"The Anti-Corruption Commission has intercepted 13 more containers of timber at (the Freetown port of) Queen Elizabeth ... destined for illegal export," a statement from the agency said.

"This brings to 24 the total number of containers intercepted by the commission."

A week ago 11 containers were forced open by the commission and found to contain timber. Nine port and customs officials as well as a shipping agent were arrested and released on bail.

Port officials said the jampacked containers were labelled as scrap metals and anti-corruption agents held them back minutes before they were about to be shipped to unnamed south east Asian countries.

Timber export was once a lucrative foreign exchange earner in Sierra Leone but the government in late 2007 slapped a ban on exports, citing indiscriminate plundering of the country's forests by foreign companies.

These were mostly Chinese and south east Asian businesses that elbowed out small-time local operators.

Export data is disputed but available figures from the trade ministry showed that a total of 20 million dollars worth of timber were exported in 2007 before the ban was effected.

Environmentalists have warned that less than five percent of forested areas are left in the west African country.

earlier related report
Three wildlife volunteers freed in east India: police
Guwahati, India (AFP) Feb 7, 2011 - Three female volunteers working for the WWF environmental group were freed in northeast India after being kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, officials said Wednesday.

Three male volunteers remain held hostage in the restive state of Assam after the group, which had been counting tigers and elephants in the Manas National Park, were taken on Sunday.

Several militant groups are active in the area.

A police spokesman said the three women were released late on Tuesday about 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"They were brought by bicycles and let off by a road. They managed to reach the local police station unharmed," Kampa Borgoyary, deputy chief of the local Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), told AFP by telephone.

The six volunteers, all Indian nationals, were taken hostage by about 20 armed rebels on Sunday close to the border with Bhutan.

The best known rebel group in the region is the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which is fighting for an independent homeland for Assam's Bodo tribe.

It was blamed for a series of explosions in 2008 that killed about 100 people and injured hundreds more.

Violent insurgencies have wracked India's northeastern states for decades.

The rebels accuse the government of exploiting the area's rich natural resources while doing little for local people.

No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

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