An estimated 10,000 people participated in the first day of an indefinite strike against the government on Monday. These protests were motivated by alleged corruption and the elimination of a subsidy that has sent fuel prices skyrocketing in Nigeria. Meanwhile, terrorist attacks by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, who most recently claimed responsibility for a Christmas Day church bombing that killed 37 people and wounded 57, have reached a fever pitch.

In India, a 74-year-old activist is on a hunger strike to protest government corruption. The activist, Anna Hazare, has drawn comparisons to Mohandas Ghandi. He is currently in jail, but may be leaving later today after more than 10,000 people marched peacefully through New Delhi yesterday, rallying on his behalf. Could this be the start of an Arab Spring in India?

Illinois' embattled ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty yesterday on 17 counts of corruption, and could face up to 20 years in prison. Blagojevich was caught on tape trying to extort money in exchange for President Obama's vacated Senate seat in late 2008. Blagojevich had maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and was surprised by the guilty verdict. “I, frankly, am stunned," he told reporters. 

Protesters gathered Cairo's Tahrir Square once again on Saturday to demand that the Egyptian military open an investigation into former president Hosni Mubarak's abuses. Mubarak responded to charges of corruption in a radio address on Sunday, the first time he's addressed the country since being forced from power in February. How have Egyptians responded to Mubarak's claims of innocence? What does this mean for the future of Egypt?

Russia’s closely watched trial of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky revealed a lot more than just the business dealings of one of the country’s most powerful and prosperous men. For many Russians, the court's ruling exposed a crack in the political unity that keeps Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev comfortably in power. Is Russia's rule of law suffering manipulation by executive power?  

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged, along with his father and three top aides, with racketeering, extortion, taking kickbacks and attempting to personally enrich themselves through the mayor's high office. The case is one of the biggest corruption indictments in Detroit history.

"They do give us bags of money. Yes, yes they do. It’s all the same. So let’s not make this an issue," Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted today, confirming a report in Saturday's New York Times revealing that Iran supplies a top Karzai aide with bags of cash.

The Times alleged that the Iranian government funneled between $1 million and $2 million to Karzai's chief-of-staff, Umar Daudzai, in plastic bags every other month. The story quoted a NATO official as saying that Iran is aggressively trying to undermine U.S. influence in Afghanistan.

One of the biggest threats to Afghanistan's security is corruption in the Afghan government. In July, a close advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai was arrested on corruption charges, and then released after President Karzai intervened. Are we doing enough to eradicate issues of corruption in that country, both in the government itself and in our dealings with people there?

The new Will Ferrell comedy “The Other Guys” is the top grossing movie in theaters right now, but it’s the movie credits that are getting an extraordinary bout of attention.

Since General David Petraeus took over command of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more than a month ago, one of his top priorities has been rooting out corruption there. He has intensified efforts to uncover bribery in the Afghan government and watch the workings of U.S. contracting practices. Last week, he was joined in his efforts by Congressman Edolphus Towns, the chair of the House Oversight Committee. The New York Democrat just returned from a trip to Afghanistan where he visited with Petraeus to investigate waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

In a surprising move, ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich decided he would not testify in his corruption trial. Rob Wildeboer, criminal justice reporter for Chicago Public Radio, believes this was a wise move on Blagojevich's part. "I don't know what he could say to convince jurors about those tapes," he told The Takeaway. The defense strategy has shifted from putting Blagojevich on the stand to trying to prove that the government's case is too weak to find Blagojevich guilty.

Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is scheduled to take the witness stand this week to testify in his own defense at his federal corruption trial. In the five weeks since the trial began, prosecutors have played many recordings of the former politician using countless expletives in multiple profanity-laced tirades. Now, when Blagojevich takes the stand, law experts say he will have to win over jurors, leave behind his notoriously arrogant attitude and even admit some faults.

Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan. It is one of the biggest problems faced by coalition forces, and citizens there worry about corruption in the government corruption and the bribes they have to pay in their day-to-day lives. Earlier this week counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen spoke to the Takeaway about these challenges. "Most importantly is the issue of corruption and abuse on the part of the Afghan government. If we don't deal with that, no amount of military changing the deck chairs is going to fix this problem," he said.

2009 was a bad year for Kwame Kilpatrick. He lost his job as Mayor of Detroit, served four months in jail and had to surrender his law license after the details of a text-message sex scandal came to light. 2010 isn't seeming much better. The FBI now believes Kilpatrick used his office in a “criminal enterprise" and accepted bribes of over $100,000.

In 2001, many were excited at the prospect of Hamid Karzai leading Afghanistan's transitional government forward.  After winning the country's first presidential election, hopes ran high that Karzai would usher in a transparent, clean government. The recent presidential elections, however, were messy and tarnished by allegations of fraud.  What's happened since the heady days of 2001?

We're joined by Ambassador Robert Finn, associate research scholar with the Liechtenstein Institute at Princeton and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2002 – 2003.  We are also joined by Nadir Atash, former Afghan government official and author of "Turbulence – The Tumultuous Journey of One Man’s Quest for Change in Afghanistan."

Hamid Karzai has been sworn in today as the president of Afghanistan for a second five-year term.  After an optimistic first presidential election in 2004, this second election was, in the words of President Obama, "messy." It was fraught with allegations of corruption, and looked like it might require a run-off.  However, today's inauguration officially secures Hamid Karzai as president for the next five years. The inauguration itself is to be held as a private event on the heavily-secured presidential palace grounds. Anand Gopal of the Wall Street Journal, on the ground in Kabul, gives us the scene during the inauguration.

President Karzai still faces great international pressure to address corruption in the government in order to continue receiving support from the United States.  Earlier this week the Afghan government announced plans to create a major anti-corruption unit to investigate senior officials.  This Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on ABC's The Week "I have made it clear that we're not going to be providing any civilian aid to Afghanistan unless we have a certification that if it goes into the Afghan government in any form, that we're going to have ministries that we can hold accountable."

We discuss this statement and the possible impact on the future of Afghanistan with Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

According to BBC correspondent David Loyn, Afghanistan is considered the 175th most corrupt nation in the world. But some ingenious people are trying to fight that corruption … with cell phones. In a pilot program, officials are attemping to eliminate graft by paying police officers their monthly wage via mobile phones.

Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens may walk away from seven felony convictions a free man with a clean record. Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department is seeking to have Stevens’ verdict thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct. It will not pursue a new trial and wants all charges dropped. Stevens, the Senate’s longest serving Republican, was convicted in October for lying on financial disclosure forms about gifts. The Takeaway talks to Libby Casey, reporter for Alaska Public Radio Network in Washington, D.C. who has been following the case since last fall, and Steve Heimel, Host of “Talk of Alaska” in Anchorage, Alaska.

In the video below, Stevens' attorney Brendan Sullivan discusses the case.

Senator Roland Burris is promising to fully cooperate with a new investigation into his contacts with the administration of now-ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But while he may be talking to investigators, he says he'll no longer be talking to reporters. Especially not at the Chicago Tribune. Joining us now is Robert Wildeboer is a criminal justice reporter for Chicago Public Radio.

There’s never a dull moment in Illinois State Politics. Today, Governor Rod Blagojevich will preside over the swearing in of the very same state senators that will later this month decide whether or not to remove him from office. The Takeaway talks to Amanda Vinicky, a statehouse reporter for Illinois Public Radio.