Nepal minister jailed and fined for corruption

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepal's highest court on Tuesday jailed a serving government minister for corruption in a first for a nation fighting an ingrained culture of graft.

The Supreme Court handed information and communications minister, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, an 18-month sentence and an 8.4 million-rupee (S$131,000) fine after he failed to account for a vast portfolio of property accrued while in office.

Gupta, 52, has held a number of ministerial posts and was appointed to the information ministry after his party struck a deal with the Maoists to form a coalition government in August 2011.

'This bench has reached the conclusion that the defendant's source of income and the property he earned during the given period doesn't match,' Ms Sushila Karki, one of two presiding judges, told reporters.

Indonesia's main challenge is fighting corruption: Yudhoyono

JAKARTA (REUTERS) - Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday that fighting corruption is the main challenge facing South-east Asia's largest economy.

'We want to change the trajectory of history but I have come to realise that it takes a longer time to make our country and our system clean,' Mr Yudhoyono told reporters at the state palace.

Civil servant earns $295 a month and drives a Porsche

MANILA - On the surface, it looked like any old road-rage case, except that this one escalated well beyond the everyday realm of fisticuffs.

A minor fender bender between two cars - one a Porsche - sparked an altercation. Things quickly got out of hand when the Porsche driver pulled out a gun and took some shots at the other driver. He missed, and was later arrested.