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Journalism of Courage
WWF to the rescue of golden ape
BEIJING: The World Wide Fund for Nature WWF has given one million dollars to China to help prevent the extinction of the snub-nosed golden monkey, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
The tiny monkey, with a human-like face, is fast dying out. Numbers have now fallen below 1,000 and its natural habitat 8212; the forests in the southern foothills of the Tibetan plateau 8212; are coming under threat. The funding will be focused on three villages in Deqin county, south-western Yunnan province, where farmers make a living by logging the forests where the monkey lives.
To maintain the habitat, small hydro-electric power stations will be built to provide energy for the farmers, and higher-yielding crops will be planted to stop further encroachment into the forests. China8217;s central government put the snub-nosed monkey on its special endangered list in August and provided 360,000 a year for its protection.
Roller coaster record
SAN DIEGO: Who8217;s foolish enough toride a wooden roller coaster for ten weeks straight, sleep in its cars and endure some 18,151 nauseating laps? Meet Debbie Arnold, Robert Cromer, Lee Vath, Krys Golaski, and Mary Amoroso five people who hung on for 70 days aboard the giant dipper at Belmont park, each hoping to outlast the other and win 50,000. In the end, contest officials had to stop the dizzying ride on Tuesday and split the winnings: 10,000 for each and a five-day trip to Hawaii.
8217;It wasn8217;t worth it,8221; said a shook-up Arnold, who thinks she may actually have lost money by foregoing wages all summer. Since climbing aboard on June 30, the so-called 8220;party of five8221; were pulled through a pitch-black tunnel and yanked over 12 more slopes as fast as 88 km per hour for fourteen-and-half hours a day.
