DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: The Challenge of Going from Slum to Suburb

It is a task that would make all but the most stout-hearted quake: transforming a slum containing some 500,000 inhabitants into an area where people can live with dignity.

MALAYSIA: Money Politics Rears Its Ugly Head in UMNO

The spectre of money politics has once again returned to haunt Malaysia's dominant party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and could undermine the anti-graft credentials of party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is also the country's prime minister.

CORRUPTION-MALAWI: Mutharika Bites the Hand That Fed Him

It was not something expected of a president who was roundly denounced as being a front man for his predecessor, when he took office.

CORRUPTION-ARGENTINA: Local Residents Rebel Against Mayor

Nearly six months after the federal government assumed direct rule of the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero, the residents of a small town in the region are threatening to stage a "popular uprising", demanding that the municipal government also be swept free of corrupt officials.

CORRUPTION-THAILAND: Thaksin’s Anti-Graft Drive Challenged

On the eve of launching a battle against corruption, the Thai government is facing charges that this anti-graft drive may be a smokescreen to go after its political opponents ahead of a general election.

POLITICS-BRAZIL: A Time Bomb Ready to Explode

The possibility of implicating leading politicians and businessmen in numerous crimes has turned a Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPMI) into a time bomb that could go off at any moment.

RIGHTS-KENYA: A Glimmer of Hope for the Ogiek

It's probably fair to say that the plight of the Ogiek receives little attention on a continent with more than its share of political and economic crises.

POLITICS: Soldiers of Fortune Likely to Roam Africa for Some Time

Debate about the role played by mercenaries in Africa has been revived in recent months, following the arrest and subsequent sentencing of 68 men accused of plotting to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema: president of the tiny, oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: The War That Might Not Have Been

Two years after Zimbabwean troops returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe’s public remains largely unaware of the activities of the mission.

ECONOMY-BENIN: Unemployment Inflames Debate on Illegal Fuel Sales

Government’s attempt to control the illegal sale of petroleum products in Benin is meeting with failure due to widespread unemployment in the country. The products, which include gasoline and diesel, are often smuggled in from neighboring Nigeria.

RIGHTS-SPAIN: Chilean Dictatorship’s Victims Go After Pinochet’s Lawyer

Representatives of more than 5,000 survivors of the Chilean dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and the families of victims brought a lawsuit Monday against the former dictator's executor, Oscar Aitken, in the Spanish capital.

ARGENTINA: Another Supreme Court Justice Resigns, to Avoid Impeachment

Adolfo Vázquez resigned Wednesday from Argentina's Supreme Court to avoid impeachment, becoming the fourth justice to leave the Court since President Néstor Kirchner took office in May 2003.

ECONOMY-ANGOLA: Search for Business Opportunities in a Murky Environment

A high-level South African delegation is in Angola this week to explore economic opportunities there, in the aftermath of that country's civil war.

ECONOMY-ANGOLA: Search for Business Opportunities in a Murky Environment

A high-level South African delegation is in Angola this week to explore economic opportunities there, in the aftermath of that country’s civil war.

SPECIAL REPORT: Northern Laundromats for Southern Fat Cats

In the world of high finance, PEP is not a stimulant to keep you awake on the trading floor; it means "politically exposed person." Handling a PEP bank account is big, though risky business.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Refineries That Aren’t Worth the Name

It has been dubbed the "paradox of plenty". Although Nigeria is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, fuel shortages have become a common feature of life in the West African country over the past two decades.

HEALTH-CAMEROON: An Illegal Circulation of Blood

The term "blood money" has come to have new meaning in Cameroon, where certain patients and their families complain that a brisk trade in trafficked blood has led to shortages in hospitals.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Corruption Choking Growth – World Bank

Corruption, coupled with non-transparent regulations, red tape and the lack of infrastructure, is choking economic growth in Cambodia according to a damning World Bank report released Thursday.

CORRUPTION: Canada Backs Firm Banned by World Bank

It is business as usual between Canadian government agencies and a local company barred from World Bank contracts after being convicted of bribery in Africa.

CORRUPTION-KENYA: Donors Take Aim at Graft

The diplomatic community in Kenya has coined a new phrase to describe the country’s new political leadership for its inability to fight corruption.

CORRUPTION: Transparency Awards Make a Wake Up Call

Manik Chandra Saha, a journalist and social activist in Bangladesh, was killed in January this year after a long campaign exposing corruption. But his campaign could have made a difference.