Australia’s oldest scientist, David Goodall, has ended his own life at a clinic in Switzerland, surrounded by family and while listening to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

The British-born 104-year-old professor was forced to travel on a one-way ticket from his home in Western Australia to Switzerland where liberal assisted dying laws allowed him to end his life legally, in contrast to Australia where it remains forbidden.

In his final hours, Goodall enjoyed his favourite dinner: fish and chips and cheesecake. And in his final minutes, he listened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, best known for its last movement Ode to Joy, reportedly passing away shortly after the piece of music finished. To end his own life, Goodall had to turn a wheel that allowed a lethal infusion to flow into his bloodstream through a cannula on his arm. Assisted dying, where patients take the final action to end their lives, is legal in Canada, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and parts of the US.(theguardian)…[+]

A dam has burst its banks in Kenya’s Rift Valley, killing at least 38 people and forcing hundreds from their homes, officials have said. Water burst through the banks of the Patel dam in Solai, 190km north-west of the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday night, sweeping away hundreds of homes, including those on the expansive Nyakinyua farm, which borders the reservoir.

“We have recovered 38 bodies and many people are missing. It is a disaster,” said Joseph Kioko, chief of police in the town of Rongai. Almost an entire village was swept by silt and water, said Gideon Kibunja, the Nakuru county police chief in charge of criminal investigations. Up to 40 people were rescued from the mud and taken to hospital in rescue operations conducted by the Kenya Red Cross and Nakuru County disaster management teams. Many more are feared to be trapped under debris and mud. Officials said the dam water and mud spewed out of the reservoir and submerged homes over a radius of nearly 2km (1.2 miles).(theguardian)…[+]

Theresa May has apologised for the “appalling” treatment of a husband and wife who were the victims of a so-called rendition operation mounted with the help of MI6.

The attorney general, Jeremy Wright, read out a letter from the prime minister in which she apologised unreservedly to the Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, on behalf of the government. He also announced that Boudchar, who was pregnant when the couple were kidnapped, would receive compensation of £500,000 for the UK’s role in her treatment. Belhaj had neither sought, nor received, a financial settlement. Boudchar watched from the Commons public gallery as the minister told MPs that, after mediation, the government had reached a full and final settlement with the couple, who had withdrawn their legal claim.(theguardian)…[+]

Prosecutors in Rome are investigating a bus explosion in the city’s historic centre, the 10th such blast in the Italian capital this year. Passengers and pedestrians were lucky to escape injury on Tuesday when the vehicle burst into flames on Via del Tritone, a busy high street close to the Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain. The explosion was reportedly caused by a short circuit, although panicked tourists initially suspected terrorism. Two shops were damaged by the blast.

“There was a loud roar and everyone started to flee like crazy when they didn’t understand what was happening,” reported Il Messaggero, whose head office is on Via Tritone. “We thought it was a bomb,” Japanese tourists told the newspaper.

The explosions are so frequent in Rome that residents have suggested public transport poses a greater threat to their safety than terrorism. There were 22 bus blasts last year and 14 in 2016, with no reported injuries.(theguardian)…[+]

Donald Trump’s attorney and legal fixer, Michael Cohen, was paid half a million dollars by a company affiliated with a Russian oligarch closely linked to Vladimir Putin, according to extraordinary allegations published on Tuesday.

The claim was made in a research document drafted and posted online by Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actor known as Stormy Daniels, who alleged she was paid in 2016 in return for agreeing not to disclose that she had sex with Trump. Cohen was said by Avenatti to have received $500,000 through a US affiliate of the Renova investment group owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire closely associated with Putin who was placed under sanction by the US government last month. The payments were allegedly made between January and August 2017.

An attorney for the Renova affiliate, Columbus Nova, said it hired Cohen as a business consultant and that Vekselberg had no involvement in the payments. Cohen, his attorney, and the Republican National Committee – for which Cohen is a deputy finance chairman – did not respond to requests for comment.(theguardian)…[+]

An investigative reporter who covers crime and corruption in Montenegro has been shot and injured in an attack that prompted calls from the European Union and the US to protect journalists in the Balkan country.

Olivera Lakić, a journalist for the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti, was wounded in the right leg outside her home in the capital, Podgorica. She was taken to a hospital and was reported out of danger. Police said the attack happened around 9pm. A search for the attackers was underway, including increased controls throughout the city and a review of surveillance cameras in the area, police said.

Vijesti’s chief editor, Mihailo Jovović, said Lakić told him a man approached her and shot her, while two other men ran away. She was attacked six years ago after she wrote a series of articles about alleged murky dealings over a tobacco factory. That perpetrator was jailed for several months and Lakić had police protection for a while.

“I am speechless,” Jovović said in comments published on the Vijesti website. “For how much longer will this be happening? A lot of stories she wrote have not been investigated [by the authorities]. For how much longer must we live in fear of such cowards?”(theguardian)…[+]

Five women are among the names floated to lead a transitional government in Italy in what some speculate could be President Sergio Mattarella’s attempt to break with tradition while the country’s politics are mired in stalemate. Mattarella is seeking a neutral government after rival parties failed to establish a working coalition during a last-ditch attempt on Monday to end the political deadlock that resulted from inconclusive elections on 4 March.

The 76-year-old is expected to name a prime minister on Wednesday to deal with matters such as approving the 2019 budget before fresh elections are held at the end of the year. Names mentioned in the Italian media on Tuesday included Elisabetta Belloni, the foreign ministry’s secretary general, and Marta Cartabia, the deputy head of the constitutional court.

There is also speculation that Lucrezia Reichlin, an economist, Anna Maria Tarantola, a former director of the Bank of Italy and former president of the national broadcaster Rai, and Fabiola Gianotti, the first female director of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), are in the running. Carlo Cottarelli, a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund, is among the male candidates named.

“[Nominating a woman] could really be a window of opportunity for [Mattarella] to try and change some traditions and conventions during a really extraordinary moment in Italian politics,” said Massimiliano Panarari, a politics professor at the Guido Carli Free International University for Social Studies in Rome.(theguardian)…[+]

As Canada prepares to legalize marijuana this summer, politicians are facing growing calls to grant a blanket amnesty for people convicted under the existing drug laws – many of whom belong to marginalized groups.

Since the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was elected in 2015 on a manifesto promise to legalize cannabis, more than 15,000 people have been charged over marijuana-related offences – joining close to 500,000 Canadians with marijuana charges on their criminal record. Activists argue that without an amnesty, hundreds of thousands of people will continue to feel the effects of outdated laws whose enforcement has had a disproportionate impact on racial minorities and the poor. Last week, the Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty launched a petition asking the government to consider pardons for possession charges. The group hopes to gain at least 5,000 signatures by the end of May.(theguardian)…[+]

Facebook is blocking all foreign spending on advertising around Ireland’s upcoming referendum on abortion in an effort to adhere to the “principles” of the country’s election spending laws. With just over two weeks to go until the 25 May vote on liberalising Ireland’s strict abortion laws, Facebook announced it would restrict advertising to organisations and people based in the Republic. The move follows accusations that attempts have been made to swing votes across the world through foreign-funded campaigns and so-called astroturfing.

“This is an issue we have been thinking about for some time,” Facebook said. “Today, as part of our efforts to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums from undue influence, we will begin rejecting ads related to the referendum if they are being run by advertisers based outside of Ireland.”

As part of the process, Ireland has also became the first country outside the US to receive a set of advertiser-transparency tools Facebook promised in early in April. “Our view ads feature – which enables Irish Facebook users to see all of the ads any advertiser is running on Facebook in Ireland at the same time – has been fast tracked and is operational today,” the company said.(theguardian)…[+]

Concerns are growing for the whereabouts and wellbeing of a daughter of Dubai’s ruler, following reports she was forcibly returned after fleeing United Arab Emirates in March. Human Rights Watch has said failure to disclose the status of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammad al-Maktoum, 32, could “qualify as an enforced disappearance, given the evidence suggesting that she was last seen as UAE authorities were detaining her”.

Sheikha Latifa, a daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum appeared in a YouTube video in March announcing she was about to flee. She said her leaving was “the start of me claiming my life, my freedom”. She said in the video her older sister Shamsa also tried to run away in 2000 while on holiday in the UK.

Sheikha Latifa was reported to have escaped Dubai with the help of friends on a yacht owned by Frenchman Hervé Jaubert. The yacht was intercepted on 4 March, less than 50 miles (80km) off the coast of India.

In April it was reported Sheikha Latifa was “brought back” to UAE. On Sunday, UAE officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A source close to the government of Dubai told Reuters that “Latifa is safe and sound with her family” but declined further comment, citing legal considerations. However, HRW quoted two friends of Sheikha Latifa as saying she had not been seen or heard from for two months. “UAE authorities should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Sheikha Latifa, confirm her status, and allow her contact with the outside world,” said the HRW Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson. “If she is detained, she needs to be given the rights all detainees should have, including being taken before an independent judge.”(theguardian)…[+]