Amayoral candidate was shot dead just hours before polls opened on Sunday, becoming the second candidate assassinated in an election marred by more than a dozen attacks and threats against political candidates and their associates.

More than 7,000 people were killed in South Africa from June to September, representing a 14 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the latestcrime statistics released by the South African Police Service.

Canada and the United States individually sanctioned on Friday two Haitian political elites, whom the two countries accuse of using their positions to protect and enable criminal organizations responsible for the destabilization of Haiti and its rule of law.

El Salvador has detained more than 50,000 suspected members of organized crime groups since a state of emergency was declared five months ago, prompting lawmakers to extend it until September 20.

For almost a decade now, South Africa’s construction sector has had to contend with organized crime groups that extort construction sites for moneyor a stake in development projects, and are not adverse to threatening those who oppose them with violence or death, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)reported Tuesday.

Amnesty International condemned Cambodia's recent conviction of an activist who was protesting against illegal logging interests in the country’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, saying that the move “marks further repression of environmental defenders.”

The transport business is often hijacked by organized crime – in particular the highly lucrative vehicle-towing industry – which gangs infiltrate across the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa through violence, intimidation and corruption, the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime warned.

A Georgian court orderedon Saturday the evacuation of children from a Church-run boarding school for orphans after the local archbishop refused to let authorities enter the school and look into allegations of violence and sexual abuse of children.

A new wave of violence has spread across Mexico as the country approaches legislative elections in June, with criminal gangs murdering, extorting and threatening candidates as a way to strengthen their political influence.

ANovaya Gazeta investigative reporter who three years ago exposed the Chechen gay purge said she and a human rights lawyer were attacked last week by an angry mob in the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Sudanese businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Hussein Ali, known as Al-Cardinal, remains “a major enabler of corruption and violence for President Salva Kiir’s government,” claims the latest investigative report byThe Sentry.