Mexican ruling party candidate pledges to help curb corruption

Energy giants Eni and Shell were accused of corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oilfield in Nigeria. The $1.3 billion sale was the biggest corruption scandal to hit the industry.

Barefoot and wearing traditional white dresses, a group of Maya indigenous women walk onto the pitch. They are the Hondzonot Devils, an amateur softball team challenging stereotypes in a community in southeastern Mexico. This time, they are facing the Pisté Warriors, made up of Maya indigenous women from a neighbouring state.

Eighty-eight-year-old Mayan grandmother Dona Menchita showed off her skills and energy proper of a youngster climbing up trees and picking up fruits to sell in Tizimin, Yucatan, Mexico. This fearless grandmother's age doesn't stop her from work, as she continues cutting firewood, taking care of her crops and also climbing up the trees.

Raul Barrientos takes his trusty donkeys each morning to haul several litres of water up hilly dirt paths to his home in a working class neighbourhood of Mexico City, where the general water supply does not reach. According to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, close to 10 percent of the Mexican population does not have access to drinking water, or some 12 to 15 million inhabitants.

In tonight's edition: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa admits that the country's ruling party could have done more to halt state graft under his predecessor Jacob Zuma as he testifies before an anti-corruption inquiry. In Somalia, the president tries to diffuse tensions over a proposed two-year extension of his mandate by inviting parliament to debate the move over the weekend. And hospitals in Madagascar are overwhelmed with an intensified wave of coronavirus cases in the country.

In Ivory Coast, corruption has infected most of the public sector – from procurement contracts, to customs services, to recruitment. The country is ranked 106th out of 180 countries, according to the NGO Transparency International. Re-elected in October of last year, President Alassane Ouattara has promised to make the fight against corruption one of the priorities of his new term. But so far, no concrete measures have been put in place to tackle the problem. Our correspondents report.

Former President Jacob Zuma is being tried for graft, fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The plea marks a turning point in the decadelong trial.

The military regime alleges the detained former leader accepted illegal payments. Suu Kyi is expected to go on trial next week.

A freight train derailed and toppled onto houses alongside the tracks in western Mexico on Tuesday, killing one resident and injuring three others, emergency services said.

The state accuses Zuma of bribery, fraud and money laundering in a $2 billion weapons contract with French company Thales in the late 1990s. He denies all the charges.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, testifying at a graft inquiry on Wednesday (August 11), said he chose to "remain but resist" rather than resign as deputy president when allegations of widespread corruption surfaced under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Over 131,000 children in Mexico have lost a mother, father or both to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Lancet medical journal. The grief and anxiety make returning to school a challenge for bereaved families.