said. "But for what's happening in Egypt, I support her."