CORRUPTION-KENYA: Rights Group Targets Ministers

If civil society groups have their way, a guideline drafted by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights should hold cabinet ministers accountable for their actions while in office.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: 100 Days Later, Human Rights Still Elusive

While the transition from relief to recovery might be in full gear 100 days after the Dec. 26 tsunami ripped through the Indian Ocean coastline killing over 290,000 people, activists have revealed that governments are not paying much attention to the human rights concerns of survivors of the killer waves.

POLITICS-SWAZILAND: Only Int’l Pressure Can End Corruption

Sipho Shongwe, a traditional chief who last year was appointed by King Mswati as the minister in charge of health and social welfare, sounded shocked and wounded following his first encounters with the depths of corruption in government.

CORRUPTION: US Treasury Gives Int’l Banks "Free Ride" – Group

The U.S. government's oversight of whistleblower protection policies at some of the world's most influential financial powerhouses is inadequate to protect those who risk their careers by calling attention to corruption and irregularities, a leading watchdog group said Tuesday.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: A Media David Takes On the Premier’s Goliath

As she prepares for a groundbreaking legal battle against one of the country's most powerful conglomerates, a 31-year-old Thai woman is gaining prominence as a heroine for democracy.

CORRUPTION: Congress Confirms Fuzzy Accounting at World Bank

A U.S. Congressional committee that pledged to probe alleged accounting irregularities and mistreatment of whistleblowers at the World Bank said Thursday that it has found evidence supporting the allegations and will proceed with a full investigation.

CORRUPTION: Is Iraq Becoming the World’s Biggest Cash Cow?

The United States has charged a former employee of the U.S. construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there.

ENERGY-NIGERIA: Power Cuts Leave Country in the Dark – And in the Grave

Four days after moving into a new house in Sango Otta, a suburb of Nigeria's commercial hub - Lagos - Soji Alawiye, his pregnant wife, two children and another family member died in their sleep. The cause of death: fumes from a portable generator that was left on overnight after a power cut.

FINANCE: Staff Accuses World Bank of "Cooking the Books"

A U.S. Congressional committee said Monday that it would probe allegations of accounting irregularities at the World Bank, the world's largest development agency that lent 20 billion dollars last year.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: A Mixed Verdict for Commission’s Report

A "decisive first step" towards making poverty in Africa history, an "exercise to cover up the Iraq war": reactions to the report issued last week by Britain's Commission for Africa have been many and varied.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: It Means Little to a Sex Slave

Among the millions who travel to Europe every year are a few hundred thousand who will end up as sex slaves. To them International Women's Day means little.

POLITICS: Exposing Corruption Doesn’t Pay, Gov’t Watchdog Warns

Amid charges that hundreds of whistleblower cases may have been arbitrarily dismissed, the U.S. Justice Department has admitted that it retroactively classified information that posed no threat to national security.

POLITICS-MALAWI: Corruption-Busting President Tries to Forge New Party

Will they or won't they? This question is on the lips of political observers in Malawi at present, as they wait to see whether substantial numbers of ruling coalition or opposition members will support the country's newest political grouping: the Democratic Progressive Party.

CORRUPTION: An Evil Eye Opens Up Again

The departure of a Panamanian attorney-general has led to the review of a massive international money laundering case.

DEVELOPMENT-CHAD: Pipeline Project Off to a Wobbly Start

A high-profile pipeline project in Chad that is backed by the World Bank has come under fire for a lack of transparency, amid rising concerns that oil revenues are being redirected from poverty-fighting efforts.

DEVELOPMENT-CHAD: Pipeline Project Off to a Wobbly Start

A high-profile pipeline project in Chad that is backed by the World Bank has come under fire for a lack of transparency, amid rising concerns that oil revenues are being redirected from poverty-fighting efforts.

POLITICS-KENYA: Moi Casts a Long Shadow Over Goldenberg Commission

"Well, he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t," says leading Kenyan lawyer Albert Mumma of the dilemma that may shortly face President Mwai Kibaki: whether or not to prosecute former head of state Daniel arap Moi in connection with the Goldenberg scandal.

CORRUPTION: Czech’s Gross Risking Country’s Credibility – Watchdogs

Anti-corruption watchdogs in the Czech Republic have said the credibility of the Czech government is under threat as a scandal deepens over the prime minister's purchase of a luxury apartment.

POLITICS: Idealists Without Illusions

When researchers from the Centre for Public Integrity decided to delve into the arcane world of U.S. government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, they were met with the bureaucratic equivalent of stony silence.

CORRECTION*/POLITICS: Iraq Oil-For-Food Audit Finds No Widespread Abuse

After spending months combing through thousands of documents and questioning scores of officials, the investigators of alleged irregularities in the U.N.-led Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq acknowledge that they have so far failed to find a smoking gun.

POLITICS-IRAQ: Audit Finds More Fuzzy Math

The U.S.-run administration in Baghdad failed to keep track of nearly nine billion dollars of money it transferred to various Iraqi ministries, according to an official audit released Sunday as Iraqis went to the polls.