Financial Crimes Cost Developing World At Least a Trillion Dollars

The developing world lost nearly one trillion dollars in 2010 as a result of corruption, tax evasion, and other financial crimes not involving cash transactions, according to a new report released here Monday by Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

Students Stuck With Shoddy Textbooks in Afghanistan

New textbooks, printed as part of an ambitious multi-million dollar exercise to reform the curriculum in Afghan public schools, have been found to contain glaring mistakes, adding yet another burden on a cash- and resource-strapped sector of this war-torn country.

Rule of Law Strongest in Nordics, Weakest in Asia

The rule of law – an essential element of good governance – is prospering best in the countries of northern Europe and worst in Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Cameroon, according to the latest edition of a five-year-old index released here Wednesday by the World Justice Project (WJP).

Political Provocateurs Expose Kenya’s “MaVultures”

A new website linking corruption and other scandals to high-ranking Kenyan politicians, created by a team of political provocateurs, has become one of the most-visited web pages in the country.

Distrust in Kyrgyz Police Means Privatisation of Law and Order

One morning last year in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Dilnoza awoke to find her brand-new Toyota Corolla missing. She knew immediately whom to call, and it wasn’t her local police precinct.

Honduran Police Protest Crackdown on Corruption

Police officers in Honduras are protesting regulatory measures and aptitude tests implemented as part of reforms aimed at purging the police force of corruption and growing links to organised crime.

Q&A: “They Demanded I Behave. I Decided Not To”

Khadija Ismayilova has been threatened with blackmail by her own government. She has been branded an "enemy of the state", mainly for her exposés of official corruption.

China Opens Communist Party Congress*

China's ruling Communist Party has launched its national congress, a pivotal event that ushers in a new set of top leaders for the next decade.

Brazil’s Mensalao Trial: Blow to Corruption or Political Ploy?

Regarded by the mainstream media and opposition in Brazil as a landmark case in the fight against corruption, the Supreme Court trial of politicians and business leaders could have an exemplary effect if the justice system applies the same standard in other, less visible, cases.

Narco-States Grope for New Strategy*

Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala face the need to modify their approach to the fight against drug trafficking and are urging the world to do the same. But Mexico and Colombia’s willingness to make the necessary changes is unclear.

Kashmiris Demand the Right to Know

Bashir Ahmad Malik was flabbergasted when a helicopter carrying an Indian official from Kashmir’s summer capital of Srinagar landed in his resident Drang village, just 17 miles away from its point of departure.

Tough Job? Try Reporting on Corruption in Kazakhstan

Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a 36-year-old reporter for an independent weekly in western Kazakhstan who was recently ambushed and nearly killed, was awarded the Peter Mackler Award for Ethical and Courageous Journalism this month – the first journalist from that country to receive international recognition in 10 years.

Poor Infrastructure Makes Imports Cheaper in Indonesia

Indonesia suffers from a malaise: an appalling lack of infrastructure which makes a mandarin orange that travels thousands of miles from Argentina cost nearly the same as another picked locally.

Pakistan Factory Blaze Points to Poor Safety Standards, Corruption

The inferno that killed over 250 people at a garments factory in Karachi’s Baldia Town on Sept. 11 has raised questions over not just poor workplace safety standards in industry but massive corruption in government which leads to the flouting of building laws.

General’s Defence on Afghan Scandal Ducks Key Evidence

Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the former commander of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan, denied to a U.S. Congressional panel Wednesday that he had cited the impact on Congressional elections in opposing the timing of a request for an investigation of high-level Afghan military corruption and its impact on neglect of patients at the Afghan National Military Hospital (NMH) two years ago.

Côte d’Ivoire’s Universities – Shedding a Legacy of Violence and Corruption

Yacouba Coulibaly was pursuing a doctorate in education at Cocody University in Abidjan before Côte d’Ivoire’s post-election violence started in 2010. But his classes were routinely disrupted by armed members of a powerful student federation that wished to hold meetings instead.

Capitalising on Natural Disasters in Guatemala

In a country as vulnerable to natural disasters as Guatemala, a “state of public calamity” is frequently declared – to the joy of contractors, which find a good opportunity to line their pockets.

Whose Timber is it Anyway?

With Pakistan’s last major stands of deodar (cedar) threatened by a ‘timber mafia’, the local people in the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are resorting to direct action to stop the denudation of their picturesque alpine homeland.

UZBEKISTAN AND KYRGYZSTAN: Smugglers Own the Night

During the day, when Uzbek border guards patrol its streets, Mingdon is a sleepy Ferghana Valley town. But after night falls, Mingdon, a hamlet of 10,000 on Uzbekistan’s frontier with Kyrgyzstan, turns into a smugglers’ paradise.

Treating Doctors for Corruption

Slovak doctors have launched an unprecedented campaign to rid their own profession of what is widely perceived as endemic bribery.

UZBEKISTAN: Tashkent’s Sticky Fingers Spoiling Foreign Investors’ Appetites

The recent travails in Uzbekistan of Russian cellphone giant MTS – hit by employee arrests and a three-month suspension – highlight the perils for foreigners of doing business in Central Asia’s most populous country.