Jane Goodall, the intellectual, soft-spoken conservationist renowned for her groundbreaking, immersive chimpanzee field research in which she documented the primates’ distinct personalities and use of tools, has died. She was 91. The environmental advocate became a beloved household name who transcended generations through her appearances in documentaries and on television, as well as her travels to address packed auditoriums around the world. The Jane Goodall Institute announced the primatologist’s death Wednesday in an Instagram post. According to the Washington, D.C.-based institute, Goodall died of natural causes while in California on a U.S. speaking tour. Her discoveries “revolutionized science, and she...

South African opposition politician Julius Malema has been found guilty of discharging a firearm in public seven years ago – an offence which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. In 2018, a video emerged showing the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader firing several shots in the air during his party’s fifth anniversary celebrations held in the country’s Eastern Cape province. He was charged alongside his former bodyguard Adriaan Snyman, who was acquitted. Malema was convicted of hate speech less than two months ago and often lashes out at the white minority in a country where, 31 years after apartheid...

At a time when most people use keyboards to write, does handwriting really matter? Yes, say Indian courts, if the writer is a doctor. Jokes around the notoriously bad handwriting of many doctors that can only be deciphered by pharmacists are common in India, as around the world. But the latest order emphasising the importance of clear handwriting came recently from the Punjab and Haryana High Court which said that “legible medical prescription is a fundamental right” as it can make a difference between life and death. The court order came in a case that had nothing to do with...

Former Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes and treason. The charges concern accusations that Kabila has been supporting the M23, a rebel group who have wreaked devastation across the country’s eastern region. Kabila was convicted on Friday by a military court of treason, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including murder, sexual assault, torture and insurrection. He denied the charges, but did not appear in court to defend himself. The ex-president rejected the case as “arbitrary” and said the courts were being used as an “instrument of oppression”. His...

Rescuers in East Java, Indonesia are racing to find dozens of people still believed trapped in the rubble of a school building that collapsed on Monday. At least four students were killed and about 100 injured, some critically, after the two-storey Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the town of Sidoarjo caved in. Hundreds of students, most of them teenage boys, had gathered to pray in the building when it gave way. Authorities on Wednesday said crying and shouting could still be heard from under the rubble, while anxious relatives who had camped out at the school overnight awaited news of...