Poaching

It's harvest time in Russia, and for Uncle Kolya it is an unhappy one. Digging in the fields by hand is tedious, back-breaking work, but that is not really Kolya's complaint. Nor does his foul mood result from a drought that augurs the poorest national grain crop in three decades. Kolya is a struggling potato thief. The root of his problem is a "garden revolution" in rural Russia.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar and other high-tech companies will face an antitrust lawsuit that alleges they illegally conspired not to poach each other's staffers. San Jose U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected a motion to dismiss the claims Wednesday night. In a 29-page opinion, she ruled that the “Do Not Cold Call” agreements among the defendants probably resulted “from collusion, and not from coincidence.” Other defendants include Adobe, Intuit, and Lucasfilm.

They come in broad daylight, with guns, machetes, knives and buckets of acid. The invaders of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire's rubber plantation in Liberia are hunting what they call "elephant meat": To them, the company is so big that anyone can take a hunk of flesh and no one will notice. Some people who stand in their way get hacked to death. Others, such as William Brown, a 42-year-old security officer, have had acid hurled on their face and bodies.

The J. Paul Getty Trust, the visual art world's ultimate one-percenter with about $8 billion in net assets, has decided that it can't get by on investment income alone and will begin raising money in earnest to pay for special projects. J. Timothy Child, a fundraiser for the University of Chicago since 1989, will assume the newly created position of vice president of institutional advancement on June 11 - the first time in its 30-year history that the Getty has hired a chief fundraiser.

The baby rhino, an orphan, had barely been weaned. Her horn was only a few inches long. But that didn't stop the poachers from hacking it off. David Uys, 33, had helped raise the rhino after her mother was killed by lightning. He called her Weerkind -- "orphan" in Afrikaans. He won't forget the sight of the bodies of the baby and two other rhinos, shot dead, their horns removed. "I'm not a one for talking about emotions," Uys said quietly. "But it was like seeing one of your family members dead, the brutality of it."

Illegal trappers on Cyprus killed more than half a million protected birds this fall to sell them at local restaurants, conservationists said. The worst massacre in four years came despite a European Union ban on the decades-old tradition, said BirdLife Cyprus Executive Director Martin Hellicar. Migratory birds cooked over coals are a traditional delicacy and sell for as much as $7 each in restaurants. Hellicar said the problem continues because poachers' profits are huge.

A former Orange County sheriff's deputy has been charged with obstructing a state game warden for allegedly falsely telling him that an off-duty deputy about to be cited for poaching lobsters was a confidential informant and for asking that he not be punished. Prosecutors say Phillip Glenn Romero, 39, who was on duty at the time, made up the story about Deputy William Robb while Robb was being questioned by a California Department of Fish and Game officer. The game officer stopped Robb and two other off-duty sheriff's deputies on Nov. 18 after they pulled their boat up to a launch ramp at Dana Point Harbor.

California wildlife officials have made 12 more arrests in an alleged West Coast sturgeon poaching ring, bringing to 20 the individuals charged this month with catching, selling or possessing the largest freshwater fish in North America. Those arrested in Thursday's sweep were charged with misdemeanor conspiracy to catch the protected Sacramento-San Joaquin River white sturgeon, mainly for its eggs.

Enrique Chavez should have known it wasn't going to work. The way authorities tell it, after drinking some beer in his South Gate home one night, Chavez and three buddies decided they wanted to eat some deer meat. So they hopped in a car and traveled to Angeles National Forest, where Chavez took his rifle and shot a deer in the throat. The men flung the animal into the trunk of their car and started back home.

For several months, some Eastern Sierra residents talked of a magnificent pronghorn antelope on the range between Mono Lake and Bridgeport, near the 1859 ghost town of Bodie. Technically, North American antelope are not true antelope but pronghorn, or Antilocapra americana, but, one Bishop man said, "It was the biggest antelope I'd ever seen."

The judge who presided over the Dodgers' bankruptcy case is a huge baseball fan. He invited an attorney to speak by saying "batter up," referred to last Friday's morning and evening court sessions as "a day-night doubleheader" and proudly shared his love for the Philadelphia Phillies. And so it was that, when all the shouting was over Friday night, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross held aloft the document he had to sign to approve the sale of the Dodgers. "I was looking in the order for language that says they can't sign Cole Hamels," Gross said.

State wildlife officials cited a Riverside County man Sunday for allegedly poaching dozens of lobsters inside one of Southern California's new marine sanctuaries, in what authorities called the first major violation of fishing restrictions that took effect Jan. 1. The state Department of Fish and Game said Marbel A. Para, 30, of Romoland and a companion were diving off Laguna Beach shortly after midnight when wardens stopped them and found 47...

Animal rights activists are challenging a decision by South African conservation authorities to auction off a permit to hunt a white rhinoceros, a member of a species increasingly under threat from poachers. Government conservation officials say the deal will actually protect the remaining eight rhinos in the Makhasa Resource Reserve, a game reserve adjacent to an impoverished community whose residents might otherwise be tempted to participate in poachings.

A mountain lion found dead in the western Santa Monica Mountains was killed and mutilated by poachers, according to state fish and game wardens who are seeking tips in the case. "We're going to have to get lucky on this. There's virtually no forensic evidence," said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. Investigators, he added, are hoping a member of the public will hear "somebody bragging about how they killed a mountain lion, and they'll call us" at (800)

A new year poses an old question: Who is going to stop Auburn quarterback Cam Newton? Kentucky couldn't do it. He rushed for 198 yards. South Carolina, in two losses against Newton, "held" him to 493 passing yards and 249 rushing. Louisiana State, which has a pretty decent defense, watched Newton cut loose for 217 rushing yards in October. A scandal didn't stop Newton, and neither did the Southeastern Conference, nor the NCAA. More than 100 Heisman Trophy voters left Newton off their ballots, yet he still received 82.2% of the first-place love in a runaway election.

She has a bullet in her face, another in her leg and every reason not to trust humans. But when Johannesburg Zoo rhino keeper Alice Masombuka calls her name, the wild black rhino flutters her ears delicately and stands alert, gazing in the direction of the voice. "Hey Phila, Phila! Hey big girl, good girlie. Phila!" says Masombuka, leaning against the fence, her singsong voice floating irresistibly in Johannesburg's damp spring air. Phila takes a few steps, hesitates, stops, changes her mind, takes a few more steps and halts again fearfully.

A nighttime stakeout by lobster fishermen from the bluffs overlooking the harbor led to the arrests of four people suspected of lobster poaching, authorities said Monday. Dan Sforza, a warden with the State Fish and Game Department, said that members of the Dana Cove Commercial Fishermen's Assn. had complained for months that their lobster traps outside the breakwater had been poached.

Grinches planning on last-minute poaching of Christmas trees from the national forests could be in for a surprise this year with increased patrols and roadways closed because of icy conditions, Forest Service officials said Wednesday. Unusually cold weather has forced the closure of most dirt roads above the 5,000-foot elevation where the most desirable pine trees thrive, said Steve Bear, Forest Service resource officer for the Tujunga District. "Our forests are very fragile areas," he said.

Wildlife groups react with shock to news of the discovery at the Letaba Ranch Game Reserve. South Africa has seen a major increase in rhino killings this year, with poachers armed with AK-47s frequently attacking the endangered animals. South African wildlife officials found the decomposing bodies of 18 rhinos ? all dehorned victims of poaching ? in a remote area of a large private game reserve close to the border of Kruger National Park, authorities said Friday. Wildlife organizations reacted with shock to news of the find at the 100,000-acre Letaba Ranch Game Reserve.