Now what? Few tangible effects of Wall St protests

A few of the Occupy Wall Street protesters sit in a nearly empty Zuccotti Park in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street encampment is gone, but the movement lives on. What nobody knows is just how long it can survive without a place to call home after police hauled away demonstators in a late night raid. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A few of the Occupy Wall Street protesters sit in a nearly empty Zuccotti Park in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street encampment is gone, but the movement lives on. What nobody knows is just how long it can survive without a place to call home after police hauled away demonstators in a late night raid. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A solitary Occupy Wall Street protestor holds a sign outside a nearly empty Zuccotti Park during the early morning hours, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in New York. Crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country reached the epicenter of the movement Tuesday, when police rousted protesters from the park and a judge ruled that their free speech rights do not extend to pitching a tent and setting up camp for months at a time. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

An Occupy Wall Street protester is detained by police officers after being ordered to leave Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in New York, early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011. At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, police handed out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

An Occupy Wall Street protestor meditates in a newly tent-free Zuccotti Park during the early morning hours, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in New York. Crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country reached the epicenter of the movement Tuesday, when police rousted protesters from a Manhattan park and a judge ruled that their free speech rights do not extend to pitching a tent and setting up camp for months at a time. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

(AP) ? Everywhere, it seems, people want to weigh in about the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country, from CEOs and politicians to your next-door neighbor. So far the talk has translated into little action.

Two months into the movement, with police dismantling the encampments one by one, city by city, few politicians or policymakers have publicly taken up the protesters' cause and done anything to address corporate excesses and economic inequality.

But some political observers say the demonstrators have changed the conversation in the U.S., and that is a big first step.

"They've shifted the center of gravity of the debate so that the whole question of wealth and privilege is now being discussed," said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Washington political think tank. "In a democracy, what people are talking about matters."

Georgia state Sen. Vincent Fort, a Democrat who was among those arrested when protesters were expelled from an Atlanta park last month, said he is not troubled by the absence of any major tangible change.

"The Occupy movement is a relative baby. It's just a few months old," he said. "The most important thing it has done is to change the conversation in this country. You can't have any policy change, you can't have any legislative change, until the debate is changed."

Examples of real, measurable Occupy-inspired change in the political sphere are hard to come by, though a band of millionaires did storm Capitol Hill on Wednesday to urge Congress to tax them more, claiming they are not paying their "fair share."

In Rhode Island, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse noted that Occupy activists encouraged customers to fight back recently against fees imposed by major banks ? a fight that ended with Bank of America and its competitors backing down. Whitehouse is trying to channel the anger that has bubbled up in the Occupy movement against big banks as he seeks support for a bill to crack down on credit card interest rates.

Union leaders say the Occupy movement has also brought a spark of optimism and energy to organized labor after a summer of setbacks and assaults on their bargaining power.

"The Occupy movement has framed the fight," said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union. "They've totally changed the debate within a 30-day period."

She added: "It has impacted expectations among people who were beaten down."

In fact, labor leaders insist the Occupy movement's message of economic inequality was a factor earlier this month in Ohio, where voters overwhelmingly repealed a law curtailing public employees' right to collective bargaining.

But political experts are skeptical of that claim.

"That's a stretch," said Paul Beck, a political science professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus. "The sentiment of Ohioans on that bill very much precedes any of the Occupy Wall Street activities and their spinoffs in various cities."

As for why the protesters have yet to turn the conversation into major action, some political observers said the movement has never really clarified its policy objectives and is hampered by a lack of clear-cut leadership.

Kalle Lasn, co-founder of Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that helped ignite the Occupy Wall Street movement by issuing the initial call for the demonstration last spring, said the "original magic" faded somewhat as news coverage of the encampments around the country began to focus less on the participants' youthful idealism and more on drugs, violence and homelessness.

"Somehow, we lost the high ground, we lost the narrative," he said. "Tactically, the moment was right to declare victory, have a big global party and come back swinging next spring."

Where does the movement go from here, especially now that police cleared out its unofficial headquarters, Zuccotti Park in New York City?

Will marches pack the same punch as a noisy, ever-present outdoor camp in the heart of New York's financial district? The protesters may learn the answer to that on Thursday, when they plan acts of civil disobedience, including marches over bridges in several cities and an occupation of the New York City subway system.

"This thing has gone so far and reflects such intense feeling that I don't think there's any chance at all that we just saw it end," said Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University authority on the student left during the 1960s.

Whether the Occupy movement will achieve real change, he said, may depend on whether the demonstrators and their sympathizers decide to bargain with the Democrats to achieve some of their agenda.

Florida state Rep. Dwight Bullard, a Miami Democrat who has met with organizers in Florida, said he and other lawmakers are listening to the protesters and taking up their cause on such issues as debit card fees.

"I would definitely say that Occupy has encouraged or helped ignite, I guess, a more aggressive fervor in the bellies of my colleagues," Bullard said. "Sometimes you don't want to jump out of the plane without a parachute," and it is nice to know "there are people not only around the state but around the country and around the globe that are tired of being beat down and taken advantage of by corporate interests."

___

Associated Press Writers David Klepper and Erika Niedowski in Providence, R.I., Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Beth Fouhy in New York, Ann Sanner in Columbus, Ohio, Christine Armario in Miami and Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Winehouse wrote full 3rd CD, planned supergroup (AP)

NEW YORK ? Amy Winehouse had written all the songs that were to appear on her third album. She even picked out song titles.

But music producer Salaam Remi said the soul singer, who died over the summer, was not rushing to release that new material, instead planning to drop a jazz album first with a "supergroup" including ?uestlove of the Roots.

"She had written down everything she wanted to do," Remi said Tuesday.

Only two of the tracks Winehouse wrote were recorded and appear on her compilation album, "Lioness: Hidden Treasures," out Dec. 5 in the United Kingdom, and a day later in America.

Winehouse died from accidental alcohol poisoning at age 27. Her body was found at her London home July 23.

Remi, who worked on the singer's two albums, "Frank" and "Back to Black," produced most of the upcoming CD, saying Winehouse was a perfectionist when it came to composing music.

"She was taking her time with it, and at the end of the day all of her songs are somewhat autobiographical, so she had to live through something, then get out of it and then look back at it to be able to write about it," he said.

"Who knows what will happen in the future with that," he said of the songs she penned.

Remi held a press listening for "Lioness" on Tuesday. The 12-track set features covers and stripped-sounding versions of released Winehouse songs, with some completed in one take.

Before her third album would come out, Remi said, Winehouse wanted to record with Roots drummer ?uestlove and saxophone player Soweta Kinch.

"There were a bunch of other names bouncing around," Remi said.

?uestlove did make the new album, though. He appears on the track "Half Time." There's also a song by an 18-year-old Winehouse, another about her ex-husband's infidelity and "Best Friend," which opens with the line: "I can't wait to get away from you."

Remi has produced for the Fuguees, Nas, Jazmine Sullivan and Nelly Furtado. He produced the song "Block Party" from TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Winehouse sought him out after hearing the track. Remi says that Winehouse usually wrote songs while playing the guitar and that the new album sounds just as good as her critically acclaimed predecessors.

He also said he wanted to release new material from the late singer before others did so.

"Before somebody comes up with some weird song .... this is what it really is," he said. "This is the quality."

___

Online:

http://www.amywinehouse.com/

____

Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_en_mu/us_music_amy_winehouse

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Apple announces changes to its board: Arthur D. Levinson named Chairman, Robert Iger joins

Apple has just announced some changes to its board of directors, including the appointment of a new non-executive chairman: Arthur D. Levinson. Currently Chairman of Genentech Inc., Levinson has been a co-director of Apple's board since 2005, having first joined the board in 2000. He'll be welcoming new board member Robert A. Iger, who you may know as the President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Levinson "has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000," and that his "insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders."

On Iger, Cook said: "Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board," further noting that "his strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple." The official press release is after the break.

Continue reading Apple announces changes to its board: Arthur D. Levinson named Chairman, Robert Iger joins

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Fresh iPhone Apps for Nov. 15: Clingle, Riversip Technology News, Chocohero, INC (Appolicious)

Try a new form of location-based check-in with Clingle, an app that adds video to the kind of social networking you do when you?re wandering around town. The app lets you record short videos to use as your check-ins at businesses or other locations, and you can even leave items, videos or messages for other users to find when they check in. Next is Riversip Technology News, a curated tech news app that brings you the most important stories first and has a fair amount of room for customization. Chocohero leads today?s fresh games offering. It?s an endless falling title in which you try to destroy platforms and save chocolate people from destruction. INC rounds out the list by providing a side-scrolling hybrid between classic platforming and shooting bad guys.

Clingle (iPhone, iPad) Free

Location-based social networking app Clingle takes the standard of ?checking-in? to places you visit and adds something more. Instead of just broadcasting your location by text to your friends using your social networking service, Clingle allows you to check-in by shooting short videos and sharing those with other users.

Clingle also lets you leave secret, hidden messages behind when you check in to different locations around your city. If you drop by our favorite burger joint, for example, you can leave behind a video that your friends will see, should they happen to check-in there. The app also helps you find local deals and hotspots around you, using your iOS device?s GPS capabilities.

As its name suggests, Riversip Technology News is a news aggregator app that brings you tech news from all over the web, with a philosophy of quick and easy delivery. The app delivers you a prioritized list of news stories by importance, centered around technology, that you can update at your leisure. No matter when you tap into Riversip, so long as you have an Internet connection handy, you can be up to date on the latest, most important tech news.

Riversip allows you to customize how you want to see news, so you can page through headlines, then go deeper into stories that interest you. Once you find something you want to read, you can tap into it to get the full low-down, and even find additional sources with more information on the topic. The app is also curated to bring you highly relevant sources and prioritize stories so you always see what?s most important first.

Chocohero (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

Freefalling tilt-based Chocohero is a pretty simple casual arcade title, where instead of avoiding obstacles, you want to crash through them. As you drop down the screen as the game starts, your goal is to free your chocolate-based friends from cages and crash through the platforms nearby. The more friends you save, coins you collect and platforms you destroy, the higher your score.

Chocohero also includes ?objectives,? requiring you to fall into a certain number of platforms or save a set number of friends. Once you do, Chocohero earns a longer cape that allows him to score even higher.

INC (iPhone, iPad) $1.99

Part puzzle platformer, part side-scrolling action title, INC puts a gun in your hand and sends you on your way through an 8-bit level filled with dangers. As you travel through the game, you?ll fight off enemy agents by blasting them, jump gaps, trigger platforms and avoid traps as you touch three markers that allow you to open the way out of the level. You?re scored based on your speed, lethality and picking up objects along the way.

INC packs 40 levels for your consumption, as well as a mixture of 8-bit and comic book aesthetics. It also includes Game Center support, which supplies achievements to earn and online leaderboards, on which you can measure your skills.

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Joe Frazier funeral provides final salute to boxing legend

Joe Frazier funeral: Former boxing champions paid their respects to Frazier in Philadelphia on Monday. Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes both attended the Joe Frazier funeral.

With his championship belt and a pair of gloves draped over his casket, Joe?Frazier was going one more round.

Skip to next paragraph

The Rev. Jesse Jackson asked mourners to rise, put their hands together and for one last time "show your love" for the former heavyweight champion.

Muhammad Ali obliged.

Wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, a frail and trembling Ali rose from his seat and vigorously clapped for "Smokin' Joe," the fighter who handed Ali his first loss.

Ali was among the nearly 4,000 people who packed the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church for a two-hour "joyful celebration" of Frazier's life. He died last week of liver cancer; he was 67. Also attending were former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes and promoter Don King.

His body ravaged by Parkinson's disease, Ali was accompanied by members of his family and wife, Lonnie, who rubbed his back while he was seated and held his hands as he entered and left the church.

Jackson delivered a stirring eulogy, describing Frazier as someone who "came from segregation, degradation and disgrace to amazing grace."

"Tell them Rocky was not a champion. Joe?Frazier was," he said, referring to the hometown character from the boxing movie, "Rocky," and whose statue stands at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Tell them Rocky is fictitious, Joe was reality. Rocky's fists are frozen in stone. Joe's fists are smokin'. Rocky never faced Ali or Holmes or Foreman. Rocky never tasted his own blood. Champions are made in the ring not in the movies. There deserves to be a statue of Joe?Frazier in downtown Philadelphia."

Mike Tyson, a catch in his voice, sent a videotaped message of condolence as did real estate magnate Donald Trump and actor Mickey Rourke. Fellow Philadelphia fighter, longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, also attended. The Rev. Al Sharpton was forced to cancel Monday morning.

"We made history together," said King, who promoted Ali's Rumble in the Jungle fight against George Foreman, who was knocked out in the eighth round. "We tried to make America better."

King, wearing an U.S. flag scarf and clutching a mini-flag, walked over to shake Ali's hand before the funeral; Holmes greeted "The Greatest" when the service ended ? with a 10-bell salute, boxing's traditional 10-count farewell to its own.

Thousands of mourners turned out Friday and Saturday for a public memorial viewing at the Wells Fargo Center.

Frazier beat Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden in 1971. He would go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the Thrilla in Manila bout.

Frazier was embittered for years by Ali's taunts and name-calling, though he recently said he had forgiven him.

Their epic trilogy was recalled not only by speakers at the service but those who sent letters to be read at the ceremony. Rourke got the biggest laugh when he joked about Ali getting knocked down by Frazier ? with Ali's friends and family laughing the loudest.

Smokin' Joe was a small yet ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including the devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. That's what he used to drop Ali in the 15th round of their epic bout at MSG..

While that fight is celebrated in boxing lore, Ali and Frazier put on an even better show in their third fight, held in a sweltering arena in Manila as part of Ali's world tour of fights in 1975. Nearly blinded by Ali's punches, Frazier still wanted to go out for the 15th round, but was held back by trainer Eddie Futch. The bout, Ali would later say, was the closest thing to death he could imagine.

Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their fight at Madison Square Garden. Frazier defended it successfully four times before George Foreman knocked him down six times in the first two rounds to take the title from him in 1973.

Frazier would never be heavyweight champion again.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ob_A-AHVUiQ/Joe-Frazier-funeral-provides-final-salute-to-boxing-legend

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Staying home

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:38 a.m. ET Nov. 14, 2011

MANCHESTER, England (AP) -Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has decided to stay in his native Argentina instead of attending a scheduled meeting with the Premier League leaders to discuss his future.

City had asked the 27-year-old forward to return to England.

Tevez has scored 44 goals in 69 Premier League appearances for City but has not played since apparently refusing an instruction from manager Roberto Mancini to come on as a substitute against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in September.

City fined Tevez four weeks of wages last month but was forced to halve it after England's players union intervened.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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US offense awakens

The United States won for just the second time since Jurgen Klinsmann took over as coach, with Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore scoring in a two-minute span late in the first half to lead the Americans over Slovenia 3-2 on a foggy Tuesday night in Ljubljana.

Staying home

Man City striker Carlos Tevez has decided to stay in his native Argentina instead of meeting with the Premier League leaders to discuss his future.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44691932/ns/sports-soccer/

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Italy's premier-designate finalizing new govt (AP)

ROME ? Prime Minister-designate Mario Monti of Italy said Tuesday he is ready to present his new government to the president after winning wide backing ? and important pledges of sacrifices ? from political, business and union leaders during two days of intense consultations.

Monti said he still has to put the final touches on his Cabinet and economic program, which he will outline to President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday. His government must receive votes of confidence in both houses of Parliament, expected this week, to take office and begin the task of steering the eurozone's third-largest economy through its debt crisis.

Monti expressed his "serenity" and "conviction" in Italy's ability to overcome the difficult phase in its history.

"I was impressed by the sense of responsibility and willingness to back social growth," Monti said. "Everyone offered concrete contributions of possible partial sacrifices in exchange for a more general positive outcome."

Monti, a respected economist and former European commissioner, is under pressure to quickly reassure financial markets that Italy will avoid a default that could tear apart the 17 countries that use the euro currency and push the global economy back into recession. The European Union and the European Central Bank have outlined measures Italy must take ? many of them reforms blocked in the past by special interests.

Monti, 68, has already shown his determination to press through deep reforms by making it clear he intends to serve until regularly scheduled elections in 2013, rejecting calls for an early vote.

On Tuesday, after rounds of meetings, Monti garnered support from the center-left Democratic Party, former premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party and the Confindustria, a powerful business lobby.

"We strongly support the birth of this government because for us it is the last chance to regain credibility," Confindustria leader Emma Marcegaglia said.

Union leader Raffaele Bonanni said Monti was close to completing his Cabinet at the time of their meeting Tuesday afternoon.

"Monti told us that he has reached an agreement with the main political forces that will give him a consistent parliamentary majority that will support him and he will very quickly be in a position to present the list of ministers," said Bonanni, leader of the powerful CISL union.

Despite reports of progress, European markets closed lower Tuesday as investors worried that politicians might pull their support in the future if austerity measures proved unpalatable.

On Wall Street, stock indexes wavered between small gains and losses as investors considered another spike in Italy's main borrowing rate against an increase in U.S. retail spending.

The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds jumped again to 6.94 percent. Last week's spike above 7 percent ? a level considered unsustainable in the long term ? raised fears Italy would eventually need a bailout like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

But a financial debacle in Italy raises a whole new set of problems because the country is considered too big for Europe to bail out.

Monti was asked to form a government Sunday after Berlusconi resigned amid weeks of market turmoil over Italy's stagnant growth and high public debt, which at euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) is nearly 120 percent of GDP.

Many of those debts are coming due soon, with Italy having to roll over more than euro300 billion ($410 billion) of its debts next year alone.

Monti met Tuesday with the head of the Democratic Party and Angelino Alfano, leader of the Peoples of Freedom party.

"We think, in light of the facts and after this latest conversation, that Professor Monti's attempts are destined to turn out well," Alfano told reporters afterward.

Previously, his party had conditioned its support on the shape of Monti's Cabinet, his government agenda and the duration of his term.

Pierluigi Bersani, head of the Democratic Party, pledged support and placed no timeframe on Monti's tenure.

Only the Northern League, Berlusconi's allies, have refused to support his government. They want early elections this spring, something Monti has rejected.

The EU, meanwhile, says said new measures will be necessary for Italy to balance its budget as promised by 2013. The eurozone avoided contracting in the third quarter, thanks mainly to Germany and France, but is widely expected to fall into recession imminently as a result of its raging debt crisis.

Monti says Italians will have to make some sacrifices to get through the crisis but "not tears and blood."

___

Barry reported from Milan. Patricia Thomas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Penn State names new acting athletic director amid scandal (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) ? Penn State named a new acting athletic director on Wednesday as the university continues to respond to the child sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant football coach.

The school said David M. Joyner, a graduate of the school and a member of its board of trustees, would assume responsibility for the university's athletic department, which has been rocked by the allegations involving Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator with the football team once considered a likely successor to legendary coach Joe Paterno, was arrested two weeks ago and now faces charges he sexually abused eight young boys over a 15-year period.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune)

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6 bricklayers working at school killed in Mexico (AP)

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico ? Police have found the bodies of six bricklayers who were working on a new elementary school in the northern state of Chihuahua. Two of them were mutilated.

Chihuahua state prosecutors say in a Monday statement that the men were found Sunday in a rural area of the town of Bocoyna, where they were building a school.

Prosecutors say one man was decapitated and another had his hands cut off. All had their throats slit.

They said the men bled to death and were later shot. Authorities found 25 spent bullet casings at the scene.

Prosecutors didn't have a motive or any suspects in the killings.

Chihuahua state is on the border with Texas and has seen a spike in violence as the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels fight for control of lucrative smuggling routes.

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HK agents find $2.2M in illegal rhino horns, ivory (AP)

HONG KONG ? Hong Kong customs agents have confiscated a shipment of rhino horns and ivory worth about 17.4 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.2 million) ? their biggest seizure of smuggled endangered species products, officials said Tuesday.

Officials said they seized 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory chopsticks and 127 ivory bracelets concealed in a shipping container that arrived Monday at Hong Kong's port from Cape Town, South Africa. They would not name the container's final destination.

Customs agents X-rayed the container because its listed cargo ? scrap plastic ? raised a flag, said Acting Head of Ports and Maritime Command Lam Tak-fai. They found the rhino horns and ivory after peeling away layers of tinfoil, paper and plastic wrapped around the items.

Wai-king Yik, a spokeswoman for the customs and excise department, said it was a record seizure of endangered species products for Hong Kong.

The seizure tops one in August of $1.6 million worth of African ivory.

Several rhino subspecies are believed to have recently become extinct. Rhino horns are prized by Vietnamese and Chinese who believe they can cure an array of ailments, and the horns can fetch up to $50,000 per pound (about $100,000 per kilogram). Some 190 pounds (86 kilograms) worth of rhino horns were found Monday by the Hong Kong officials, who said they would have required the deaths of around 17 rhinos.

Lam told reporters it was a record seizure of rhino horns for Hong Kong. He said customs agents have occasionally found single rhino horns being smuggled in luggage by visitors to Hong Kong but this is the first time they have found a large batch hidden in a shipping container.

No one has been arrested.

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