WASHINGTON (Xinhua) - The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on Tuesday to reveal sexual abuse of female inmates in federal prisons. The report uncovered that Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employees sexually abused female prisoners in at least two-thirds of federal prisons that have held women over the past decade. “The BOP has failed to prevent, detect, and stop recurring sexual abuse, including by senior prison officials,” it said. At the all-women’s prison in the city of Dublin in California, the former warden and chaplain both sexually abused female prisoners, according to the report’s findings.

 

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LONDON (BBC) -Most Republican-leaning voters would prefer Florida’s governor over Donald Trump as their 2024 presidential nominee, according to a survey. By a 56%-33% margin, conservative voters picked Governor Ron DeSantis over the former president, who formally launched his new campaign last month. The Suffolk University/USA Today poll also found President Joe Biden had higher approval numbers than Trump. It follows mixed results for Trump-backed candidates in midterm elections. “There’s a new Republican sheriff in town,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “DeSantis outpolls Trump not only among the general electorate, but also among these Republican-leaning voters who have been the former president’s base.

 

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KINSHASA, Congo (AFP) - More than 120 people have been killed as the worst floods in years battered DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa following an all-night downpour, authorities said in a provisional assessment. Major roads in the centre of Kinshasa, a city of some 15 million people, were submerged for hours, and a key supply route was cut off. Earlier in the day, city police chief General Sylvano Kasongo gave a provisional toll of at least 55 dead in a statement, concentrated especially on hillside locations where there had been landslips. However, the toll was then revised upwards to at least 100, according to the country’s state television. An AFP reporter saw the bodies of nine members of the same family – including young children – who had died after the collapse of their home in the Binza Delvaux distric.

 

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BERLIN (Reuters) - German police conducted nationwide raids on 50 properties early on Wednesday, targeting members of a group suspected of racketeering, forgery of documents and fraud linked to emergency aid for the COVID-19 pandemic, newspaper Bild reported. Hundreds of officers stormed the properties before dawn in raids targeting the Al-Zein clan, Bild said, adding that they had arrest warrants for eight suspects.

 

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LONDON (Al- Jazeera) - An American couple in Uganda has been charged with “aggravated torture” of a 10-year-old boy in their care, police said. Nicholas Spencer and his wife, Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both aged 32, were charged and remanded to Luzira Prison, a maximum security facility on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, police said in a statement on Tuesday. The couple have three Ugandan children with them under foster care, including the victim, police said.