NEPAL: Crime Grows Amid Political Instability

Khyati Shrestha, a 17-year-old high school student in Kathmandu, was abducted and brutally murdered last month. 17 days later, her body parts were found in the outskirts of the valley. The accused, Biren Pradhan, later chillingly revealed that she was killed within 24 hours of kidnapping.

Q&A: Tax Havens, Bank Secrecy, and Tricks

At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.

AFRICA: Western Recipient Governments Cling to Dirty Money

In 2007, the French corruption watchdog Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development (known by its French acronym CCFD) issued a first report on the colossal sums stolen by corrupt heads of states and hidden in mostly Western secret bank accounts. Figures are hard to come by, given the secrecy that shrouds such looting of public funds.

CHILE: Home Truths About the Dictator and His Family?

"La Familia. Historia privada de los Pinochet" (The Family: Private History of the Pinochets), a book that delves into the personal life of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his immediate family, has had a mixed reception in this country and in Ecuador, where a man claiming to be his illegitimate son may soon identify himself.

RIGHTS: No Safe Haven for Ugandan Girls

A year ago, a mother in Kashari County took the law into her own hands and castrated a man she caught raping her seven-year-old daughter.

SPAIN-EQUATORIAL GUINEA: More Trade, Little Pressure

Trade between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is flourishing, amidst calls by activists for the government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to push for democracy in this tiny country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, still under the yoke of dictatorship.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Elites Hoarding Oil Revenues, Report Charges

The government of Equatorial Guinea has looted billions of dollars in oil revenue instead of improving the lives of its citizens, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Thursday.

RIGHTS: New Charges Added to Blackwater Lawsuit

New charges filed against private security contractor Blackwater accuse the company of murder, destruction of audio and videotaped evidence, distribution of controlled substances, tax evasion, child prostitution, and weapons smuggling.

ECONOMY: Zimbabwe Can’t Repay Loans; Insisting on "Debt Strategy"

The Zimbabwean coalition government cannot afford to repay debts incurred when President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF was ruling on its own and will not repay those debts.

EAST TIMOR: Prime Minister Embroiled in Contract Scandal

Pressure to resign is mounting on East Timor’s Prime Minster, Xanana Gusamo, amid claims that he misused authority when he signed-off on a multi-million dollar government contract last year to a company his daughter has ties with.

COLOMBIA: Jaime Garzon’s Murder; No Digging Allowed (Part 2)

It’s always the same: the TV audience is grief-stricken and indignant that he is no longer with us, but they continue to laugh along with him. Beloved Colombian comic Jaime Garzón was assassinated on Aug. 13, 1999, but he is still alive on the small screen.

PERU: Minister Tried to Promote Police Investigated for Massacre

Peru’s Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas attempted to promote 11 police officials for their performance in the brutal Jun. 5 crackdown on native protests against government decrees that opened up indigenous land in the Amazon jungle to oil, mining, logging and agribusiness companies.

CUBA: Video Sheds Light on Raul Castro’s Strict Approach

In another demonstration that it is impossible to hide anything in this socialist Caribbean island nation, the hottest video in Cuba today appears to show President Raúl Castro's determination to root out certain vices and disloyalties, regardless of the rank of the people involved.

GUATEMALA: Journalists in Jeopardy

Veteran television reporter Rolando Santiz was on his way to downtown Guatemala City on Apr. 1 when two gunmen on a motorcycle drove up alongside his car and killed him in a rain of gunfire. The photographer driving with him was wounded but miraculously survived.

COLOMBIA: Spying in the Name of ‘Democratic Security’ (Part 1)

While the world's attention was riveted on the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an operation was surreptitiously being carried out Jan. 19-21 at the headquarters of Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), which answers directly to the president’s office.

EL SALVADOR: Leftist Govt Clamps Down on Corruption

Serious allegations of corruption involving central figures in the government of right-wing former Salvadoran president Antonio Saca (2004-2009) will be investigated by a commission led by Finance Minister Carlos Cáceres.

MALAYSIA: Blacklisted For Not Enforcing Trafficking Laws

After years of lobbying by rights activists and the international community, Malaysia passed an effective and comprehensive law in 2007 against human trafficking with provisions for protection, shelter and return of trafficked person to their home countries.

ENVIRONMENT-LATIN AMERICA: Green Parties Going It Alone

Fed up of waiting for existing parties to take up the cause of sustainable development and establish appropriate government policies to that end, environmental campaigners in Latin America have begun an increasingly high-profile battle for power in order to carry out their proposals themselves.

POLITICS: Mexican Cartels Armed by U.S.

Many of the firearms fuelling Mexican drug violence originated in the United States, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released Thursday.

INDIA: US Congressmen Tell Dow to Clean Up Bhopal

A campaign in the United States led by two girl victims from Bhopal, highlighting lingering toxicity left behind by the 1984 gas disaster in their city, has paid off with a group of 27 members of the U.S. Congress asking Dow Chemicals to clean up the site.

ZIMBABWE: 'Let Us Farm, It's Our Job'

A regional tribunal in Namibia has referred a controversial Zimbabwean land case to the next Southern African Development Community Summit of Heads of State, rejecting a last-minute application for postponement by Zimbabwe on Jun. 5.