RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Arrests in Judge’s Murder “Good News” – But Not Enough

The arrest of the alleged killers of Brazilian judge Patrícia Acioli, known for her work against organised crime, is seen by analysts and legislators as a step in the right direction in the fight against corruption and impunity.

HONDURAS: Cabinet Shake-Up Raises Questions on Influence of Cartels

The dismissal of Óscar Álvarez as minister of security in Honduras, after he proposed a bill that would have allowed him to purge the police force of corrupt elements, has raised suspicions about the political influence of drug cartels.

SOMALIA: Armed Militia Grab the Famine Business

Armed groups are withholding aid and preventing Somali famine refugees from leaving camps to ensure the continued supply of food by aid agencies that they are presently selling on the open market.

COTE D’IVOIRE: Toxic Waste Victims Wait Years for Compensation

Thousands of victims affected by toxic waste dumping in 2006 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's commercial capital, still have not received the economic compensation they were promised.

KOSOVO: EU Cornered by UN Jurisdiction – Part 2

European investigators had a hard time dealing with cases of misuse of European Union funds in Kosovo due to the complex bureaucracy that regulated the relationship between the EU and the United Nations administration, which was the only official international decision-making authority in the former Serbian province.

KOSOVO: Probes into Misuse of EU Money Stall – Part 1

This year the European Union plans to spend an additional 70 million euros to help Kosovo work its way towards the goal of becoming a member state. But it has no plan to dig further into the alleged misuse of European taxpayers' money that has been unresolved for the last 10 years.

BRAZIL: Rousseff Winning Allies in Undeclared War on Corruption

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is starting to gain support for a war on corruption that she is quietly waging.

SOMALIA: Food Aid Stolen From Famine Victims

Masses of food meant for famine victims in Somalia are being stolen, an investigation has revealed.

NEPAL: Fasting Against Corruption Spreads

Inspired by Indian socialist leader Anna Hazare’s celebrated public fast against corruption in the Indian capital of New Delhi, starvation protests have sprung up in Nepal to press for a timely new constitution.

Q&A: “When People Are Mad, They Start to React” to Corruption

The fight against corruption has taken centre stage in the government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and has led to the resignation or dismissal of several ministers over just a few months.

INDIA: Hunger Shows its Power

If India’s powerful central government that rules over the destinies of 1.2 billion people quails before a slight 74-year-old man, it is because he is armed with a weapon that has rarely failed in this country – extreme renunciation through a fast-unto-death.

INDIA: Civil Society Shows Its Muscle

In his Independence Day address to the nation on Aug. 15 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to fight corruption, but nationwide agitations since then demanding an effective ombudsman to check graft showed an unconvinced public.

Rallies Grow Across India for Jailed Activist

Huge protests have taken place across India in support of a jailed anti-corruption campaigner who has been demanding a tough anti-graft law.

EUROPE: ‘Rethink Rhetoric Against Islam’

Conservative governments and centre-right parties in Europe were attacking multiculturalism and denigrating Muslim immigrants long before Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik used similar arguments to justify mass killings in Oslo and Utoya Island.

MEXICO: Activists Organise Against Spiralling Threats

"Open the door! Open the door, you SOBs!" Policemen dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and carrying "what I suppose were high-power rifles" broke down the door of the home of Efraín Bartolomé, a poet who lives on the south side of the Mexican capital. They had no warrant.

DR-CONGO: Widespread Impunity Undermines Upcoming Polls

Controversy over its electoral process has dominated headlines on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the months preceding highly anticipated polls, but an international human rights group shifted the world's attention to another, not unrelated problem Wednesday - the country's feeble judicial system.

GUATEMALA: First Lady’s Divorce Fails to Secure Presidential Bid

The decision by the Constitutional Court of Guatemala to bar Sandra Torres, the former wife of President Álvaro Colom, from running in the Sept. 11 elections strengthens the national justice system, according to activists and analysts.

Court Pleadings Charge U.S. Complicity in Mexico’s Drug War

Late last week, the son of a top dog in Mexico's notorious Sinaloa drug cartel filed pleadings in a Chicago federal court accusing the U.S. government and its agencies of giving the cartel "carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States".

World Bank Unmoved as Allegations Build Around Official

The World Bank, which has often pressed borrowing nations to adopt more robust financial transparency regulations, has refused to disclose the financial records of one of its senior officials despite allegations of corruption, abuse of authority and mismanagement of public funds while he served as a minister under the now toppled Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt.

NIGERIA: Refined Oil Shortage Continues for Africa’s Largest Producer

"We are suffering in the midst of plenty." That was how Nelson Ilemchi summed up his plight as he spent an entire day queuing to buy kerosene. Since January Africa’s largest producer of crude oil has been experiencing a protracted nationwide scarcity of the refined product.

Film Revisits Abuses by U.N. Peacekeepers in Bosnia

"The Whistle Blower", a feature film inspired by actual events that occurred in 1999, follows the story of Kathy Bolkovac (Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz), a U.S. police officer who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia.