Bloomberg News reports that India accounts for 37 percent of the world's female sterilizations. Last year, 4.6 million women were sterilized, a number reach in large part because of govenrment quotas and incentives for doctors. Women are supposed to receive counseling before they give consent for the operations, which doesn't always happen. Sterilizations are sometimes happening in unsanitary conditions with bloody sheets and rusty scalpels.

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, 65% of fatal crashes that happen on weekends, in South Africa, are because of alcohol abuse by drivers and pedestrians.

However, in a report filed by Kirsti Buick, a journalism student from Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, many drivers are getting off with paying a bribe, "some paying as little as R10 or simply handing over a cool drink to get out of traffic fines and jail time. According to Corruption Watch’s 2012 report, The Law for Sale, the practice of taking bribes “has become so common that it is, to ...

Twice Betrayed | San Antonio Express-News
“A seven-month San Antonio Express-News investigation into the pervasive and long-standing problem of sex assaults in the military shows victims who report the incidents often are retaliated against and discharged on false claims that they have mental disorders. Offenders, meanwhile, are rarely punished, and most are allowed to stay in the armed forces.”

Data breaches persist despite heightened security | Chicago Tribune
“Despite rising awareness of cybersecurity, the number of incidents in which secure information is released into potentially untrustworthy environments remains nearly as high as ever by some measures worldwide and in Illinois.”

Chronic Lyme ...

Washington Monthly reports that "over the past five years U.S. border agents have shot across the border at least ten times, killing a total of six Mexicans on Mexican soil." According to the report, border patrol shootings were a rarity before 2009, with only a handful occurring. But after an increase in border patrol agentst between 2006 and 2009, "a disturbing pattern of excessive use of force has emerged."

Today, Reuters released two articles about Google and the company’s tax structure in the UK:

From 2006 to 2011, Google generated $18 billion in revenues from the UK and paid just $16 million in taxes. Google defends its low tax bills by saying it does not have a British tax presence, because its sales to the UK are made by staff in Ireland. A Reuters examination of Google’s activities raises questions about that. Our reporting reveals many employee roles located in Britain that actually target, negotiate and close sales of Google’s advertising products to its customers. Also ...

Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze | ICIJ
“A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over. The secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways.”

A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood | The New York Times
"The C.I.A.’s covert drone war in Pakistan began ...

Dozens of journalists working for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism sorted through millions of leaked records that "lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways." 

International Consortium of Investigative Journalism reports that key findings include: 

• Government officials and their families and associates in Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.
• The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not ...

According to documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, applicants who have sought sensitive law enforcement jobs in recent years with the U.S. Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, admitted to a host of astonishing crimes during the application process, including rape, kidnapping.

"The records – official summaries of more than 200 polygraph admissions – raise alarms about the thousands of employees Customs and Border Protection has hired over the past six years before it began mandatory polygraph tests for all applicants six months ago," according to CIR. "The required polygraphs come at the tail end ...

VG of Norway reports that more than half of kindergartens in Norway have broken the law in the last three years. VG journalists sent hundreds of FOIA requests and analyzed roughly 31,000 pages of audit reports. They found a total of 6,400 violations during that span, including careless hygiene, poor security and failure to meet staffing requirements.

See the full report here. Using DocumentCloud, VG also created a database of the reports.

Haiti Grassroots Watch reports: "The population of Cadouche, a small village about 12 kilometers south of Cap-Haitian in Haiti’s North department, is nervous about three new mining exploitation permits granted last December in an opaque and secretive process."

Residents of the area, who told Haiti Grassroots Watch they are concerned the mining will poison their environment, say no members of the government or the company approached them to hear complaints or ask for agreement in the mining plan.