Corruption

The global watchdog "Transparency International" published today its annual corruption perceptions index spotlighting the cleanest states and naming and shaming the worst. The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 163 countries on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean) based on polls from experts and business sources.

Jointly sharing the number one clean list rank this year are Finland, Iceland and New Zealand with each having a score of 9.6. Denmark came in fourth place with 9.5 followed by, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland.

You guessed it. Arab countries didn't do very well. Egypt and Saudi Arabia shared the 70th place with a poor score of 3.3.

And our pious leaders still have the guts to appear on TV praying in mosques.