Those countries with the least corruption are: 
• Australia (10) unchanged
• Canada (10) unchanged
 • United States (9) unchanged
 •Chile (8) unchanged 

Those with the greatest incidence of corruption are: 

• Kazakhstan (1) unchanged
 • Russia (1) unchanged
 • D.R. Congo (2) unchanged
 • South Africa (2) unchanged
• Papua New Guinea (2) unchanged
• Mongolia (2) unchanged
• China (2) unchanged

Based on the Behre Dolbear Group Inc

 

History

Inhabitants of the Malaysian peninsula and the island of Singapore first migrated to the area between 2500 and 1500 B.C. (see Malaysia). British and Dutch interest in the region grew with the spice trade, and the trading post of Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles. It was made a separate Crown colony of Britain in 1946, when the former colony of the Straits Settlements was dissolved. The other two settlements on the peninsula—Penang and Malacca—became part of the Union of Malaya, and the small island of Labuan was transferred to North Borneo. The Cocos (or Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island were transferred to Australia in 1955 and in 1958, respectively.
Singapore attained full internal self-government in 1959, and Lee Kwan Yew, an economic visionary with an authoritarian streak, took the helm as prime minister. On Sept. 16, 1963, Singapore joined Malaya, Sabah (North Borneo), and Sarawak in the Federation of Malaysia. It withdrew from the federation on Aug. 9, 1965, and a month later proclaimed itself a republic.
Under Lee, Singapore developed into one of the cleanest, safest, and most economically prosperous cities in Asia. However, Singapore's strict rules of civil obedience also drew criticism from those who said the nation's prosperity was achieved at the expense of individual freedoms.
S. R. Nathan was declared president without an election when he was certified as the only candidate eligible to run in 1999 elections. In Aug. 2004, Lee Hsien Loong became the country's third prime minister since Singapore gained independence from Britain in 1965. Lee faced his first electoral challenge in May 2006. His People's Action Party (PAP) won 82 out of 84 seats in parliamentary elections.
In Singapore's May 2011 general election, the ruling People's Action Party was reelected with a majority of 81 to 6, which was the equivalent of 60% of the vote. This percentage was viewed as promising by the opposition, as it was significantly less than in the two previous elections. After the elections, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong uncharacteristically acknowledged mistakes and pledged a more efficient government in the future.
Following on the heels of the general election, August's presidential election saw a field of four candidates from which the ruling party's Tony Tan emerged victorious. Though favored to win, Tan's triumph was not exactly a landslide--the 7,000 vote margin was the equivalent of 35.2% of the vote.

See also Encyclopedia: Singapore
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Singapore.
Department of Statistics www.singstat.gov.sg/ .

In 1889, Paris hosted an Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) to mark the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution. More than 100 artists submitted competing plans for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars, located in central Paris, and serve as the exposition’s entrance. The commission was granted to Eiffel et Compagnie, a consulting and construction firm owned by the acclaimed bridge builder, architect and metals expert Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. While Eiffel himself often receives full credit for the monument that bears his name, it was one of his employees—a structural engineer named Maurice Koechlin—who came up with and fine-tuned the concept. Several years earlier, the pair had collaborated on the Statue of Liberty’s metal armature.

Eiffel reportedly rejected Koechlin’s original plan for the tower, instructing him to add more ornate flourishes. The final design called for more than 18,000 pieces of puddle iron, a type of wrought iron used in construction, and 2.5 million rivets. Several hundred workers spent two years assembling the framework of the iconic lattice tower, which at its inauguration in March 1889 stood nearly 10,000 feet high and was the tallest structure in the world—a distinction it held until the completion of New York City’s Chrysler Building in 1930. (In 1957, an antenna was added that increased the structure’s height by 65 feet, making it taller than the Chrysler Building but not the Empire State Building, which had surpassed its neighbor in 1931.) Initially, only the Eiffel Tower’s second-floor platform was open to the public; later, all three levels, two of which now feature restaurants, would be reachable by stairway or one of eight elevators.
( Source:http://www.history.com/topics/eiffel-tower )

 

1. The Federation joined Malaya, Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore, but Singapore left in 1965.

2. The Malaysian monarch is elected for a five-year term by the Conference of Rulers.

3. Five of Malaysia’s six Olympic medals were for men’s badminton; the other was for diving.

4. Of every 100,000 people in Malaysia, 132 are in prison.

5. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur was 14.4C (57.9F); the average annual rainfall is 95.5 inches.

6. In August 1997, a model of the Malaysian flag was completed, made out of 10,430 floppy disks. The country’s deputy education minister described this as ‘an event Malaysia can be proud of’.

7. In 1997, the state of Kelantan, Malaysia ruled that lights would be kept on in cinemas in order to deter people from kissing and cuddling.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur was 14.4C (57.9F); the average annual rainfall is 95.5 inches

8. Caning is a common punishment under Malaysian law. The maximum number of strokes that can be ordered is 24.

9. Women are never caned, nor are boys under the age of 10 or men over 50, except for rape.









10. The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were the world’s tallest buildings from 1998-2004.

 (Source:http://www.express.co.uk/fun/top10facts/429736/Top-10-facts-about-Malaysia )

1. India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world, at 1.27 million square miles.
2. India is the largest democracy in the world.

 

 6. it is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.

7. India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.


8. India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.


9. More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.


10.Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural mother.

(Source: http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/07/21_india.html )

10. James Woods

James Woods is a TV, stage and a movie actor. He has a brilliant IQ level of 180. He went to UCLA for high school and got a scholarship at MIT. For his great performance in ‘Promise’ and ‘My Name is Bill W’ he won two Emmy awards. He also played a role in a TV series ‘Shark’.

9. Sir Andrew Wiles

Sir Andrew Wiles is a British mathematician and a Professor at Oxford University. He is the son of Maurice Frank Wiles who is also the professor at the same University. Wiles earned his graduation degree in mathematics in 1974. He is very popular for proving Last theorem which is the most difficult problem in math.

8. Kenneth Farrell

Kenneth Farrell is a doctor by profession and has great achievement in the field of medicine. He is a member of IQ organizations including the Genre IQ Society, Epimethius Society and the order of Imhotep. He created some verbal and IQ tests such as 12345 and QUINTIQ.

7. Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov is a youngest Russian undisputed world champion in Chess when he was just 22 years old. He shows his brilliant skills in the Chess game which already need a sharp mind. He also ran for President in Russia. In 1997 he lost his first match to a computer under a standard time control.

6. Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis is a Greek national who earned three degrees including philosophy, medical research technology and psycho pharmacology. He is known for his high intelligence test score with a great IQ score of 258. He also like painting, swimming and lots of travelling.

5. Kim Ung Yong

Kim Ung Yong is a South Korean Civil Engineering and listed in the Guinness Book of World Record for the highest IQ. He was different from other children as he starts speaking when he was only six months old. When he was three he read many language including German, Korean, Japanese and English. NASA invited him to study in the US when he was eight years old. After the studies he published many theories related to hydraulics.

4. Terence Tao

Terence Tao is an Australian mathematician and known for the Green-Tao theorem and Tao’s inequality. He also worked in harmonic analysis, partial differential equation, ergodic Ramsey theory, number theory and matrix theory. He is very talented as he solved arithmetic problems at two years old and won the gold medal in the International math Olympiad when he was thirteen years old. He was one of the recipients of the 2006 Fields Medal.

3. Christopher Hirata

Christopher Hirata won a gold medal in an international physics Olympiad at the age of 13. When he was 22 years old, he completed his PhD degree from the University of Princeton. Now he is working for NASA projects on how to colonize and conquer mars.

2. Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an American electrical and mechanical engineer. He is best known for his contribution to the design of the modern AC current system. And also for his high voltage, high frequency power experiment and radio communication. In honor of Nikola Tesla the International system of unit dedicated the term “tesla” to the SI unit of magnetic field strength.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking is an English Physicist, cosmologist and Director of research at the University of Cambridge. He completed his studies from California Institute of Technology and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is known for his Hawking Radiation and Penrose Hawking theorem and awarded by Albert Einstein award in 1978. In spite of bearing with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Stephen Hawking has always been a source of inspiration for billions of people.

(Source:http://www.3rank.com/top-10-smartest-people-in-the-world/)