Disgraced former US House Speaker dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives whose career ended in disgrace after he admitted sexually abusing teenage boys he had coached, has died aged 84, officials said Monday.
The Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said Hastert died at his home Saturday night while under hospice care.
Hastert was one of Washington’s most powerful politicians during eight years as House speaker from 1999 to 2007, a position that placed him second in the line of succession to the presidency.
But his reputation collapsed years after he left Congress when a federal investigation into suspicious bank withdrawals exposed payments intended to conce...