Just as 1 300 scientists from 90 nations warn of looming extinction in the animal world, a small team of biologists has discovered a species of African monkey. The highland mangabey — Lophocebus kipunji — was spotted by Wildlife Conservation Society biologists on the flanks of a 3 500m volcano in Tanzania.

One of Robert Mugabe’s fiercest critics, the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, has accused Zimbabwe’s opposition of failing to give the strong leadership needed to overthrow the president’s regime. He avoided naming the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, but the target of his criticism was clear.

In one of the world’s poorest countries, scarred by centuries of autocratic rule, few would expect a free election, still less a change of government. But although the first results have not yet been declared, Ethiopia’s opposition parties are claiming a surprise victory in what observers say is the fairest poll the country has ever seen.

It is the sort of irony that would not have been lost on the notoriously hard-living writer. Excerpts from an unpublished play by Jack Kerouac are to be published in the July edition of a men’s lifestyle magazine. The newly discovered play, Beat Generation, was written in 1957 but unearthed in a warehouse just six months ago.

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest last year was the second worst ever, figures released by the Brazilian government have shown. Satellite photos and other data showed that ranchers, loggers and especially soy bean farmers felled more than 10 000 square miles.

The Indian Ocean earthquake that triggered the great Boxing Day tsunami literally shook the world and triggered a swarm of minor earthquakes 11 000km away in Alaska. It set new records — the longest fault rupture seen to date, the longest duration and the most energetic swarm of aftershocks observed to date.