U.S. to ban commercial trade of African elephant ivory

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will announce a near-total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory Thursday The new rules will restrict sales to genuine antiques, artwork and items like musical instruments that were made using less than 200 grams of ivory The rules limit the import of sport-hunted trophies to two per hunter per year The ban aims to curb the widespread slaughter of the endangered species, which experts say accounts for 96 elephant deaths a day