BRAZIL: Trail of Corruption?

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is facing a new crisis over an ill that was not expected to plague his leftist Workers Party (PT) government: corruption.

AFGHANISTAN: UN Group Wants NATO Support Against Opium Poppy

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is calling for NATO support to provide the security needed for cutting down on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

FINANCE-CHINA: Selling the House Silver to Help an Ailing Market

While the Chinese government's ambitions to create rivals of the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges have failed to materialise, Beijing finally has a plan on how to lift the fortunes of its ailing stock market.

CORRUPTION: Moroccans Fight ‘Crime Against Humanity’

An unusual protest was held in Moroccan capital Rabat last month. Members of the independent National Authority for Protection of Public Funds gathered outside parliament to demand a national authority for truth.

RIGHTS: Report Admits Malaysia’s Police Corrupt and Abusive

A senior police officer allegedly declares he has assets worth 34 million ringgit (8.9 million U.S. dollars); another rakes in 200,000 ringgit (52,600 U.S. dollars) a month from a protection racket he runs. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in Malaysia.

RIGHTS: Public’s Right to Information, a New Reality in India

For rights campaigner Parth J. Shah, the fact that the Right to Information Bill passed last week is yet unavailable online speaks volumes for India's culture of obscuring if not denying information to the public.

CHILE: Guaranteeing that Public Documents Are Indeed Public

Civil society groups are pushing for a broader, more effective law guaranteeing public access to official documents in Chile, a country that performs well in surveys on corruption, but fared poorly in a recent study on transparency, due to what activists describe as a "culture of secrecy".

POLITICS: White House Privacy Beats Public Right to Know About Cheney Group

The White House has won a court decision shielding it from having to turn over documents to advocacy groups which claimed in a lawsuit that corporations swayed Vice President Richard Cheney's task force on U.S. energy policy.

POLITICS: U.N. Gets Embroiled in Charges of Nepotism

As charges of mismanagement and nepotism continue to swirl round the United Nations, the organisation's new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown recounted to reporters recently that he had jokingly told Secretary-General Kofi Annan: ''I am glad my son is only eight years old.''

CORRUPTION-ARGENTINA: Former Officials Padded Pockets with Impunity

Former Argentine government ministers, lawmakers and judges who benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in graft payments throughout the 1990s could be punished by little more than a slap on the wrist if the current administration refuses to revoke the "secret laws" that permitted this colossal corruption.

MALAYSIA: Freedom of Information Still Under Gov’t Prerogative

In a society where even the number of chairs and tables in a ministry is classified as official secrets, a U.S.-style Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) might seem to be the best way to force Malaysia's government to share information with the public.

THAILAND: Rot Sets In With a Discredited Anti-Graft Body

As an alleged bribery scandal involving senior government officials and an U.S.-based company unfolds, Thai citizens will not be looking towards the country's independent anti-graft body for any favours.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: All Aboard the ‘Johannesburg to G8’ Bus

Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become "de rigueur" in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk amongst people riding mini-bus taxis on their way to work?

CORRUPTION-NEPAL: All the King’s Men Try to Fix a Broken Humpty Dumpty

In the wee hours of Wednesday several jeep-loads of heavily armed policemen arrived at the residence of former Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. He was packed into one of the vehicles and driven away - arrested on charges of corruption.

CORRUPTION: Congress to Seek Shorter Leash for Global Lenders

The U.S. Congress is moving to demand tougher transparency and accountability measures from the five leading multilateral development banks that lend billions of dollars to developing nations.

CORRUPTION: Double Trouble for Halliburton

The Halliburton corporation, already the Iraq war's poster child for "waste, fraud and abuse", has been hit with a new double-whammy.

POLITICS: Crime and Terrorism Interlinked, Says U.N.

A major U.N. conference began here Monday urging the international community to tighten the noose around organised crime syndicates and terrorism networks by combatting them together.

CORRUPTION-EU: The Gravy Train Rolls On

A leading anti-corruption group has condemned the refusal by the European Parliament to reform its controversial expenses system.

CORRUPTION-KENYA: Donors Threatening to Stop Funding

The government of Kenya has once again come under fire over corruption which donors say is stifling efforts to implement reforms outlined in the country's Economic Recovery Strategy.

CORRUPTION: One Resignation Is Not Enough

Corruption watchdog Transparency International has said the Czech Prime Minister's offer of resignation following a scandal over the financing of a luxury flat will do little to change a widespread public perception that Czech politicians see themselves as "non-accountable".

POLITICS-US: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Special interest groups and lobbyists in Washington spent a whopping 13 billion dollars to influence decisions made by the White House, Congress and other U.S. federal agencies over the past eight years, a watchdog group said Thursday.