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By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Billionaire Indian industrialist Gautam Adani has been charged with paying hundreds of millions of dollars of bribes and hiding the payments from investors, US prosecutors say. Photo: AFP / PUNIT PARANJPE Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives have been indicted in New York for roles in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme, the US Department of Justice says. Authorities said Adani and seven other senior business executives, including his nephew Sagar Adani, promised more than US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts. Those bribes were "to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller in a statement Wednesday. Worth...

Vang Vieng in Laos. Photo: CHAPUT FRANCK / HEMIS.FR / AFP The ABC understands a third person has died in Laos after drinking tainted alcohol, as two Australian teenagers continue to fight for their lives following the mass poisoning incident. Melbourne 19-year-olds Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones are critically ill after they drank alcohol suspected to have been tainted by methanol at a bar in Vang Vieng in Laos last Tuesday. Bowles and Jones are currently hospitalised in Thailand. On Thursday morning the US State Department said a US citizen had died in Vang Vieng. It is understood at least two Danish women in their 20s have died, with at least 10 people falling ill after drinking the alcohol. "We can confirm the death of a US citizen in Vang Vieng, Laos," the US State Department said. "...

File photo. Jacinda Ardern pictured on 2023. Photo: AFP Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern is to be given a global leadership award by the United Nations Foundation. The annual awards, We The Peoples, recognise "extraordinary individuals and organizations whose work embodies the values and purposes of the UN". Ardern will be given the champion for global change award. The citation said it recognised her trailblazing and empathetic leadership, her commitment to championing the rights of women, combatting climate change and fostering of unity and peace. Last month, Ardern recieved her damehood from Prince William in a ceremony in the UK. Previous recipients of the champion for global change award included UN deputy secretary-general Amina J. Mohammed, Barbados prime minister Mia Am...