Ivory TowersIn the past year, poachers in Congo have killed a fifth of the Savannah elephants in Virguna National Park. In the past ten days alone, Rwandan rebels have killed seven of the elephants in Virunga, along Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda."We've definitely lost 20 percent of the population this year and probably more," said a park ranger. "We have rangers with them, and we're trying to reinforce them. But (the rangers) are outnumbered 20 to one." Conservationists believe that today only 300 elephants remain in what was once the world's largest population of Savannahs. A large part of the problem is a growing demand for ivory in China, which last month was granted permission by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species "to buy 108 tons of ivory stocks from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe," allowing poachers to sell the stolen ivory on the legitimate market. [Reuters]