US Senator indicted on graft charges
New York, Sep 23: Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife have been charged with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, the media reported. As per US Attorney’s office, Menendez, 69, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars in exchange for using his power and influence as New Jersey’s senior senator, Xinhua news agency reported. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez has been an important ally to fellow Democrat Joe Biden as the president has sought to reassert US influence on the world stage, rally support for congressional aid to Ukraine and push back China’s rise. “Behind the scenes, Senator Menendez was doing those things for certain people – the people that were bribing him and his wife,” Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said. The investigation marks the third time federal prosecutors have investigated Menendez. (IANS)
Woman thought to be sleeping on flight was dead
London, Sep 23: A 73-year old woman on board a British Airways flight from London to Nice, who was thought to be asleep, was dead, the media reported. Fellow passengers got concerned when they were unable to wake up the elederly woman after which they alerted the crew. The crew in turn informed the paramedics who tried to revive her but in vain. The woman was declared dead at 10 p.m, and suspected to have died of heart attack, French news outlet ‘The Connexion’ reported. The woman had died mid-air but the passenger realised it after the flight landed. Confirming the death, British Airways told Daily Mail: “Sadly, a customer passed away on a flight from London Heathrow to Nice. Our thoughts are with the customer’s family at this difficult time.” (IANS)
Uganda’s Prez says airstrikes killed IS rebels
Kampala, Sep 23: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday that recent airstrikes against rebels with ties to the Islamic State group in eastern Congo have killed “a lot” of the militants, possibly including a notorious bomb maker. The statement issued by the president’s office didn’t provide details on the September 16 airstrikes targeting the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, a shadowy extremist organisation blamed for regular violence targeting civilians from bases in Congo’s volatile east. The airstrikes targeted four ADF camps located between 100-150 kilometres from the Uganda border, according to Museveni’s statement. Uganda and Congo launched joint military operations against the ADF in 2021. Meddie Nkalubo, a Ugandan bomb maker with the ADF, was likely killed in the airstrikes, according to the statement. ADF fighters sometimes conduct deadly raids across the border. In June, suspected ADF rebels attacked a school on the Ugandan side of the border, killing at least 41 people at night before fleeing across the porous border. Thirty-eight students in their dormitories were among those killed. The ADF has long opposed the rule of Museveni, a US security ally who has held power in this East African country since 1986. (AP)
