Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) authorities charged opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba with ”high treason” Friday on a second day of clashes which reports said had killed at least seven people. The former vice-president had sought refuge in the South African embassy late on Thursday after heavy fighting broke out.

Vote-counting started in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after the vast, war-scarred state turned out to choose a democratically elected president for the first time in more than four decades. Voting proceeded in a calm manner, with only scattered reports of violence after a tense campaigning period.

Traded illegally, offered as exotic gifts to rich sheikhs or exploited to lure tourists: great apes are badly exposed by a legal system designed to protect them but too often blatantly ignored, according to experts attending an international conference in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on saving primates from extinction.