GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO On a blackboard in a classroom in Stratton Elementary School in Colorado Springs, a montage of photographs and fact sheets has been pinned up under the heading “Silverback Gorillas.”

Together, the 43 children in the second-grade class give $244 a month to support a rarely paid and poorly equipped wildlife ranger half a world away in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

SAVE GORILLAS:http://wildlifedirect.org/

RANGER BLOGS: http://wildlifedirect.org/congo-rangers/

Joseph Aloma Major is a foot soldier in the war to save the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas, an employee of the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), Congo’s wildlife service.

Before the money started flowing from Colorado, directly donated online via a new charity website, , Mr. Aloma could barely do his job.

He had not been paid for several months. His patrol post had no fuel and no vehicle to put it in. And, until last month, he faced the danger of attacks from rebels commanded by dissident Army General Laurent Nkunda, whose troops controlled much of the land surrounding the park.

But now that Congo’s government has signed a cease-fire with Mr. Nkunda’s forces, the area is safe enough to patrol. And thanks to generous donations from people like Stratton second-grader Kori Hernandez, who donated her entire piggy bank (about $30), rangers like Aloma are now getting the money to make protection of the endangered gorillas possible again.

Risky area for gorillas and humans

The 3,000-square-mile Virunga National Park, a World Heritage Site in eastern Congo where Aloma works, is home to 100 of the world’s last remaining 700 mountain gorillas.

For 13 years or more, it has been a hideout for a jumble of armed militia who have wreaked havoc across the region.

Since 1996, an estimated 120 rangers have been killed in the line of duty.

As recently as January, five patrol stations were attacked and rangers forced to flee. Two silverback gorillas were slaughtered; the remains of one, including its decapitated head, were thrown in a pit.

“Virunga is the oldest such park in Africa and is home to the greatest number of mammal, bird, and reptile species on the continent,” says Emmanuel de Merode, Wildlife Direct’s Kenya-based director. “This, together with the mountain gorilla population, is a key to the economic relaunch of Congo, but after eight years of civil war the ICCN needs some help.”

Thousands of tourists a year pay more than $400 a day or more to see mountain gorillas in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, and locals would like to have them come to war-torn Congo, too.

How the plan works

The idea is simple. Wildlife Direct acts as a conduit for information, supporting conservation workers in hazardous and remote locations.

The organization, which is registered in Washington, has sent Web wizards out to Africa, where they have established a series of online blogs, written by conservationists, rangers, and bush veterinarians, detailing their daily struggle to safeguard endangered animals.

Back in the West, Web-surfing animal-lovers who read the postings can click a “donate now” link. Up pops a page with a breakdown of options.

A day’s patrol rations for five rangers costs $15. A pair of boots is $35; a full uniform, $45; a dome tent, $60.

Or, like the pupils in the Colorado school, donors can become Gorilla Conservation Associates and cover a ranger’s $244-a-month salary package.

When the transaction is confirmed, Wildlife Direct contacts a partner organization they are working with on the ground. On the Mara Conservancy in southern Kenya, this is The Colobus Trust. In Cameroon, it is The Last Great Ape Project.

In Congo, it is the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Rob Muir is their chief conservationist based in Goma, near the Rwanda border.

Donations become gifts within days

“It’s a lightning operation,” says Mr. Muir, a Briton. “We have a reserve of cash we can draw on here in Congo, which we use to pay for whatever the person in Britain, America, or wherever has donated.

“We buy the boots in the market and hand them over straight away. We buy the food, the uniforms, the tents, and they’re in the rangers’ hands in a day or two. Then Wildlife Direct pays us back later.”

The boost to the rangers’ morale is instant.

“It’s really a great thing,” says Aloma. “We really wanted people to know how hard we were working, and now we see that they do. Soon Congo will become known for things other than war.”

Wildlife Direct does not take a percentage of donations. They are separately funded by donors who cover administrative and running costs.

In the first 72 hours after Wildlife Direct started working with gorillas in Congo in January, the group received $38,000.

They’ve since found sponsors for 15 rangers, who were getting nothing before.

“We are very happy with this initial burst of funding,” says Richard Leakey, chairman of Wildlife Direct, who’s known for largely stamping out poaching of elephants in Kenya in the 1980s. “It is obviously crucial that the interest people have shown continues, but from what we can tell it is going to continue.”

On the edge of the Virunga National Park’s southern Mikeno sector is a forest clearing which, two months ago, was a forward base for militiamen loyal to Nkunda.

This week, instead of a rebel command center, the clearing has been reclaimed by the conservationists as a high-tech gorilla monitoring station.

Led by Muir and Augustin Kambale, the head ranger of a nearby patrol post, ICCN has set up tents, erected a mess hall, and cleared space for a satellite dish that runs on solar power for Internet connections.

Donations via Wildlife Direct paid for the $1,000 operations tent, two of the laptops the rangers will use, and will fund the satellite link when it comes online.

Five of the rangers, including Mr. Kambale, will soon be blogging about their work, hoping that more donations will soon be flowing, and their work will be given the shot in the arm it needs.

Aloma, the ranger sponsored by the Colorado students, is already blogging. He sends photos and answers questions the students send in, including one from Kori: “Do you ever cry when you do your job?”

One of the children’s teachers in Colorado Springs, Melissa Stull, says the students have raised more than $700 in two months, and that they will soon launch “Pickles for Primates” to sell dill pickles to raise more money. They’re also planning to auction a bicycle donated to the school.

“If they weren’t so excited about it, we wouldn’t have raised this kind of money,” says Ms. Stull. “The kids are learning tons. We’ll keep going for as long as we can.”

Back in Congo, the gorillas may be sensing the window of peace that has now opened. Close to the clearing, which is to be named Camp Karema after one of the dead silverbacks, one of the eight females in a 32-strong family is suckling a 3-month-old baby.

Another family nearby has a 2-week-old baby; to have two infants born so close together is rare in Virunga National Park.

“If this peace lasts a long time, we know we can do our work and the gorillas will be safe for the first time in so many years,” Kambale said last weekend, when the Monitor became the first outsiders to visit since Nkunda’s troops pulled out.

“Things were so hard before,” says Kambale. “We had no uniforms, no equipment, and no patrol rations. Now things are completely different. We have all that we need.”

Matthew Clark contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007, The Christian Science Monitor

Merger and acquisition activity continues to drive share prices forward on both sides of the Atlantic and already this year the value of global takeovers has topped the 1 trillion level - that’s 60% ahead of last year’s record pace.

Insurer Royal & Sun Alliance yesterday found itself back on dealers’ takeover radar, touching 170p before closing 1p off at 168p. The September sale of its troubled American business and the removal of its pension deficit has made it a much more attractive bid target. In March it reported betterthanexpected profits and a 25% increase.

RSA has been mentioned as a possible private equity target on more than one occasion but Finnish insurer Sampo was the name in the frame again. Last November it sold its banking business to Danish Danske Bank, so that it could concentrate on its insurance operations. Sampo’s chief executive is Bjorn Wahlroos, one of the richest individuals in Finland. He apparently has sufficient backing to launch a 5bn-plus offer for RSA.

Red hot rumours of a 16 a share bid approach from the secretive Barclay Brothers lifted InterContinental Hotels 106p to 1372p. Turnover swelled to 31m amid afternoon speculation the Barclays’ were adding to their 9.16% stake. There was talk that the pair were buying more stock in order to flush out another interested party, possibly Prince Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud, founder and chairman of Kingdom Hotels.

The Footsie retreated 9.1 points to 6559.5 on profit-taking after doom and gloom Bank of England governor Mervyn King warned about yet more UK interest rate rises. Rates were raised a quarter point to a six-year high of 5% last week.

There were fun and games across the Pond as wonderful Wall Street surged a further 56.9 points to a record 13,440.7 in early trading.

Brokers in New York were gobsmacked as banking giant Citigroup soared 3.5% at the opening on hearing that hedge Edward Lampert, better known as the chairman of Sears Holdings, splashed out 400m on acquiring more than 15m shares in the giant bank.

They then heard that the one and only George Soros had doubled his shareholding in Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, to 415,000 shares. Obviously both billionaires still believe markets have further to run.

Miner Rio Tinto bounced back with a speculative gain of 90p to 3570p as punters responded to talk of a bid from Brazil’s Cia Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s biggest iron ore miner.

Properties were friendless after Land Securities (83p down at 1935p) warned that growth in the investment property market was slowing. Hammerson, strongly supported of late on bid hopes, lost 42p to 1598p and Slough Estates 18p to 750p. British Land cheapened 32p to 1458p.

Nervous selling ahead of today’s full-year results left BT 4p off at 315p.

Best of the FTSE 250 bunch was Spirent Communications, up 3p at 77p after UBS lifted its target price to 90p from 74p. Rumours of an imminent disposal helped engineer FKI rise 3p to 129p.

Autonomy spiked 15p to 769p as dealers heard that shares in offshoot Blinkx will be place on Aim at 35p-45p - the higher end of market forecasts. Blinkx includes Autonomy’s demerged consumer unit and rumours have been rife of late that Microsoft is ready to pounce.

Investors continued to leave PartyGaming in their droves following the recent profits warning. The close was 4 p down at 40p. The online gaming concern has lost a number of high rollers who have deserted its sites for rivals that have more punters playing for larger stakes.

MyHome International, the Mrs Mopp cleaning firm, jumped 10p to 85p. Interims pleased and the company has launched an window cleaning to run alongside its established franchise brands such as Autosheen, Ovenclean and Surface Doctor.

Global media group Entertainment Rights skipped p higher to 32p following the appointment of Deborah Dugan, the former Disney President of Worldwide Publishing, as chief executive of its North American operations.

Placed on PLUS Markets at 1p by broker Hichens Harrison, shares of shell company Running River should make sparks fly today. The latest vehicle of James Burgess, who was behind successful energy shells Zari and Zareba, invests in hydro-electricity projects. These employ the greener method known as ‘run of river’ which creates power by diverting water from a river down a pipeline to spin a turbine, without a dam.

Other stories:
Stamp duty scrap ‘inevitable’
French Connection hit by wholesale worry
Next shares on the slide after slump
Sainsbury’s profits soar
Misys sells Sesame to Friends Provident
Shareholders fume at Shell Nigeria crisis
DSG writes off 200m italian job
City Focus: Hunter Hanson falls to Germans
Australian rival snaps up troubled iSoft
Train firm says shareholders come first
Compass boss takes aim at old guard

February 26, 2007 — A Manhattan dentist said yesterday that he, his parents and his brother got drilled for more than $1 million by boy-band impresario and alleged Ponzi schemer Lou Pearlman, saying he refused to return investments they’d made in his company over two decades.

“I’m wiped out. My parents are wiped out,” said Steven Sarin, who’s suing. “My parents are in their 80s. They don’t need this.”

Pearlman, a Queens native who managed *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, recently vanished from his Orlando, Fla., home amid allegations that he’d swindled more than 1,400 investors out of $317 million.

The Sarins started backing Pearlman’s air-charter firm in the 1980s, the parents with money taken from safer investments, the sons with money from a mortgage. Pearlman had said they’d make 20 percent or more a year on their investments, Sarin claimed.

WASHINGTON —Senators moved ahead Wednesday on legislation to replace one-quarter of the nation’s gasoline with and set a goal of cutting gasoline consumption nearly in half by 2030.

Coal-state lawmakers tried to promote liquefied coal as a motor fuel substitute, but their effort stalled amid a debate over global warming.

The energy bill, passed by the on a 20-3 vote, would require a sevenfold increase in ethanol production, to 36 billion gallons a year, by 2022.

The proposal would authorize loan guarantees and other incentives for ethanol research and plant construction.

Senate leaders have said they would like to take up the bill before Memorial Day as the first major energy initiative since Democrats took control of in January.

The measure would establish an overall goal of reducing future gasoline use by as much as 45 percent below what it otherwise is expected to be in 2030. That would happen through a combination of more biofuels, such as ethanol, and production of more gas-electric hybrid vehicles and other fuel-saving measures.

The centerpiece of the bill is replacing gasoline with ethanol. Ethanol currently is made from corn. Future sources include cellulosic feedstock such as switchgrass, a hardy prairie grass in great abundance, and wood chips and corn stems.

The Senate bill includes requirements for more efficient appliances and light bulbs, and supports production of “plug-in” gas-electric hybrids that are less dependent on fossil fuel.

Reflecting the bill’s wide bipartisan support, eight of the committee’s 11 Republicans joined all 12 Democrats in sending the bill to the full Senate.

Several senators from coal-states failed in their bid to require use of liquefied coal as alternative motor fuel. They said the technology to make diesel from coal is well known and could supplant billions of gallons of conventional diesel with a widely available domestic fuel source.

“Here’s an opportunity to vote for U.S. coal and against Saudi oil,” said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Sens. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky., offered a proposal to require production of 21 billion gallons a year of diesel, made from coal, by 2022. That is the same year that the 36 billion gallon ethanol mandate would go into effect.

The use of coal to replace gasoline would only “enhance the energy security of the United States,” Thomas said.

His amendment was rejected along a 12-11 party-line vote, after a lengthy debate involving coal and climate change.

Nevertheless, Republicans and Democrats agreed the issue would return in the full Senate.

Converting coal to a liquid fuel itself requires large amounts of energy and produces more carbon dioxide, the leading “greenhouse” gas linked to global warming, than conventional gasoline.

The committee chairman, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and other opponents of Thomas’ amendment said that before coal is to play a major role in replacing gasoline, greater assurance is needed that the carbon dioxide from coal conversion will be captured and contained.

Otherwise “we’re setting ourselves up for a disaster. … The carbon issue is that important,” said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

The bill would authorize increased spending for carbon sequestration research and proposes $500 million over five years on large-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects involving coal.

The Senate bill also would:

? Expedite new energy efficiency standards for an array of appliances from dishwashers and refrigerators to electric motors and advanced, energy-saving lighting systems.

? Authorize new research into development of electric vehicles, including “plug-in” hybrids that would use conventional power grids, and a $1.3 billion, decade-long program in vehicle battery research.

? Require the government to buy more fuel efficient vehicles, use more electricity from renewable energy sources and cut energy consumption in federal buildings by 30 percent by 2015.

Shares in toy maker Hornby fell sharply as investors cashed in on the news that the group had done better than expected over Christmas.

At one point, shares were down as much as 7% as shareholders took profits following a spectacular rally since November of more than 30%.

“Order intake and sales for the final quarter from January to March are expected to be above the strong levels experienced last year,” the firm said earlier.

It is expecting trading to meet market expectations of around 50m for the full year, the maker of Scalextric cars and model trains said - it made 44.1m the previous year, with pre-tax profit at9m.

Hornby CEO Frank Martin said last week that one reason for the rising demand was that people finally saw and understood the benefits of digital Scalextric cars and model trains compared to analog versions.

Pilots of the new generation of Scalextric cars communicate with the vehicles via a controller that sends digital signals to a chip in the car in a realistic Formula 1 racing experience.

The European businesses also performed in line with expectations, with analysts expecting a near doubling in revenue contribution in the current year.