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CAIRO - The last prime minister to serve under ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was referred to trial on corruption charges by an investigative judge, CNN reports citing officials. The charges against Ahmed Shafik, the runner-up in Egypt's presidential election, arise from allegations made against him while he served as the nation's civil aviation minister under Mubarak.
CAIRO - Amid illiteracy and poverty, even with revolution, Egypt will never change from the bottom up, according to a commentary in Ahram online. Top-down change is what the country needs, it said, adding that as long as Egypt continues to function through the two fundamental pillars of "connections and corruption" (the 2C’s), no president will ever be able to rule efficiently.
BEIRUT – A Finance Ministry official in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said that since 2006 the office had not received a single report of corruption, the Daily Star in Lebanon has reported.
WETHMAY, Myanmar - Two farmers have rocketed to national prominence in Myanmar for their defiance of a vast copper mining project run by the Myanmar military and its partner, a subsidiary of a Chinese arms manufacturer, the New York Times reports.
DURBAN - Racketeering and corruption charges against seven people, including two high profile African National Congress politicians, were withdrawn in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban on Monday, South Africa News reports. Charges were also withdrawn against three companies.
NEW YORK - Reaffirming her strong stance against graft, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said there was no corruption in any sector including the energy and power during the tenure of her government, the Daily Star of Bangladesh reports. “Instead, various conspiracies are going on against the country and we’re facing those strongly, but there was no corruption in any sector including the power during our tenure,” she said while responding to various queries in meeting the press at the U.N. Permanent Resident Mission in New York on Sunday.
JAKARTA - Councillors and residents in Riau Islands province are urging the governor and home minister to dismiss ex-corruption convict Azirwan from his new post as head of the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, the Jakarta Post reports. Azirwan, during his time as a regency secretary, was convicted in 2008 for trying to bribe a lawmaker in the House of Representatives for the conversion of a protected forest in Bintan.
LAGOS - President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said that his administration is succeeding in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, the website ChannelsTV reports. Jonathan said in a national broadcast that despite the security challenges the country is faced with, his administration has remained resolute in the fight against endemic corruption. “The fight against the scourge of corruption is a top priority of our Administration,” he said. “We are fighting corruption in all facets of our economy, and we are succeeding.”
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