CHINA: Journalists Risk Their Lives to Expose Corruption

Despite what are often overwhelming obstacles, a gutsy minority of investigative reporters in China continues to expose official corruption and criminal behaviour. But they do so at their own peril.

NEPAL: Adoption Suspension Leaves Children in Limbo

A big question marks looms over the future of many Nepali children in various child homes in the country in the wake of the suspension by 11 countries of their child adoption programmes for this Himalayan nation.

Scarce Water Diverted by Greased Palms

The battle to resolve the global water crisis is being grossly undermined by bad governance: bribery, extortion, embezzlement and high-level corruption.

RWANDA: Genocide Ideology and Sectarianism Laws Silencing Critics?

Among its unstable and conflict-ridden neighbours, Rwanda stands out. It has been pegged as a model of development and one of Africa’s success stories: Since the 1990’s, when a civil war ravaged the country, average incomes have doubled, its people have become healthier and less hungry and it has the highest proportion of women parliamentarians worldwide. Yet, maintaining this stability is a government accused of muzzling its opponents and committing human rights abuses.

GUATEMALA: New Challenges for Anti-Corruption Commission

New challenges and a long list of shocking cases involving hidden power structures are faced by the new head of the United Nations-mandated International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

CORRUPTION-PERU: Gov’t Tries to Track Down Millions from Convicted Officials

The Peruvian government will try to track down funds hidden away by former officials of the Alberto Fujimori regime (1990-2000) and others sentenced for corruption.

Q&A: ‘Corruption Is an Extraordinary Danger’

"I still view corruption as an extraordinary danger" to the country, as its "corrosive power" makes it a matter of "national security," said Esteban Morales, who was expelled from the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) after publishing an article warning of its pervasive effects.

Imprisonment of Judge Reflects Poorly on Venezuelan Justice

"One day more, one day less," says María Lourdes Afiuni when she says hello or goodbye to her thousands of followers on Twitter. The Venezuelan judge has spent the last eight months in prison, because she decided that a defendant should be released on bail pending trial.

PERU: Transparency a Challenge for Mining and Oil

Peru is the only Latin American country that has made steps towards joining the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), but has a difficult stretch ahead as it tries to overcome industry resistance to reporting profits and the government's own obstacles.

Families of Dead U.S. Vets Accuse Insurer of Massive Scam

Prudential cheated the families of dead U.S. soldiers and Marines out of more than 100 million dollars in interest on their life-insurance policies, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in a Massachusetts federal court.

PERU: President Admits Corruption Has Tarnished Government

In his Independence Day speech in the Peruvian Congress, which was broadcast nationwide, President Alan García admitted that corruption has tarnished his administration, although he lectured the judicial branch for delays in punishing those responsible.

Civil Society Hails New Oil and Mining Transparency Standards

National and international civil society groups Thursday hailed the U.S. Senate's passage of a major financial reform act that includes a key anti-corruption provision requiring energy and mining companies to publicly disclose payments they make to governments around the world.

Major Strides Seen in Halting Illegal Logging

A comprehensive report, released Thursday by Chatham House, finds that production of illegal timber worldwide has declined by 22 percent since 2002, a trend that is benefiting both communities dependent on tropical forests and the global climate.

SPORTS: Power and Passion Put Football Above the Law

The FIFA Football World Cup is presented -- and felt emotionally by millions -- as a contest amongst countries in which national honour is at stake. But it is also a private business, controlled by a small group of people who exploit patriotism and foment rivalries in marketing the "product."

COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Don’t Want to Take the Blame Alone

The so-called para-politics, para-institutions and para-economy in Colombia "have their place in the dock" among the accused, said eight former leaders of ultra-right armed paramilitary groups, now demobilised and charged with crimes against humanity in the nation's decades-long civil war.

ZAMBIA: “Privatisation Like Grabbing Goods Fallen from a Truck”

Zambia has sold more than 262 state-owned enterprises in the past 18 years, with the latest being the beleaguered telecommunications company Zamtel.

EGYPT: Corruption Watchdogs Bite Selectively

Anti-corruption watchdogs have shown their teeth, but Egypt's fat cats appear safe from prosecution as long as they stay in favour with the regime.

COLOMBIA: Spying Knows No Borders

Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice, Tarek El Aissami, presented a report Oct. 29, 2009, to his country's National Assembly. That report is believed to have resulted, two days later, in the murder of two people on a farm in neighbouring Colombia, near the capital.

ECUADOR-COLOMBIA: Quito Presses Bogota on Alleged Spying

The government of Ecuador has issued its third request in eight months to Colombia for complete and detailed information on alleged telephone espionage committed against Ecuador's President Rafael Correa.

U.N. Chief Warns Big Business to Play by Ethical Rules

The United Nations is sending a strong message to the world's corporate sector: abide by the rules of social and ethical conduct or risk being politically ostracised.

U.S. Private Security in Afghanistan “Pay Off Warlords, Taliban”

Every day, as many as 260 trucks filled with supplies for U.S. troops - from muffins to fuel to armoured tanks - are driven from the Pakistani port of Karachi across the Khyber pass into Afghanistan.