News

The Piano Lesson has become the latest August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by Denzel Washington and his family. But while the Hollywood star has directed, starred in or produced film adaptations such as Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in recent years, it’s his two sons who are taking centre stage […]

It was a phone call that ended a decades-long wait – of 56 years and eight months, to be precise. The caller, from a police station in Pathanamthitta district in the southern Indian state of Kerala, gave unexpected news to Thomas Thomas – the body of his elder brother, Thomas Cherian, had finally been found. […]

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Australian ex-rugby star Rocky Elsom following a conviction for embezzlement in France, French media say. The former captain of Australia’s national team was president of RC Narbonne, one of country’s most prestigious clubs, in 2015-16. On Friday a court found him guilty of misappropriating a total of […]

A man has described how he helped expose “seismic” rape and sexual assault allegations about Mohamed Al Fayed after his fiancee told him she was a victim of the Harrods billionaire. Keaton Stone spent years speaking to women around the world, gathering a “damning” dossier of evidence. He took that to the BBC in 2023 […]

Scotland’s former First Minister Alex Salmond has died suddenly at the age of 69. The former MP and MSP, who led the country between 2007 and 2014, became ill while attending an international conference in North Macedonia. The North Macedonian government said Mr Salmond had lost consciousness at the Inex Olgica hotel, near the city […]

A further 65 women have contacted the BBC saying they were abused by Mohamed Al Fayed, with allegations stretching far beyond Harrods and as far back as 1977. Their accounts include new details of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape, sent to the BBC in the weeks since the documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods […]

Human activity is continuing to drive what conservation charity the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calls a “catastrophic” loss of species. From elephants in tropical forests to hawksbill turtles off the Great Barrier Reef, populations are plummeting, according to a stocktake of the world’s wildlife. The Living Planet Report, a comprehensive overview of the […]

A Rwandan YouTuber has been sentenced to seven years in prison for breaching the country’s laws on genocide denial. Rashid Hakuzimana, who was arrested in 2021, denied all the charges, which also included inciting ethnic division and spreading false information for claiming that anyone who dares to challenge President Paul Kagame in elections is jailed. […]

Tributes are pouring in for the widely admired but controversial founder of the Rhema Bible Church South Africa, Ray McCauley, who has died aged 75. “Pastor Ray has gone to be with the Lord peacefully at his home, surrounded by his family and loved ones,” his son said in a statement. President Cyril Ramaphosa extended […]

Residents of a town in north-western Nigeria are celebrating after a rare but feared hippo – along with its calf – was killed by rice farmers and fishermen in a hunt lasting several weeks. People in Yauri, in Kebbi state, have been terrified of the hippo after she killed a fisherman who worked for the […]