China tough on monkey poachers. From correspondents in Beijing.

CHINA has marked the Year of the Monkey by handing down hefty jail sentences to a group of poachers dealing in rhesus monkeys, state media reported today.

Courts in southern China’s Guizhou province pronounced 20 sentences ranging from six to 14 years for a spectrum of rhesus-related crimes, such as poaching, killing, trafficking and selling the animals, the Xinhua news agency said. In one of the cases, a group of farmers was sentenced for organising villagers in Leishan county into bands hunting down rhesus monkeys for resale elsewhere in China, Xinhua said.