Despite objections by conservatives, Iran passed a long-awaited anti money laundering bill on Saturday, taking the country one step closer to accessing the international financial system.

Imprisoned Azerbaijani blogger and photographer Mehman Huseynov, whose most recent work was about President Ilham Aliyev naming his wife as the country’s vice president, was in deteriorating health Tuesday, 13 days after going on a hunger strike.

Global trafficking gangs are targeting victims in refugee camps across the Middle East and Asia, according to a UN report released on Monday.

Tax authorities targeted a network of companies that embezzled millions of dollars in public funds destined for investments in Sicily’s cultural heritage, local tourism and infrastructure, according to a statement Italian Tax Police released Friday.

A former state attorney general from Mexico is facing life in prison for using his position as a top law enforcement official to facilitate drug trafficking into the United States in exchange for bribes, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced last week.

Cleaning up corruption in American politics was the top priority for a large majority of voters in key 2018 midterm races, according to polling commissioned by the political action committee End Citizens United.

Police arrested in Zagreb a former member of a mafia group who was convicted for drugs trafficking in Italy, Croatian authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.

Italian tax police confiscated real estate, cars and company shares worth 2.8 million euros (US$3.2 million) belonging to a man allegedly heading a “fierce criminal organization,” according to a police statement released Thursday.

During a New Year’s Eve operation, Algerian authorities arrested 14 suspected smugglers and seized weapons from an illegal gold mining group, the country’s Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday.

A court in Islamabad found on Monday former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif guilty of corruption, sentenced him to to seven years in prison and fined him US$25 million.