Surveys by Transparency International, the leading global anti-corruption group, show that Africa is the continent most consistently plagued by official corruption and bribe-seeking. The latest figures show the fight against corruption there is proceeding rather slowly.

The UN is currently hosting a "Commission of Inquiry" about North Korea. The most impactful thing to come out of the commission's hearings will almost certainly be stories like the ones that were told to day by survivors of North Korean prison camps.

Germany's Federal Assembly chosen a new president, but all anyone outside Germany cares about is his wife's tattoo, and whether Germany's "most unusual first lady" is a "First Lady mit glamour-potenzial." Meet Bettina Wulff. She's a 5'11" blonde European chick!

It turns out that María Belén Chapur/Shapur, the woman identified by the Argentinian press as Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress, does not work for an agribusiness concern called Bunge y Born, after all. So we really know nothing about her, still.

Iran continues to dislike Hollywood, it would seem. Actor Armin Amiri, who briefly appeared in the Iranian-flag-ripping movie The Wrestler, recently learned that his father was arrested in Tehran.

Foreign Policy writes about the "blog war" propaganda aspect of the war between Russia and Georgia, referring to a bunch of—TREND!—largely anonymous Russian bloggers and commenters leaving comments of varying political rhetoric on websites. Don't get so excited, guys; nothing new here. Old-timey journalists talked in-person to actual people fleeing wars at train stations and the like, instead of trolling websites for the ramblings of people who, for all we know, are the digital equivalent of the wackjob coots who write polemical letters to the local paper.

Queen Rania of Jordan is very concerned about people's stereotypes of the Arab world. So she's turning to the world's utmost authority on ignorant stereotypes: YouTube commenters. The model-beautiful queen has posted a video reaching out the ignorant masses, asking them to send in stereotypes "they've heard," so she can "break them down one by one and address them." Hope you have a lot of free time, your highness! "I really appreciate that the queen herself speacks in you tube as a regular human being.Besiades, I couldn´t agree more with whay she says," writes one supporter. Us too! Her full plea to YOU, the racists, after the jump.