HEALTH-MEXICO: Internet Can Be a Dangerous Pharmacy

Mexico is drafting measures to regulate the sales of pharmaceuticals over the Internet: reforms have been announced for laws dating back to the 1980s, when the world wide web did not yet exist, and new monitoring systems are in the works to track the who, how and what of online sales.

POLITICS-INDIA: Nuking Democracy

As the parliamentary floor test for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal approaches, the domestic political odds seem to be turning against India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

CORRUPTION: Laundromat Royale

It sounded like the plot of an action thriller. A U.S. Senate subcommittee held hearings Thursday on how UBS/Switzerland, the world's largest private bank, and LGT (Liechtenstein Global Trust), owned by the royal family of that micro-tax-haven state, organised complex tax evasion schemes for U.S. clients, and used spy-type tactics to avoid being detected.

RIGHTS-PERU: Aprista Party Members Under Investigation for ’80s Crimes

The Peruvian justice system is to prosecute members of the governing American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA, or Aprista Party) for creating the Rodrigo Franco Commandos (CRF), a paramilitary unit alleged to have murdered five people during the first administration of current President Alan García (1985- 1990).

GUYANA: Another Cold Shoulder From Washington

The U.S. government has again snubbed Guyanese authorities, with whom it has long had a strained relationship, this time over a request for expert help in solving the latest of three mass murders this year.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Badawi Won’t Quit, Will Pursue Reforms

Malaysia’s beleaguered Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who has been under mounting pressure to resign after his 14-party National Front coalition fared its worst in the Mar. 8 polls, has stunned the nation by saying he will stay on till mid-2010.

MEXICO: Police in the Dock Over Disco Deaths

Seventeen days after a police raid on a discothèque here that left nine young people and three police officers dead, Mexico City’s leftwing mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, announced sweeping changes in the discredited police force - including the dismissal of his chief of police.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Locals, Lawyers Prepare for Battle Over Land

In thick forest in the north-east Cambodian province of Ratanakiri, a team of lawyers uses a global positioning satellite handset to mark the location of traditional spirit forests and gravesites belonging to local Jarai villagers.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Cracks Show Up in Opposition Ranks

That opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim can draw the crowds in spite of fresh allegations of sodomy levelled against him was proved at last week’s massive anti-fuel hike rally. But cracks are showing up in the hurriedly formed three-party opposition People’s Alliance coalition.

G8: Leaders Produce More Than NGOs Expected

Three key documents – on African development, food security, and corruption - emerging Tuesday from the summit of major industrial nations' leaders seem to have taken non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by surprise in delivering more than expected, even if they did not please all.

POLITICS-KENYA: Civil Society Scores Victory Against Corruption

Two days after publicly vowing to die rather than resign, Kenya's powerful finance minister, Amos Kimunya, announced he was resigning to allow an independent investigation of corruption charges against him.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: 'Killing Fields' Trials Set to Roll

After a complicated and sometimes fraught process of establishment lasting over two years, the international tribunal into the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge may commence trials as early as September.

CORRUPTION: German Stink Spreads to Greece

The scandals around dealings by the German engineering giant Siemens have revealed a long chain of corruption plaguing Greek political life.

COLOMBIA: The General Ingrid Hugged

General Mario Montoya Uribe, the national commander of the Colombian army, whom Ingrid Betancourt thanked on Wednesday for rescuing her from captivity, has a controversial service record.

HONDURAS: The Data You Seek Will Be Available – in 2018

In a highly controversial decision, the Honduran Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP) has decided to keep from public scrutiny for 10 years key documents from the Finance Ministry and the tax collection authority.

COLOMBIA: Uribe’s 2006 Reelection “Flawed” – Supreme Court

At the same time that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was welcoming U.S. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain in the north of the country, the Supreme Court issued a communiqué calling on the government to "respect and obey the decisions" of the courts.

CORRUPTION: Norway Turns the Spotlight on Tax Havens

A new commission appointed by Norway will investigate ways of putting a stop to the huge flows of money into tax havens. Tax evasion and corruption are believed to cost poor countries at least 50 billion dollars a year.

PERU: Montesinos Defends Fujimori, Then Clams Up

Vladimiro Montesinos, the second most powerful person in the regime of former President Alberto Fujimori in Peru (1990-2000), has admitted in court that crimes were committed during intelligence operations he directed.

INDIA: Sansar Chand Acquitted Again

Notorious wildlife trader Sansar Chand - who according to official investigations was responsible for the death of at least 10 tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2005 - has been acquitted by a court of law in two cases related to wildlife crime for want of evidence by the prosecution. "It seems that there are no charges from the wildlife department, who was the prosecution in charge of the case," said Alok Kumar Aggarwal, additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) in New Delhi, "I am of the opinion to discharge him in this specific case, but the trial would go on in other wildlife cases, as per law."

POLITICS-BANGLADESH: Govt Plans Local Polls Amid Strong Opposition

Bangladesh is lurching into crisis again as its military-backed interim government insists on holding local government polls amid the strong opposition of all major political parties.

CORRUPTION: Graft Sapping Precious Water Resources

The world's growing water crisis - with nearly 1.2 billion people lacking a steady water supply and more than 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation - is fundamentally a crisis of governance, with corruption as one root cause, says a new report by Transparency International.