Even if you're not guilty, you can still be sent to jail if you're too poor to pay "court costs" ● Cities across the country are increasingly turning to what are known as private probation companies to collect unpaid fines. But are indigent people ending up in jail because they can't afford to pay? Since NewsHour Weekend's first story on this issue aired last spring, the Childersburg Municipal Court issued a “standing order” stating that “In no case shall an indigent defendant be incarcerated … based solely on his or her inability to pay fines.” But the practice continues elsewhere in the country. Special correspondent John Carlos Frey takes an in-depth look at what some are calling the return of the debtors' prison.

A senior official of the State Department said two officials have allegedly been involved in the cover-up of the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison in 2009 after revealing corruption. The officials are Deputy Prosecutor General Victor Grin and investigator Andrei Strizhov. Two senior officials of the Chechen Republic have also entered the list over alleged kidnapping and torture of an activist.

An autopsy report for an unarmed black man, who was killed by police officers in Los Angeles in summer, shows he was shot three times at close range. ● Ezell Ford, 25, was fatally shot on August 11 by two Los Angeles Police Department officers. Police allege that Ford tried to grab one of the officers’ guns, but his family and witnesses have denied the allegations. According to a copy of the report, posted online by The Los Angeles Times on Monday, a muzzle imprint left on Ford’s skin by a wound to the back suggests that the black man was shot at close range. The report also shows that Ford was shot three times, once in the back, once in the arm and once in the abdomen. The autopsy report was published after residents complained of a lack of transparency in police investigations.

RT.com: Autopsy reveals LAPD shot unarmed black man Ezell Ford in back, side, arm
Good4Utah: Purple Heart Recipient Killed by Police After 9-1-1 Call for Medical Emergency

Robert Stevens ■ General elections are to be held in Greece on January 25 after the parliament on Monday failed to elect Stavros Dimas, the candidate of the New Democracy (ND)-PASOK governing coalition, as president. The collapse of the coalition government testifies to a profound crisis of rule in Greece and heightens social and political instability throughout Europe. [...] Six years of brutal austerity cuts imposed by successive ND and PASOK governments working with the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “troika” have devastated the Greek working class. ND and PASOK, the Greek bourgeoisie’s traditional parties of rule, are now widely hated.

Christoph Dreier ■ As Greek government collapses, Berlin demands more austerity || The collapse of the Greek government is an expression of the deep social tensions across the continent. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was no longer able to impose the European Union’s austerity dictates in the face of popular opposition. At the same time, the political crisis in Athens has sharpened divisions within the EU. High-ranking representatives of German politics and big business responded aggressively to the failure of the Greek presidential election. They made clear that they will not give an inch on austerity policies that have produced a social catastrophe in Greece and across Europe.