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because of rules imposed by a European zoo association to deter inbreeding despite a wave of online protests to save it.
• Zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro says it put down the male giraffe, named Marius, on Sunday using a bolt pistol and will feed its meat to carnivores in the zoo.
• Stenbaek Bro says the zoo was recommended to put down the giraffe by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria because there were already a lot of giraffes with similar genes in the organization's breeding program.
• Stenbaek Bro said EAZA membership isn't mandatory but most responsible zoos are members of the organization, which works to conserve global biodiversity.
• An online petition to save Marius had received more than 20,000 signatures.
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• DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- The mob violence wracking Central African Republic imperils the future of the country's Muslims, with tens of thousands fleeing the daily violence and untold numbers killed.
• Bangui, the capital, is engulfed in an orgy of bloodshed and looting despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers.
• "We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings," Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press, calling for a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping mission. "Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone."
• Muslims make up about 15 percent of Central African Republic's 4.6 million people. More than 800,000 people have fled their homes --about half of those from the capital, according to the United Nations.
• "There are some who don't want Muslims in this country," Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on local radio Saturday. "But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss."
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