MALAYSIA: Legal Battle May Expose Mahathir Era Excesses

Opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim has filed a multi-million dollar defamation suit against his mentor- turned-nemesis, Mahathir Mohamad who has publicly repeated allegations, he first made as prime minister, that his former protégé is gay.

FINANCE: Groups Question World Bank’s Role in Troubled Mine

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who has sought to cast himself as a champion of transparency, is facing accusations that his office is suppressing a report on a Bank-backed mining project in Africa that allegedly contributed to the deaths of dozens of people.

LATIN AMERICA: Presidents’ Offspring in the Shadow of Corruption

Suspicions of corruption are hanging over the grown children of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, of former leaders of Peru and Argentina, and of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - just another symptom of the deep-rooted graft faced by many Latin American nations, according to analysts.

CORRUPTION-HEALTH: A Killer Combination

Corruption in healthcare is killing people and denying treatment around the world, says a new report by Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog.

POLITICS: Is UN Reform a Platform for Media Profiling?

The 132-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing nations, has lambasted the U.N. Secretariat for holding press briefings on sensitive management issues, and selectively leaking information on allegations of fraud and corruption in the world body.

POLITICS: Senior Official Claims Bias in UN Contracts Probe

Andrew Toh of Singapore, a U.N. assistant secretary-general who has been placed on "special leave with full pay" while his office is under investigation, has implicitly accused the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of discrimination on grounds of nationality.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Collapsed Building Highlights Crumbling Regulation

As the chances of finding more survivors in the building that collapsed earlier this week in Nairobi moved from slim to remote, poor oversight and corruption were being blamed for the disaster.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: Disgraceful Distinctions

While the corporate world élite hold their traditional annual meeting in this Swiss alpine resort, civil society organisations again did their best to spoil the party, pointing a symbolic finger at corporate environmental and social irresponsibility. The targets this time were Chevron, Walt Disney and Citigroup.

POLITICS: UN Probes 200 Cases of Fraud and Contracts Abuse

The United Nations, which is struggling to redeem its public image over charges of nepotism and mismanagement in its 64-billion-dollar now-defunct oil-for-food programme in Iraq, has admitted to another growing scandal relating to its procurement activities.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Tackle Corruption, Cancel Debt

Mali, one of the international community’s poorest nations and host of the World Social Forum (WSF), presents the picture of a country that has been overburdened by debt. Government spends much of its budget repaying what is owed to international creditors – at the expense of development.

POLITICS-INDIA: Gov’t Takes Call on Phone Tapping, Other Charges

Wild as they sound, allegations of phone-tapping made against the ruling Congress party and its Italian-born chief Sonia Gandhi, by leaders of several regional parties, seem to be connecting.

ENVIRONMENT-MALAYSIA: Dirty Dam Draws Dirty Smelters

Transnational aluminium smelters, some teaming up with Malaysian partners, are beating a path to eastern Sarawak state with an eye to surplus power from the problem-ridden Bakun Dam.

POLITICS: UN Probes Peacekeeping Contracts Fraud

Amid charges of waste, fraud and malfeasance in its multi-billion-dollar peacekeeping operations, the United Nations has suspended one contractor and eight staff members pending further investigations into potential wrongdoing.

DEVELOPMENT-US/IRAQ: Bush’s New Multilateralism

With the billions of dollars appropriated by the United States for Iraqi reconstruction almost spent, Japan, Australia and other nations in U.S. President George W. Bush's "coalition of the willing" are likely to be asked to shoulder much of the burden for funding the large number of unfinished projects.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/POLITICS-US: L’Affaire Abramoff Ripples Outward

On Saturday, Tom DeLay, a powerful Texas Republican, became the biggest political casualty thus far of L'Affaire Abramoff, as he was forced to resign his post as majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives amid mounting evidence of widespread corruption and influence-peddling on Capitol Hill.

ECONOMY: Mexican Firm Lands in Indian Airport Contract Mess

Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA), the operator of the largest international airport in Latin America at Mexico City, is fighting with its back to the wall to participate in a programme to modernize India's two largest airports, in the national capital and the commercial hub of Mumbai.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Corruption in Brazil – Old Tricks, New Dogs

Corruption in Brazil is an age-old practice that is fuelled today by the same sources as in the past. The only novel aspect of last year's enormous scandal was the involvement of the Workers' Party (PT).

CORRUPTION-YEMEN: MPs to Fight Rising Menace

A group of members of parliament have formed a new group to fight growing corruption.

POLITICS-US: The House That Jack Built Tumbles Down

Tuesday's guilty plea by Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials threatens to unravel a network of right-wing lobbyists and lawmakers whose rise since the early 1990s was fueled as much by cash and influence-peddling as by ideological conviction.

ECONOMY-INDIA: Airport Privatisation May Get Grounded

Plans to partly privatise India's two largest international airports - one serving the national capital and the other the commercial hub of Mumbai - may get grounded as a result of persistent charges of rigged bidding.

FINANCE: Chad Dilutes Oil-For-Development Pledge

Tension is rising between the World Bank and the African nation of Chad, one of the world's poorest countries, over the latter's decision to seize funds from a controversial Bank-funded oil pipeline and not spend the money on social sectors.