Crime

The rule of law thrives best in wealthy nations like Sweden and the Netherlands but is dismal in poorer countries like Pakistan, Kenya, and Liberia, according to the Rule of Law Index released by the World Justice Project (WPJ). The Rule of Law Index, which assessed 35 countries around the world, noted that high-income countries generally respect the rule of law more than poor countries. At the same time, however, it found wide differences in performance on specific variables within and between...

French authorities have arrested in Paris the alleged leader of a Rwandan rebel group accused of mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday. Callixte Mbarushimana, described as a leader of the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, FDLR), was held after a sealed warrant was issued for his arrest on allegations the rebel group was involved in hundreds of rapes in DRC's...

Rewards totalling $10,000 are being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally killing an endangered gray wolf in Oregon's Umatilla National Forest. The US Fish and Wildlife service announced Friday it is offering $2,500. A coalition of conservation groups has chipped in with another $7,500 to the kitty. The wolf was a two-year-old male from the Wenaha pack and had been captured and fitted with a radio tracking collar in August...

A woman was injected with HIV-infected blood by two of her daughters who were after her property. Bharathi, a 59-year-old woman who lives in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has now fallen ill and been admitted to a hospital. One of the two daughters works as a nurse in the same hospital, and she allegedly injected the HIV-infected blood into her mother. After a while, Bharathi's condition worsened and she was admitted to another hospital where the doctors confirmed she was infected...

The world played a mute spectator to the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis in the Nineties. It enacted the same role when untold atrocities were being perpetrated in DR Congo. Now that the UN report on DRC is out, the world must speak out. And, of course, act. The 566-page UN report, DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003, is not merely a clinical catalogue of violence committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003. It is a documentation of till how far human beings can go...

Environmental crimes are booming in a Madagascar, plunged in political chaos. Ten or more carts filled with around 100 terrestrial tortoises each are leaving the Mahafaly Plateau in south Madagascar every week, a WWF survey has found. Poaching of both the endemic radiated tortoise ( Astrochelys radiata) and the spider tortoise ( Pyxis arachnoids) for the bush meat and pet trade had long been known. But the ongoing political stability is now being exploited to the hilt for wildlife trade. These...

Two veterinarians, two safari operators, and a professional hunter are among nine people who were arrested Monday during a police raids in South Africa. Over 200 rhinos have been killed in the country this year. Dawie Groenewald, the wealthy driving force behind Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris in Polokwane, his wife, Sariette, and Tielman Erasmus, a professional hunter, are behind bars. They were arrested on Monday along with Dr Karel Toet and Dr Manie du Plessis, two veterinarians from...

The upsurge in rhino poaching in southern Africa is leading to a variety of responses to the crisis worldwide. This year around 200 animals have been poached in South Africa for horns, with five killed in a nature reserve alone in the last weekend. According to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, the number of horns moving out of Africa is escalating, with poached horns able to move from the site of the kill to the global market in as little as 48 hours. Four rhino carcasses with...

Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot at a tourist bus on Sunday near the historic Jama Masjid in old Delhi area, injuring two Taiwanese nationals. The gunmen randomly opened fire near the mosque, hitting tourists who were in a bus parked nearby. Eyewitnesses told the CNN-IBN news channel that the attackers wore helmets and raincoats and escaped on their motorcycle after firing seven rounds. A red alert has been sounded for the two suspects who are still absconding. The police have recovered .38 bore...

Three out of four people with mental health conditions in low- and middle-income countries do not have access to needed mental health treatment. Even in high-income countries, this figure is relatively high at 35-50 percent, according to a WHO study. People with severe mental health conditions also are less likely to receive treatment for physical health conditions. People with schizophrenia are 40 per cent less likely to be hospitalised for ischaemic heart disease, compared with people without...