These are the 18 most corrupt countries in the developed world

REUTERS/Henry Romero

Every year, Transparency International, the global anticorruption coalition, releases its Corruption Perceptions Index, a survey into the countries people perceive as the most corrupt on earth.

As Transparency International notes, there is no hard-and-fast way "to assess absolute levels of corruption in countries or territories on the basis of hard empirical data." This is basically because, by its very nature, corruption is usually hidden from the public.

But it creates a ranking based on several other corruption studies, and gives 168 countries a ranking out of 100, where 100 is the least corrupt and 0 is most corrupt. This helps to give a pretty good idea of where in the world is most corrupt.

The countries seen as most corrupt tend to be in Africa and the Middle East, in societies with weak legal and governmental systems and widespread poverty. For example, Somalia tops this year's list, with North Korea and Afghanistan close behind.

Business Insider decided to take a look at the wealthy, democratic nations where corruption is most rife. To do so, we looked at the positions of countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and then picked out those with the highest levels of perceived corruption.

Check them out below:

Amir Khan and wife Faryal splash £100,000 on their 2 year old daughter's birthday party

29 year old boxer Amir Khan and his wife 24 year old Faryal Makhdoom Khan splashed £100,000 on their daughter, Lamaisah Khan's second birthday party.
The birthday party which was held at Khan's Bolton Wanderers football club had 250 guests in attendance. The party took Mrs Khan three months to plan and it featured Disney princesses, Peppa Pig, a real-life ballerina, a giant cake and a carousel.
In an exclusive interview with Hello! magazine, Amir Khan talked about his daughter's 2nd birthday party.

Jihadi Junior smuggled into Sweden for surgery by his Nigerian Jihadi mother

A four-year-old British boy, Isa Dare, AKA Jihadi Junior, who appeared to blow up a group of ISIS prisoners in a propaganda video, has been reportedly smuggled into Sweden for an operation by his London-born Jihadi bride mother Grace Dare, The Sun reports.
It is reported that Grace who has changed her name to Khadijah smuggled her son from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa to Sweden after he had been sick for some months.

24-year-old Nigerian man and Thai woman nabbed in Bangkok with 8.5kg of drugs hidden in handbags

A Nigerian man and a Thai woman have been arrested after 8.5kg of crystal methamphetamine or "ice" were found stuffed into new handbags imported from China.

24-year-old Nigerian national John Anike Chinedu & Sawaros Nathawil, 34, were arrested separately in Samut Prakan and Bangkok.

 

Venezuela's political crisis is reaching a breaking point

Social unrest has simmered in Venezuela for the last few years, at times breaking out in widespread protests, and tensions have mounted this year, as an opposition-led legislature leads aneffort to recall President Nicolas Maduro.

But a protest that broke out near the presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday indicates that the strife has reached a segment of the country critical to the government's popular support.

A group of Venezuelans waiting in line at a supermarket in Caracas made a run for Miraflores, the presidential palace, after they sawwhat appeared to be people affiliated with the government taking food they had been waiting for hours in the heat to buy.

I transformed my Jeep into a moving house to travel around Africa for 2 years — here's what it was like to build

Dan Grec

Hi, I'm Dan. A few years ago, I drove a Jeep from Alaska to Argentina.

I learned a lot on that trip about where I want to go and what kind of vehicle I want to live in.

After years of saving and planning, I bought a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (4 door) Rubicon to turn into a house on wheels to drive around Africa for two years.

My build focused on interior living space, strong 4x4, and it had to fit inside a standard 20-foot shipping container.

Here's what it was like:

You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or visit me over at my websiteor YouTube channel. I also wrote an e-book, "Work Less to Live Your Dreams."

First, the finished project: My house on wheels completed.

Apple should buy Uber

Calling Uber a Silicon Valley unicorn is passé. Uber is a $62.5 billion monster that's threatening to take down a nervous tech market.

The latest news is that Uber last week accepted a $3.5 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

That means Uber now has $11 billion to fuel its growth. But what's conspicuously lacking from that assumed growth is some type of exit strategy for Uber's earlier investors.

Will there ever be an IPO? Not anytime soon, if CEO Travis Kalanick has his way.

There is another option of course: acquisition.

Conservatively, Uber's acquisition value would be something like $80 billion. That's a big bite. Tesla has a market cap of about $30 billion. General Motors is $46 billion. Ford is $52 billion.