An Indian court awarded a life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty and saying it was not a rare crime.

The woman’s body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Other doctors stayed off work for weeks to demand justice for her and better security at public hospitals, as the crime sparked national outrage over a lack of safety for women.

Sanjay Roy, the police volunteer, was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday, who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against Roy.

Roy said he was innocent and that he had been framed, and sought clemency.

The federal police, who investigated the case, said the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and Roy, therefore, deserved the death penalty.

“I do not consider it as a rarest-of-rare crime,” judge Das said and sentenced Roy to life in jail on both the counts of rape and murder. “Life imprisonment, meaning imprisonment until death.”

The judge said that he had come to the conclusion that it was not a rarest-of-rare crime after considering all the evidence and the circumstances linked to it. He said Roy could go in appeal to a higher court.

The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday. The speedy trial in the court was not open to the public.

The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. Security was stepped up with dozens of police personnel deployed at the court complex.

The parents had earlier said that they were not satisfied with the probe and suspected more people were involved in the crime.

Their lawyer, Amartya Dey, told Reuters on Monday that they had sought the death penalty for Roy and also demanded that those involved in what they called the “larger conspiracy” be brought to book.

Protesting doctors had said that street protests would continue until justice was done.

India’s federal police cited 128 witnesses in its investigation, of whom 51 were examined during the fast-tracked trial that began in November.

Police had also charged the officer heading the local police station and the head of the college at the time of the crime with destruction of the crime scene and tampering with evidence.

When Innocent James completed his chores after school, he would light a kerosene lamp and lay down to read his books. There was no electricity in James’ part of Arusha, a region in northern Tanzania, and so his family was forced to burn expensive oil for him to learn after dark.

Today, James is 33, and many parents in rural Tanzania – where all year round the sun sets at around 7pm – must still choose between saving money and allowing their children to read at night. But now, James’ company, Soma Bags, is providing a solution: backpacks equipped with solar panels that charge a reading light.

What started as a small-scale project with some discarded cement bags, a sewing machine, and a solar panel, has become a business attracting charities and fashion brands from around the world. Last year, Soma Bags (“Reading Bags” in Swahili) sold 36,000 solar backpacks to people across Africa, providing an invaluable energy source for when the sun goes down.

Affordable light for rural households

James was brought up by his mother and grandmother, both schoolteachers, to love reading.

At university in Mwanza, James was shocked at the number of schoolchildren he noticed on the street skipping class to ask for money, largely to spend in local video game cafés. He wanted to help them find the taste for learning that he remembered from his childhood.

“I was frustrated,” James said, “I could see that the problem was much, much bigger than I thought.”

Before his last semester, James dropped out of university and used the last of his tuition money to buy a mobile library cart. He began visiting schools, attracting hundreds of children to his reading clubs.

But for all his hard work, there was a problem: children would borrow books from him and then return them unread. James soon realized that while they were eager to read, they could not afford to do so.

Fewer than half of households in mainland Tanzania are connected to electricity. This falls to just over a third in rural areas. Consequently, many families rely on kerosene lamps to provide light after dark.

These lamps produce dim light and are expensive to fill. They also pollute the air and carry the risk of burns. Parents often opt to send their children to bed, James explained, rather than allowing them to use the lamp to read.

James’ solution – flexible solar panels sewn onto the outside of bags to power a reading light – was inspired by a university professor who carried around a solar charger for his phone, sewn into a fabric pouch. “It gave me the confidence that what I want is going to work,” said James.

He started in 2016 by handmaking 80 backpacks per month, sewing on a solar panel sourced from China that charged during the children’s walk to and from school. By the time they returned home, they would have enough power for a reading light. A fully charged bag can power a light for six to eight hours, meaning that one day of bright weather can allow for multiple nights of reading, even if cloudy weather arrives.

James says the solar backpacks are more affordable than using an oil lamp. A solar bag costs between 12,000 and 22,500 Tanzanian shillings (approximately $4-8), with the reading light included – the same price as 12-22.5 days of using a kerosene lamp, according to an average cost estimated in a survey of Soma Bags customers.

Building the business

Sold mainly from his growing franchise of mobile library carts, the bags became popular, and James increased production. He founded Soma Bags in 2019 and oversaw the construction of his own factory in the village of Bulale, in the Mwanza region, in 2020. The company now employs 65 staff.

Made from repurposed cement bags found on the streets of Mwanza, where James lives, the backpack material is durable, lightweight, zero waste, and comes at no cost. The backpacks look good, too – in the middle of the bags, the white silhouette of a giraffe appears within bright yellow or green stripes.

“It’s innovative,” said Joseph Manirakiza, of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which has supported Soma Bags since 2023. “I never thought someone would think of turning waste cement bags into something useful.”

James’ customers are, in the main, families and schools in rural Tanzania – people and institutions with whom he is familiar from his library cart days. But the company is expanding; over 200 charities have bought bags from James to distribute amongst children in need, and Soma Bags is becoming increasingly popular in urban areas.

While inside Soma’s smaller backpacks are battery-powered reading lights, its bigger bags now have in-built charging systems with a greater capacity, enabling them to power other electronic devices, like phone chargers.

The company has also branched out into travel, sports, and cosmetic bags that aren’t solar-powered. James has sold backpacks to charities in Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to fashion brands in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Kenya.

A growing industry

Around 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity. Companies that produce solar-powered lamps are abundant on the continent, and the UN’s Solar Light Distribution Programme is part of a global effort to light up rural areas with affordable and sustainable energy.

The hybrid social enterprise Smart Girls Uganda has produced and distributed over 12,000 of its own solar bags to children in Africa. “It is important for multiple companies to produce solar-powered bags across the continent,” said its CEO, Jamila Mayanja. “It’s more than just lighting; it’s about giving them control over their education, their future, and ultimately helping to break the cycle of poverty in their communities.”

Soma Bags has been recognized by numerous awards and institutions, including the UNDP and the British government.

“There is a crop of young people [in Tanzania] who are coming up, and they have realized that they have to take the future into their own hands,” said Manirakiza. “Innocent represents a group of young people using their talent to do something meaningful.”

As his company continues to expand, James is becoming increasingly busy, but he still finds time to run reading groups for children from his mobile cart twice a week. Now, kids arrive for his readings with his bags on their backs.

“Sometimes I see a kid with the bag, and I’m like, wow,” said James, smiling, “I can’t really believe it.”

China has executed a man who killed 35 people by plowing his car into crowds at a sports center in November, in the country’s deadliest known attack against the public in a decade, state media reported Monday.

Fan Weiqiu, 62, was executed just over three weeks after he was sentenced to death by a court in the southern city of Zhuhai, where he carried out the attack.

China has been gripped by a surge of sudden episodes of violence targeting random members of the public – including children – in recent months as economic growth stutters, unnerving a public long accustomed to low violent crime rates and ubiquitous surveillance.

Chinese officials have ramped up security measures and called for swift and severe punishment for offenders in a bid to deter future attacks.

On Monday, another man was also executed in the eastern city of Wuxi for killing eight people in a stabbing rampage on a college campus in November, state media reported.

Xu Jiajin, 21, a recent graduate of the vocational college, was motivated by “failing (an) exam, not receiving a graduation certificate, and dissatisfaction with internship compensation,” police said in a statement at the time.

The knife attack in Wuxi took place just days after the car rampage in Zhuhai shocked the nation.

Fan, the Zuhai attacker, drove his car into the crowd on November 11, in a rage caused by his failed marriage and what he saw as an unfair divorce settlement, the court concluded in its sentence.

The attacker rammed his small off-road vehicle across the grounds of Zhuhai Sports Center, hitting dozens of people exercising around a track.

When police tried to intercept his escape, officers found Fan in the car trying to injure himself with a knife and took him to hospital, police said in a previous statement.

The court said during sentencing that it found Fan’s “motives extremely vile, the nature of his crime extremely heinous, the method particularly cruel, and the consequences particularly severe, posing great harm to society,” state media reported at the time.

The death toll of the rampage is the highest China has seen since 2014, when a string of attacks rocked the far western region of Xinjiang. The country has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world, partly due to its strict gun controls and powerful mass surveillance.

The hit-and-run prompted Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who described the attack as “extremely vicious,” to call for severe punishment, state broadcaster CCTV previously reported.

News of the two executions were met with overwhelming support on Chinese social media. On Weibo, an X-like platform, related hashtags drew millions of views and became top trending topics.

“How very satisfying!” said a top comment, as other users echoed similar sentiments on the social media platform.

China does not provide transparent information on the total number of executions, but the country is believed to be “the world’s top executioner” with thousands of people executed and sentenced to death each year, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

The death toll from a gasoline tanker explosion in north-central Nigeria has risen to 86, the country’s emergency response agency said on Sunday.

The blast happened in the early hours of Saturday near the Suleja area of Niger state after individuals attempted to transfer gasoline from a crashed oil tanker into another truck using a generator.

The fuel transfer sparked the explosion, resulting in the deaths of those transferring the gasoline and bystanders.

In an update, Hussaini Isah of the National Emergency Management Agency told the Associated Press that an additional 55 people were injured and are receiving treatment at three different hospitals in the Suleja area.

“There were people that were burnt to ashes. How can we get that figure?” The official said, indicating that the death toll might be higher than 86. “We won’t know the exact figure without forensics.”

The blast claimed so many victims because a crowd had gathered at the scene, including people taking pictures, bystanders, and others attempting to scoop gasoline, Isah said.

Gasoline prices in Africa’s most populous country has soared after the administration of President Bola Tinubu removed subsides on the product more than a year ago in an attempt to channel the resources to more developmental purposes. However, the policy has caused untoward hardship.

Scooping gasoline from a fallen tanker is common in Nigeria as some people see that as an opportunity to get free product that they could either use or resell for a profit.

This story has been updated with additional information.