Ivory auction raises $1.3 million

Windhoek, Namibia

The first ivory auction in a decade sold more than 7 tons of tusks to Chinese and Japanese bidders Tuesday, raising more than $1 million for elephant conservation.

The sale took place under a special exemption to the international ban on trade in ivory.

Last year the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ruled that Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe could make a one-time sale of 108 tons of government ivory stocks.

Some environmentalists have condemned the sales, fearing it will encourage smuggling and poaching.

Tuesday's auction was monitored by Willem Wijnstekers, CITES Secretary General. In all, 7.2 tons of ivory were sold, fetching a total of $1.3 million.

Proceeds will go to the Game Product Trust Fund created in 1999 to promote conservation in communities where elephants range. Most of Namibia's elephants are found outside protected areas and have to compete for land and resources with communities, which often leads to conflict between people and the animals.

Beijing

Wal-Mart pulls contaminated eggs

Wal-Mart pulled a brand of eggs from all its stores in China on Tuesday after tests in Hong Kong found they were tainted with the same toxic chemical blamed for sickening tens of thousands of babies.

The discovery of melamine in eggs raises more questions about how far the chemical at the center of China's tainted milk scandal has penetrated the nation's food chain.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said it had removed the "Select" brand of eggs produced by China's Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group from its shelves in China. A government official in Dalian, the northeastern port city where Hanwei is located, said the company had begun a nationwide recall of the suspect eggs.

Hong Kong testers found melamine in the eggs at nearly two times the territory's legal limit for the chemical in food. The egg contamination has prompted Hong Kong officials to expand testing to Chinese meat imports.

London

Britain to ban more than 200

Britain will publicly list and ban entry of more than 200 people whose extremist views and "violent messages" are a threat to national security, the home secretary said Tuesday.

The plan announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would group together Muslim extremists, animal-rights protesters, anti-abortion activists, neo-Nazis and others she said "encourage or spread extremism and hatred through preaching violent messages." The list would include only people from abroad.

Smith said publishing the names — roughly 230 — amounts to a toughening of existing exclusion orders that already list and ban certain groups from Britain. Authorities expect to publish the list on the Home Office Web site in the coming months.

American officials say there are fewer than 16,000 names on the Transportation Security Administration lists used to screen airline passengers in the U.S. The names come from a broader watch list that FBI counterterrorism officials say contains about 400,000 people of interest.

Khartoum, Sudan

At least 3 hostages killed, Sudan says

The kidnappers of nine Chinese oil workers in Sudan killed at least three hostages Tuesday after being spooked by a surveillance plane, a Sudanese government official said, contradicting Chinese claims of a botched rescue.

Initially the Sudanese government said five had been killed, but the undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry, Mutrif Siddiq, said only three of the Chinese workers were confirmed dead and three others were injured and receiving medical care. Three more remain missing.

Tokyo

North Korea leader likely hospitalized

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's leader, is probably hospitalized but still capable of making decisions, Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, said Tuesday, citing intelligence reports.

If Kim, 66, had been incapacitated, Japanese and other intelligence officials believe, "we would be seeing different developments" in North Korea, Aso said.

In a separate assessment of Kim's health Tuesday, the intelligence chief for South Korea's conservative government said the leader appeared to be recovering quickly.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Dozens killed in 6.4 earthquake

A strong earthquake struck parts of southwestern Pakistan early today, killing at least 31 people, officials said.

The quake struck just after 4 a.m. in Baluchistan, an impoverished province bordering Afghanistan. It had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Baluchistan police chief Asif Nawaz Khos said at least 31 people had been killed, while a local mayor said many houses were damaged.

The quake was centered 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Also

Oil-industry reform: Mexico's Congress passed a watered-down energy-industry reform Tuesday that enables private contractors to participate in the state-owned oil business but won't likely draw enough investment to reverse declining oil production.

Sri Lanka in dark: A rebel airstrike hit a power station on the outskirts of Colombo late Tuesday, plunging the capital into darkness.

Seattle Times news services