BURMA: Pressure Mounts on Energy Giant Chevron to Disclose Revenue

When shareholders of the multinational company Chevron gather for their annual meeting in the U.S. city of Houston in late May, they will come face to face with Naing Htoo, whose community has suffered due to the exploits of the energy giant in military-ruled Burma.

Q&A: Death Threats for Supreme Court Justices in Colombia

The Supreme Court's opposition to the far-right paramilitary groups' growing control over Colombian society from within the state itself has put it in "real and imminent danger," in the words of former foreign minister Augusto Ramírez Ocampo.

PERU: Questions About Big Ticket Military Purchases

The indefinite postponement of the purchase of five Chinese tanks and a failed test of Israeli missiles have called into question the transparency and effectiveness of major military purchases in Peru.

POLITICS: Not Quite Cricket – India’s Most Popular Sport on Trial

Allegations that India’s junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor had swung outsize ‘sweat equity’ for a female friend in a newly floated professional cricket league franchise may have cost him his job, but it may also expose the multi- million dollar India Premium League (IPL) as a massive money-laundering enterprise.

BALKANS: Freedom Fighters or Freeloaders?

When one of Croatia’s best kept secrets, the list of independence fighters enjoying lifelong benefits, appeared on the Internet earlier this month it sparked off a huge scandal in this nation that became a sovereign state after the bloody 1991-95 war with Serbia.

Q&A: Africa’s Mid-2000s Economic Boom Fuelled Capital Flight

The African continent lost 854 billion dollars due to illicit financial flows during the 39-year period from 1970 to 2008.

New Web Portal Tracks Airlines Delivering Aid and Arms

A new information portal launched Monday has been described as the world's first internet clearing house aimed at tracking unethical air cargo carriers transporting humanitarian aid and relief supplies to war zones while simultaneously smuggling arms and narcotics - at times, to the same conflict areas.

SIERRA LEONE: Anti-Corruption Campaign Nabs Top Officials

The crusade against corruption seems to be gathering momentum in this West African country, with the arrest and prosecution of senior government officials, including cabinet ministers.

AFRICA: Land Grabs Continue as Elites Resist Regulation

A year after the purchases of vast swathes of farm land in Africa first drew public attention, transactions remain as opaque as ever.

Q&A: ‘Kyrgyzstan Has Undergone a Grassroots Revolution’

Apas Kubanychbek, who hails from the high mountainous area of Ysyk-Ata in the Chuyskaya province of Kyrgyzstan, was involved in the political movements and democratic struggles of the former Soviet republic in the early 1990s.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGER: French State-Owned Company “Poisoning” Poor

Recent research by Greenpeace suggests that French state-owned company Areva’s public claims of decontamination of populated areas near uranium mines in Niger are false. High radio-activity persists in towns and rural areas near the mines, affecting some 80,000 people.

UGANDA: Trying to Blow the Whistle on Corruption

The Ugandan Parliament is debating a Bill that will involve citizens in the fight against corruption following an increase in embezzlement of public funds by public servants.

US-IRAQ: Lucrative KBR Contracts Unaffected by Troop Drawdown

Only one in nine hours billed by a contractor for running the giant military bases that house U.S. soldiers in Iraq in the first half of 2009 was for actual physical labour, according to new testimony by the Pentagon's auditors.

GHANA: Political Parties Urged to Come Clean

There are growing fears that lack of transparency on how political parties are being funded has given rise to corruption.

LEBANON: ‘Roumieh Prison Breeds Criminality Not Reform’

Lebanon’s notorious Roumieh prison, the scene of a stand-off between inmates and security personnel this month, is no stranger to rioting, escapes, corruption and abuse.

POLITICS-COLOMBIA: Not Enough Just to Be a Woman

Noemí Sanín, the presidential candidate of Colombia's Conservative Party, who is running second in the polls, has a few advantages over her main rival, the right-wing Juan Manuel Santos, such as extensive experience in foreign relations and in running programmes for poor families and children.

Q&A: Exposing the “Clandestine Passengers of Globalisation”

Between 30 and 40 percent of taxes that should be collected by developing countries end up in countries operating as tax havens. Overall, these "clandestine passengers of globalisation" contribute to capital flight from developing countries to the tune of 1,000 billion dollars a year.

ARGENTINA: Football Violence Flares Up Ahead of World Cup

"Your president is willing to confront the wildest hordes of opponents, but not a football fan, ever," Argentine President Cristina Fernández once joked.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Cross-Border Cartels Dig in Their Heels

Stepped-up efforts against drug trafficking in Colombia and Mexico are increasingly driving drug mafias into Central America, where drug-related corruption and violence are on the rise.

GUATEMALA: Ok for Ex-President’s Extradition to US Just One Step

Civil society groups in Guatemala say a court decision authorising former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo's extradition to the United States is just a first step in a lengthy process.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Aid Industry is Part of the Problem’

Aid organisations perpetuate humanitarian disasters. That is one of the conclusions made by war correspondent Linda Polman in her latest book as she describes the world of humanitarian aid.