Koko the gorilla, who learned sign language, dies at 46

This undated handout photograph obtained June 21, 2018 courtesy of The Gorilla Foundation shows the gorilla Koko and her lifelong teacher and friend Dr. Penny Patterson. (AFP)
Updated 22 June 2018
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Koko the gorilla, who learned sign language, dies at 46

  • Koko was the not the first animal to learn sign language and communicate, but through books and media appearances she became the most famous
  • Koko the individual was supersmart, like all the apes, and also sensitive, something not everyone expected from a ‘king kong’ type animal that movies depict as dangerous and formidable

SAN FRANCISCO: Koko the gorilla, whose remarkable sign-language ability and motherly attachment to pet cats helped change the world’s views about the intelligence of animals and their capacity for empathy, has died at 46.
Koko was taught sign language from an early age as a scientific test subject and eventually learned more than 1,000 words, a vocabulary similar to that of a human toddler.
She became a celebrity who played with the likes of William Shatner, Sting, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robin Williams and Mr. Rogers. At her home preserve, where she was treated like a queen, she ran around with Williams’ eyeglasses and unzipped Rogers’ famous cardigan sweater.
In so doing, Koko showed the American public that a giant ape didn’t have to be scary but wanted to be tickled and hugged.
The Gorilla Foundation said the 280-pound (127-kilogram) western lowland gorilla died in her sleep at the foundation’s preserve in California’s Santa Cruz mountains Tuesday.
Koko was the not the first animal to learn sign language and communicate, but through books and media appearances she became the most famous. Yet there was debate in the scientific community about how deep and human-like her conversations were.
Koko appeared in many documentaries, including a 2015 PBS one, and twice in National Geographic. The gorilla’s 1978 National Geographic cover featured a photo that the animal had taken of herself in a mirror.
“Koko the individual was supersmart, like all the apes, and also sensitive, something not everyone expected from a ‘king kong’ type animal that movies depict as dangerous and formidable,” Emory University primate researcher Frans de Waal said in an email Thursday.
“It changed the image of apes, and gorillas in particular, for the better, such as through the children’s book ‘Koko’s Kitten’ that may young people have grown up with. To view apes as nice and caring was new to the public and a big improvement.”
Koko watched movies and television, with her handlers saying her favorite book was “The Three Little Kittens,” her favorite movies included the Eddie Murphy version of “Doctor Doolittle” and “Free Willy,” and her favorite TV show was “Wild Kingdom.”
For her 25th birthday, she asked for and received a box of rubber snakes. In 1996, she even asked to be a mother. Despite attempts by her keepers to introduce male partners, Koko never became a mother. Instead, she had a series of kittens as pets.
The first was named All Ball, a gray and white tail-less kitten, given to Koko for her birthday in 1984. Other cats followed after All Ball’s death, but researchers reported that the gorilla kept “mourning” the original cat years later.
Koko’s real name was Hanabi-Ko, Japanese for fireworks child. She was born July 4, 1971, at the San Francisco Zoo.

Francine Patterson was working on her doctoral dissertation on the linguistic capabilities of gorillas and in 1972 started to teach Koko sign language. Patterson and biologist Ronald Cohn moved Koko to their newly established preserve in 1974 and kept teaching and studying her, adding a male gorilla in 1979.
In 2004, Koko used American Sign Language to communicate that her mouth hurt and used a pain scale of 1 to 10 to show how badly it hurt.
“Koko represents what language may have been 5 million years ago for people,” Cohn said in 1996. “That’s the time that gorillas and humans separated in evolution.”
Other scientists, such as Herbert Terrace at Columbia University, who raised and taught sign language to a primate named Nim Chimpksy (a play on the name of the linguist Noam Chomsky), argued in scientific and popular literature that most of Koko’s conversations and those of other primates were “not spontaneous but solicited by questions from her teachers and companions.”
“Scientists have often complained about possible overinterpretation of Koko’s sign language utterances and the lack of proper documentation of what she has said when and how,” deWaal said in an email, adding that “coaching and interpretation by the people around her” may have altered her messages at times.
But the science, deWaal said, was “irrelevant to Koko’s pop-image. ... Koko’s passing is the end of an era, and a genuine loss.”
Koko frequently asked to see people’s nipples, a habit that led to controversy more than a dozen years ago, when two former caretakers said they were fired for refusing to bare their breasts to the gorilla. The women settled with the foundation in 2005.
Video shows Koko grabbing for Williams’ chest area and Shatner’s groin.
Williams, another San Francisco Bay area legend, met Koko in 2001 and called it a “mind-altering experience.” The two held hands and tickled each other in a widely shared video.
“We shared something extraordinary: Laughter,” he said. He called it “awesome and unforgettable.” Williams killed himself in 2014.
Patterson later said she didn’t plan on telling Koko about Williams’ death, but the gorilla overheard conversation and then later “mourned” the actor by going silent and sullen.
Koko knew about death, primary researcher Patterson said in 2015, relaying in The Atlantic a conversation Koko had with another caretaker:
“The caregiver showed Koko a skeleton and asked, ‘Is this alive or dead?’ Koko signed, ‘Dead, draped.’ ‘Draped’ means ‘covered up.’ Then the caregiver asked, ‘Where do animals go when they die?’ Koko said, ‘A comfortable hole.’ Then she gave a kiss goodbye.”


A British TV art expert who sold works to a suspected Hezbollah financier is sentenced to prison

Updated 06 June 2025
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A British TV art expert who sold works to a suspected Hezbollah financier is sentenced to prison

  • Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000
  • Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faced a possible sentence of five years in prison in the hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court

LONDON: An art expert who appeared on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt show was sentenced Friday to two and a half years in prison for failing to report his sale of pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

At a previous hearing, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000. The art sales for about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and US as a Hezbollah financier, took place between October 2020 and December 2021.

The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or US from trading with Ahmad or his businesses.

Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faced a possible sentence of five years in prison in the hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, which is better known as the Old Bailey.

In addition to the prison term, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Ojiri faces an additional year on license — a period of time after a prison sentence ends when an offender must stay out of trouble or risk going back to prison.

She told Ojiri he had been involved in a commercial relationship “for prestige and profit” and that until his involvement with Ahmad, he was “someone to be admired.”

“You knew about Ahmad’s suspected involvement in financing terrorism and the way the art market can be exploited by someone like him,” she said. “This is the nadir — there is one direction your life can go and I am confident that you will not be in front of the courts again.”

The Met’s investigation into Ojiri was carried out alongside Homeland Security in the US, which is conducting a wider investigation into alleged money laundering by Ahmad using shell companies.

“This prosecution, using specific Terrorism Act legislation, is the first of its kind and should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, pursue those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the US Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.

Two years ago, the UK Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.

Following Ojiri’s arrest in April 2023, the Met obtained a warrant to seize a number of artworks, including a Picasso and Andy Warhol paintings, belonging to Ahmad and held in two warehouses in the UK
The collection, valued at almost 1 million pounds, is due to be sold with the funds to be reinvested back into the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.


Five things to know about the St Catherine monastery in Egypt's Sinai

Updated 04 June 2025
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Five things to know about the St Catherine monastery in Egypt's Sinai

  • The monastery was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai
  • According to UNESCO, "the entire area is of immense spiritual significance" to Christianity, Islam and Judaism

CAIRO: Nestled in the Sinai mountains, the ancient St Catherine's Monastery has been the centre of recent tensions after an Egyptian court ruled last week that it sat on state-owned land.

Dating back to the sixth century BC, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is the world's oldest continuously inhabited monastery, attracting hundreds of pilgrims and tourists every year.

Following warnings from the authorities and Orthodox Church in Greece that the ruling threatens the monastery's status, a government delegation is travelling from Athens to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

The monastery was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai, where Moses was believed to have received the 10 commandments, according to the world's three major monotheistic religions.

It was named for Saint Catherine of Alexandria, whose remains are housed in the church, along with rare iconography and manuscripts.

It is headed by the Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu, under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

According to UNESCO, "the entire area is of immense spiritual significance" to Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The organisation says the monastery is "the property of the Greek Orthodox Church and belongs to the Archdiocese of Sinai".

Last Wednesday, an Egyptian appeals court ruled that the monastery "is entitled to use" the land and the archaeological religious sites dotting the area, all of which "the state owns as public property".

The ruling, only a brief of which has been published by Egyptian media, has drawn criticism from the Orthodox patriarchates in Athens, Jerusalem and Istanbul.

Archbishop Ieronymos, head of the Greek Orthodox church in Athens, warned the monastery's property could now be "seized and confiscated".

Egypt has defended the court ruling, saying it "consolidates" the site's sacred status.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt was "fully committed to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine's monastery", in a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis meanwhile emphasised the importance of "preserving the pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox character of the monastery".

The delegation from Athens is expected to lay out its position on Wednesday.

According to Greece's state news agency, that position "is supported by a UNESCO document, which proves that Egypt had acknowledged in writing since 2002 that the ownership of the land and buildings belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church and the Archdiocese of Sinai".


Construction began in March 2021 in the Saint Catherine area, which includes the eponymous town and a nature reserve, for a government megaproject known as the 'Great Transfiguration' of Saint Catherine.

The project aims to bring upwards of a million tourists a year to the serene mountain village.

Its many construction projects include an events hall, hundreds of hotel rooms and a new residential area housing hundreds of units.

Observers say the project has harmed the reserve's ecosystem and threatened both the monastery and the local community.

According to a report by World Heritage Watch, the project has "destroyed the integrity of this historical and biblical landscape".

UNESCO in 2023 requested that Egypt "halt the implementation of any further development projects", conduct an impact evaluation and develop a conservation plan.

The government, which is campaigning for former tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Enany to head UNESCO from October, said in January that 90 percent of the project was complete.

The peaks and valleys around Saint Catherine attract large groups of hikers, peaking at 2,000 visitors to Mount Sinai in a single day last December, local authorities reported.

The area, 1.5 kilometres (one mile) above sea level, is particularly popular with both Egyptians and foreign tourists seeking a reprieve from overcrowded Red Sea resorts elsewhere in Sinai.

The area is home to the Jabaliya tribe, whose name derives from the Arabic word for "mountain".

Said to be the descendants of the Roman soldiers who came to guard the monastery in its early days, they maintain a close connection to Saint Catherine, with many working as tour guides today.

For decades, they have been calling for better infrastructure, including reliable water supply, emergency services and telecommunications coverage to improve their work and daily life.

According to World Heritage Watch, they are currently outnumbered by the thousands of labourers building the megaproject.


A falling tree in Venice injures a dozen people, including foreign tourists

Updated 03 June 2025
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A falling tree in Venice injures a dozen people, including foreign tourists

MILAN: Foreign tourists were among a dozen people injured when a 50-year-old tree fell next to a bus stop in the Italian lagoon city of Venice on Monday, authorities said.
The oak tree fell on a group of people waiting in a shaded area at Piazzale Roma, the last stop for buses and taxis ferrying visitors to and from the lagoon city from the mainland, city officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear why the tree fell.
The most seriously injured was a 30-year-old Italian woman, who was sitting on a wall near the tree with her two small children when the tree fell, Italian media reported. The woman was in critical condition with abdominal injuries, while her children weren’t seriously injured and placed under psychological care, according to hospital officials.
Another Italian woman in her 50s also was in critical condition after suffering chest injuries.
A video from the scene showed the tree had snapped at the trunk, just above the roots.
“The tree was apparently healthy,” Francesca Zaccariotto, the city’s top public works official, told the news agency ANSA. She added that the tree was monitored along with others in the city, and there had been no signs indicating a possible collapse.
A 60-year-old American was under observation for a head injury, a 70-year-old American suffered facial injuries, and two tourists from Eastern Europe suffered multiple bruises. Four other Italians were slightly injured.


Strauss’ ‘Blue Danube’ is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert

Updated 01 June 2025
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Strauss’ ‘Blue Danube’ is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert

  • The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday
  • Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 24 billion kilometers away

VIENNA: Strauss’ “Blue Danube” waltz has finally made it into space, nearly a half-century after missing a ride on NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft.
The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday. Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed the “Blue Danube” during the space transmission, which actually sent up a version from rehearsal. It’s part of the yearlong celebration marking the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, who was born in Vienna in 1825. The Strauss space send-off also honors the 50th anniversary of ESA’s founding.
Launched in 1977 and now in interstellar space, each of the two Voyagers carries a Golden Record full of music but nothing from the waltz king. His “Blue Danube” holds special meaning for space fans: It’s featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”


Bee alert: US police warn after 250 million insects escape

Updated 31 May 2025
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Bee alert: US police warn after 250 million insects escape

  • Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up

LOS ANGELES, United States: A truck crash that set 250 million bees free has sparked warnings in the western US, with police telling people to avoid swarms of the stinging insects.
The accident happened in Washington state in the far northwest of the country, when a semi trailer carrying a load of hives overturned.
“250 million bees are now loose,” wrote Whatcom County Sheriff on its social media page.
“AVOID THE AREA due to the potential of bee escaping and swarming.”
Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up.
While some beekeepers aim only to produce honey, many others rent out their hives to farmers who need the insects to pollinate their crops.