Pope renews Vatican’s anti-sexual abuse panel

Cardinal Sean O'Malley attends the mass celebrated by Pope Francis at the Las Palmas air base in Lima on January 21, 2018.Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionCardinal Sean O’Malley was re-appointed to lead the child protection panel
Pope Francis has announced the renewal of the Church’s panel tasked with combating sexual abuse of children, in the wake of a fresh controversy.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is made up of eight men and eight women – nine of which are new members.
Its original three-year mandate expired in December.
In recent weeks, Pope Francis has been under fire for his defence of a bishop accused of witnessing sexual abuse.
During his trip to Chile in January, he told journalists that in the case of Bishop Juan Barros: “There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is slander. Is this clear?”
His remarks offended some of the victims of Fernando Karadima. They said Bishop Barros was present while Karadima molested them decades ago – and did nothing.
Karadima was relieved of his duties by the Vatican in 2011 – but Juan Barros was installed as a bishop in 2015, amid protests.
The pope later apologised for the tone of his answer, saying he felt “pain and shame” – while maintaining he did not have enough evidence to “convict” Bishop Barros. He was met by protesters in Santiago.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) was also involved in that scandal.
The adviser – Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the PCPM – has been re-appointed to the role in the renewed panel announced Saturday.
In a statement, the Vatican said that the resurrected PCPM would begin its work by “listening to and learning from people who have been abused”.
“The PCPM wishes to hear the voices of victims/survivors directly, in order that the advice offered to the Holy Father be truly imbued with their insights and experiences,” it said, referring to the Pope.
It also said that victims of abuse numbered among the members.
However, the PCPM’s previous incarnation also counted abuse victims among its members – which resulted in two high-profile resignations.

Media captionMarie Collins says she could not accept the obstruction she encountered within the Church
Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of abuse who was molested at age 13, left the panel in March 2017 over “stumbling blocks and hindrances” which she said had obstructed the group’s purpose.
After the announcement of the panel’s new members, she tweeted: “Why not reappoint willing members and let them return to the important projects they had been working on…. instead new people starting from scratch!”
British member Peter Saunders was also deeply critical of the PCPM, and took a “leave of absence” after other members took a vote of no confidence against him, reportedly finding him “difficult”.

New scanning technique reveals secrets behind great paintings

X-ray fluorescence instrument set up for the scan of La Misereuse AccroupieImage copyrightART GALLERY OF ONTARIO (AGO)
Image captionThe new x-ray fluorescence instrument could lead to a big increase in the number of paintings investigated
Researchers in the US have used a new scanning technique to discover a painting underneath one of Pablo Picasso’s great works of art, the Crouching Woman (La Misereuse Accroupie).
Underneath the oil painting is a landscape of Barcelona which, it turns out, Picasso used as the basis of his masterpiece.
The new x-ray fluorescence system is cheaper than alternative art scanning systems – and it is portable, making it available to any gallery that wants it.
Details were revealed at the American Association for the Advancement for Science in Austin, Texas.
The Crouching Woman is a painting from Picasso’s blue period.
Media captionHow the figure of the crouching woman takes on the landscape painting beneath.
What is remarkable is that the landscape painting beneath – probably by a student artist – is turned 90 degrees. The contour of the hills in the background becomes the crouching woman’s back. She takes on the shape and form of the Catalan countryside.
Kenneth Brummel, a curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, said that he was “excited” when he first learned what lay underneath the Crouching Woman.
“It helps to date the painting and it also helps to determine where the painting was made,” he told BBC News.
“But it also gives a sense of the artists with whom the painter was engaging. And these insights help us ask new, more interesting and scientifically more accurate questions regarding an artist, their process and how they arrived at the forms that we see on the surface of a painting.”
Picasso is known to have painted over a number of his blue period paintings and Mr Brummel said he was pleased to see that the Crouching Woman was like these others.
The scanning equipment is much cheaper than current scanners and it is portable, so it’s affordable and available to every gallery that wants it.
Francesca Casadio from the Centre for Scientific Studies in the Arts in Chicago, who is among those leading the project, hopes that the widespread use of their scanners will increase our understanding of artists, their thought processes and the way they worked.
“Many more paintings are waiting to tell their secrets and with our scanning system we can help them talk to us more,” she told BBC News.
Until now scanning was only for the greatest of great works of art – and for the wealthiest galleries.
Now, the new system can be used by anyone to find the story behind any painting they are interested in.

Mexico earthquake: Helicopter crashes in emergency killing 14

Media captionThe helicopter landed on its side crushing several vans
A helicopter carrying senior officials has crashed while they assessed damage from Friday’s earthquake in Mexico, killing at least 14 including a baby.
Mexico’s interior minister and the governor of the south-west Oaxaca state were on board, but neither was hurt.
The aircraft’s pilot lost control as it was coming in to land, Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said.
The 7.2-magnitude quake’s epicentre was in Oaxaca but it shook buildings in Mexico City, 350km (217 miles) away.
No deaths have been reported from the earthquake itself.
Officials said the military helicopter had crashed on top of several vans carrying earthquake survivors in a field while trying to land in the village of Santiago Jamiltepec, not far from the epicentre.
Fourteen people – including a six-month-old baby – were killed in the crash, the Oaxaca prosecutor’s office said.
Witnesses say the village had been affected by a power cut and it was dark when the helicopter approached to land.
It circled the village several times, raising a thick cloud of dust and further reducing visibility.

Media captionThe earthquake shook this newspaper office in Mexico City
It is not clear whether anyone in the aircraft was among the dead, although Mr Navarrete said some passengers were injured.
Friday’s quake was 24.6km underground and some buildings were damaged. The epicentre was near the town of Pinotepa de Don Luis.
After the tremor, thousands of people were seen fleeing buildings in Mexico City as the ground shook.
Some were crying, while others hugged each other on the streets of the capital. Traffic stopped for a few minutes.
The authorities activated earthquake alert systems in four states, and Mexico City. They urged residents to stay outdoors.
Clouds of dust are seen in the air as residents gather on the streets of Mexico CityImage copyrightEPA
Image captionClouds of dust rose near buildings already damaged by two quakes last September
Last September, two devastating earthquakes in Mexico killed hundreds of people.
There were clouds of dust near buildings already damaged by the September quakes.
Mexico is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, sitting on top of three of the Earth’s largest tectonic plates – the North American, Cocos and Pacific plates.
map

Rare cello returned after knifepoint theft in Paris

Photograph of Ms Gaillard performing in 2003Image copyrightAFP/GETTY
Image captionOphélie Gaillard, who is an award-winning cellist, had the valuable instrument on loan
An 18th-Century cello has been returned to a French musician after an appeal following her knifepoint robbery.
Ophélie Gaillard was robbed of the instrument and her mobile phone outside her home in Paris on Thursday.
After putting an appeal on Facebook, she received an anonymous call saying it was in a car outside her home. She found a window smashed but the instrument in “good condition”.
The rare instrument is worth about €1.3m ($1.6m; £1.2m)
Made in 1737 by Italian instrument-maker Francesco Gofriller, it was loaned to Ms Gaillard from Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) bank.
The instrument was stolen in its case, along with a bow that was itself almost 200 years old.
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The 43-year-old award-winning cellist told police her attacker forced her to hand the instrument over at knifepoint before fleeing on foot in the north-eastern Paris suburb of Pantin.
“The theft was very violent; I have not been able to sleep for two days. I am so relieved to have found it. I’m coming out of a two-day nightmare – it’s a miracle,” she told the AFP news agency.
Her original post was shared almost 10,000 times in just two days.
Confirming the instrument’s return on Facebook, Ms Gaillard thanked everyone who helped with the appeal, and called its return an “incredible dream”.

Israel Gaza: Four Israeli soldiers injured in border blast

Israeli soldiers stands near a military jeep next to the border fence with the southern Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Nirim,Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionThe blast occurred near a security fence in the southern Gaza Strip
Four Israeli soldiers have been hurt, two of them seriously, in an explosion near the Israeli-Gaza border.
The army said a Palestinian flag was flying in the area, and when the troops approached they were hit by the blast.
In response, Israel conducted air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. There were no reports of casualties.
Israeli media are describing the blast as the worst incident on the border since Israel and Hamas militants, who dominate Gaza, fought a war in 2014.
No group has so far said it was behind the explosion.
The incident happened at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) east of the town of Khan Younis.
The army said the explosive device had been planted during a demonstration there on Friday and was attached to a flag.
The troops were approaching from the Israeli side when the device detonated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is attending a security conference in Munich, Germany, said: “The incident on the Gaza border is very serious. We will respond appropriately.”
Map showing Gaza and Israel
The Israeli army said fighter jets responded with strikes on six Hamas military targets, including a tunnel near Zeitun being dug by militants towards Israel and compounds near Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.
Palestinian officials said three Hamas training camps and one belonging to a smaller group had been struck but no-one was injured.
Israeli media also said a rocket from Gaza fell near a house in the south of the country on Saturday evening. There were no casualties.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket and mortar fire from the territory. Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008.
Correspondents say the border area has been generally quiet in the last few years but there has been an increase in violence since US President Donald Trump’s announcement in December recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Israel regards Jerusalem as its indivisible capital. Palestinians want the east of the city, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, to be a capital of a future state.

Florida school shooting: Students demand tighter gun controls

Media captionStudent Emma Gonzalez to lawmakers: “Shame on you!”
Young survivors of Wednesday’s school shooting in Florida have taken part in an emotionally charged rally demanding tighter gun controls.
Protesters in Fort Lauderdale chanted “shame on you”, referring to US lawmakers and President Donald Trump.
He said last year he would “never” infringe on the right to keep arms.
Suspect Nikolas Cruz has admitted carrying out the attack at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in which 17 people died.
It was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012 and has re-ignited long-running debates about tougher firearm restrictions.
In his first public comments on the gun control issue since the attack, Mr Trump blamed the Democrats for not passing legislation when they controlled Congress during the early years of Barack Obama’s administration

What happened at Saturday’s rally?

Students and their parents – as well as politicians – took part in the event in Fort Lauderdale, close to Parkland. Thousands of people attended, according to the Associated Press.
Arguably the most memorable moment came when high school student Emma Gonzalez took to the podium and attacked the US president and other politicians for accepting political donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun rights lobby group.
A protester chants during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo: 17 February 2018Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionSome young protesters cried as they demanded more restrictions on gun ownership
“If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and… how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” said Ms Gonzalez.
“It doesn’t matter because I already know. Thirty million dollars,” the 18-year-old said, referring to donations during Mr Trump’s presidential campaign.
“To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA – shame on you!” said Ms Gonzalez, who took cover on the floor of her secondary school’s auditorium during the attack.
Responding to her passionate speech, the crowds started chanting “Shame on you!”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA spent $11.4m (£8.1m) supporting Mr Trump in the 2016 campaign, and $19.7m opposing Hillary Clinton.
Image copyrightJOE RAEDLE
Image captionWednesday’s attack was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012
Ryan Deitsch, who was among those hiding in a school toilet during the attack, urged lawmakers to pass more restrictive measures on gun ownership.
“The least lawmakers can do is vote on something. What’s the worst that can happen?” the 18-year-old said.
Protesters also held placards that read “No more guns!” and “Enough!”
“Because of these gun laws, people I love have died,” said Delaney Tarr, a 17-year-old student.
“Where’s the common sense in that? People are dying every day.”

What is Mr Trump’s stance on gun control?

In a tweet late on Saturday, the Republican president accused the Democrats of not acting on gun legislation “when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration.
“Because they didn’t want to, and now they just talk!” he wrote, referring to criticism from Democrats following Wednesday’s shooting.
Mr Trump – who on Friday met survivors of the attack – earlier blamed the shooter’s mental health.
The president’s views on gun control have shifted over time. In recent years, he has pledged to fiercely defend the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects people’s right to keep and bear arms.
Last year, he told an NRA convention he would “never, ever infringe” on that right. “The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end,” he said.

Media captionWhat has Donald Trump said in the past about guns and gun control?
Saturday’s rally coincided with a gun show in Florida.
Hundreds of people attended the event at the Dade County fairgrounds, despite calls to cancel it.
“I don’t believe that any law that they would have added would have deterred what happened,” former law enforcement officer Joe Arrington was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“I think a lot of agencies didn’t do their job necessarily like they were supposed to.”

What do we know about the suspect?

Mr Cruz, 19, is a former student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
He was reportedly investigated by local police and the Department of Children and Family Services in 2016 after posting evidence of self-harm on the Snapchat app, according to the latest US media reports.
Child services said he had planned to buy a gun, but authorities determined he was already receiving adequate support, the reports say.
The 5 January tip was not the only information the FBI received. In September, a Mississippi man reported to the law enforcement agency a disturbing comment left on a YouTube video under Mr Cruz’s name.

Florida Governor Rick Scott called for FBI director Christopher Wray to resign over the failures to act.

Plymouth man completes 20,000-mile pub adventure

Volcan Cotopaxi in EcuadorImage copyrightALVARO ANDRES PINZON
Image captionBen Coombs drove across three continents to complete the challenge
A man has driven a sports car across 21 countries, starting at the most northerly pub in the world and finishing at the most southerly.
Ben Coombs, 38, from Plymouth in Devon, drove 20,000 miles across three continents from the Arctic Circle to the southernmost tip of Chile.
It took him seven months to complete the challenge.
Mr Coombs described the final pub as “a dive”, but said “it’s the journey that matters, not the destination”.
The idea for the adventure came while he was having a pint in a pub on Dartmoor.
Car in BoliviaImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionThe trip was completed in a green TVR sports car called Kermit
The journey started on the Norwegian island of Svalbard in an abandoned mining settlement called Pyramiden, which has a population of four.
Mr Coombs said finding the northernmost bar “was an easy investigative process”.
“Pyramiden is less than 700 miles from the North Pole, is the northernmost settlement on earth with a permanent civilian population, and has only one bar,” he added.
“The residents all live in the only building still functioning – the town’s old hotel – which happens to have a still-functioning bar.”
Northerly barImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionThe most northerly pub in the world in Pyramiden
To find the most northerly and southerly pub, Mr Coombs looked for licensed premises where anybody could walk in off the street and buy a beer.
Although there are bars in Antarctica they are located on bases and are not accessible to members of the public or are not licensed, he said.
So Mr Coombs looked for the southernmost settlement outside Antarctica, and came across Puerto Williams in Tierra del Fuego, Chile.
Herbie and KermitImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionIn Arizona, Ben Coombs’ car Kermit came face-to-face with a replica Herbie, a 1963 VW Beetle
Car at Monument Valley, United StatesImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionThe journey involved 20,000 miles of driving and a range of road surfaces
From Pyramiden, Mr Coombs drove his green 20-year-old TVR Chimaera, called Kermit, across Europe to Southampton from where the car was shipped to New York in August.
He then travelled across the United States to California, before heading south to Mexico.
Car in garageImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionThe car had a new clutch fitted in a garage in Nicaragua, the only major repair of the trip
A number of friends joined him for various stages of the journey in the two-seater convertible car.
“Central America quickly passed beneath our wheels, before we shipped the car around the Darien gap from Panama to Colombia,” Mr Coombs said.
“Then it was just the small matter of an 8,000-mile drive across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina to get to the last bar on earth.”
Rock fall in ColombiaImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionSome of the main challenges were getting across borders and avoiding rock falls in Colombia
Giant hand in Atacama desert, ChileImage copyrightBEN COOMBS
Image captionThe hand-built car dealt well with the journey and will now be shipped back to Devon
The final destination was Puerto Williams, where Mr Coombs arrived on 12 February and found the southernmost bar.
“It’s a bit of a dive actually,” he said.
“We’re talking plastic patio furniture inside, Chilean line dancing on the TV, and a menu which consists only of lager and cheap whisky.
“There are probably more appealing places to travel 20,000 miles to get to, but that’s not really the point. It’s the journey that matters, not the destination.”

Nigeria bomb blasts cause deaths at fish market

Bloody flip flop at scene of the 16 February attacks in Konduga, NigeriaImage copyrightAFP
Image captionThe continuing attacks are being blamed on Boko Haram – casting doubt on official claims the group has been defeated
Three suicide bombers have hit the town of Konduga in north-east Nigeria, killing at least 18 people.
Two attacked a fish market and a third struck nearby, security sources said.
Boko Haram jihadists are being blamed for the blasts, though the group has yet to say it was behind them.
Boko Haram has killed some 20,000 people and displaced more than two million since it began a campaign of violence to create an Islamic state in the north of the country in 2009.
The bombers struck on Friday evening in the town, which lies some 30km (18 miles) south-east of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. Wider reports of the attack only emerged on Saturday.
Some reports speak of 19 dead – 18 civilians and a soldier. At least 50 more were injured.
BBC map of Nigeria showing Konduga
Boko Haram continues to launch attacks in the face of claims by the authorities to have defeated the group.
Two women suicide bombers hit a village near Konduga last month.
Dozens of Boko Haram members have been convicted in trials held in secret.

Florida school shooting: FBI under pressure over failure to act

Media captionFlorida survivors on gun laws: ‘Something has to change’
Pressure is mounting on the FBI over the agency’s failure to act on a tip that Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz might carry out an attack.
Florida Governor Rick Scott said the agency’s director must resign, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review, lamenting FBI “failures”.
Some of those close to the 17 victims of Wednesday’s shooting also voiced dismay at the FBI’s actions.
President Donald Trump on Friday met survivors of the attack in Parkland.
Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited a hospital and later the local sheriff’s office, thanking them for their response to the tragedy.
“What a great job you’ve done,” Mr Trump told law enforcement officials, adding: “I hope you get credit for it because believe me, you deserve it.”

Media captionInside the classroom: ‘We watched gunman shoot our friends’
Nikolas Cruz, 19, has confessed to carrying out Wednesday’s attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and has been charged with 17 counts of murder.
It was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012 and has re-ignited debates about gun control, with many students from the school weighing in.

What triggered strong criticism of the FBI?

It comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted it did not properly follow up on a warning about Mr Cruz.
On 5 January a person close to the suspect contacted the FBI tipline to provide “information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behaviour, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting”, an FBI statement said.
The FBI said that information should have been assessed as a potential threat to life and passed on to the Miami field office but that “we have determined these protocols were not followed”.

Media captionChicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo speaks at Florida shooting vigil
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was “still investigating the facts” and was committed to “getting to the bottom of what happened”.
“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” he added.
The 5 January tip was not the only information the FBI received about Nikolas Cruz.
In September, a Mississippi man reported to the law enforcement agency a disturbing comment left on a YouTube video by a user called “nikolas cruz” which said: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”
Ben Bennight said he spoke to FBI representatives for about 20 minutes and that they contacted him again following the Parkland shooting.
The FBI on Thursday said they had conducted “checks” at the time, but were unable to identify the person behind the comment.
Questions are also being asked about how local police responded to concern about Nikolas Cruz.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his office had received 20 “calls for service” about him.
Each one would be scrutinised, he said, without going into detail about the nature of the calls.

What’s being said about the FBI?

He said that an apology would never give families “the answers they desperately need” and said that Mr Wray had to resign.
“We constantly promote ‘see something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act,” he said.
At a funeral for 18-year-old victim Meadow Pollack, Jeff Richman, a family friend, questioned the value of the FBI’s apology.
“The FBI apologised? Tell that to families,” he told Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the FBI’s “failures” had led to “tragic consequences”, and announced a review at the justice department and FBI into how “indications of potential violence” are responded to.
The FBI has been criticised before for having been aware of a possible threat and then failing to thwart an attack:
  • The gunman of the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas was known to the FBI
  • The bureau had information about one of the two brothers behind the deadly Boston Marathon bombing in 2013
  • The gunman who killed 49 people in a gay club in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 was on the FBI’s radar
In 2016, the FBI received about 1,300 tips a day through its website, which is staffed around the clock by two dozen people.
In addition to online tips, FBI field offices receive dozens of calls. About 100 of the tips are considered “actionable”.

What do we know about the suspect?

Media captionFlorida shooting suspect appears in court
Mr Cruz had been expelled from the school he has confessed to attacking and some students said they had previously joked he would one day “shoot up the school”.
One former schoolmate, Chad Williams, said Mr Cruz was an “outcast” who was “crazy about guns”.
His interest in weapons was apparent on his social media profiles, which the Broward County sheriff said were “very, very disturbing”.
Mr Cruz had reportedly been treated for mental health issues at a clinic.
graph showing worst mass shootings

Scots study uncovers trafficking routes for pangolin

pangolinImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionThe pangolin is being smuggled via ivory trade routes
Animal traffickers are taking advantage of remote ivory trade routes to smuggle one of the world’s most endangered animals out of Central Africa, new research has found.
Pangolins are scaly, ant-eating mammals.
Their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are deemed by some to have magical medicinal properties.
Stirling University led the first ever study into how criminals were sourcing the animals from African forests.
The researchers found pangolins were being transported illegally across remote forest borders in an attempt to avoid increased law enforcement.

Media captionPangolin: The most trafficked mammal in the world
The new study was led by Dr Katharine Abernethy of Stirling University’s faculty of natural sciences and also involved the University of Sussex, Gabonese researchers and other industry partners.
It found local hunters in Gabon were selling increasing numbers of the animals to Asian workers stationed on the continent for major logging, oil exploration and agro-industry projects.
The team also discovered that the price for giant pangolins had risen at more than 45 times the rate of inflation between 2002 and 2014.
The findings are published in the African Journal of Ecology on World Pangolin Day.
It is hoped they will help law enforcers tackle the increasing problem.
Dr Katharine AbernethyImage copyrightUNIVERSITY OF STIRLING
Image captionDr Katharine Abernethy led the study into the trafficking of pangolins
Dr Abernethy said: “This is the first study of how illegally traded pangolins may be being sourced from African forests and it shows that the high value paid internationally for large giant pangolin scales is probably affecting their price, even in very remote villages.
“However, local subsistence hunters are probably not the primary suppliers – this is likely to be criminal hunting organisations, possibly those who are also trading in ivory in the region, as the demand markets are similar.”
The new study focused on Gabon, in Central Africa, where domestic hunting and eating of certain species of pangolin is legal.
They found that the relative value of pangolins has increased significantly since 2002.
Illegally-traded pangolins were not detected by law enforcers controlling traditional meat trade chains, but found associated with ivory trading across forest borders.
The study concluded that the high international price of scales was driving up local costs, with hunters increasingly targeting pangolins to sell them on, rather than for home consumption.
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What is a pangolin?

pangolinImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionThe pangolin is completely covered in scales
The gentle, solitary pangolin has a tongue as long as its body and curls into a ball when threatened. It is also the world’s most trafficked mammal, and threatened with extinction.
It is the only mammal wholly covered in scales, and it curls itself into an impregnable ball when approached by predators.
It eats seven million ants and termites a year and has no teeth, so it stores stones in its stomach to grind up its food.
The reason many of us have never heard of pangolins is because they seldom survive in captivity. Only six zoos in the world – and only one in Europe, Leipzig – have any.
Roughly 100,000 pangolins a year are being snatched from the wild and sent to China and Vietnam.
In both those countries their meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are deemed to have magical medicinal properties.
Already there are no pangolins left in great swathes of South East Asia, so Africa’s pangolin populations are now being plundered. All eight species are threatened with extinction.
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