FRANCE CUSTOMS DETAINS & FINES MINISTER OVER BUSH MEAT IN BAG..

French customs officials on Thursday fined former Central African prime minister Martin Ziguele after he was found carrying 11.8 kilograms (26 pounds) of bushmeat, mainly monkey, on his arrival at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. Investigators said the meat “mainly of a protected species”, was in his luggage when he arrived on an Air France flight from Bangui. 

Customs inspectors found a total 600 kilograms of meat in passengers' luggage on the Bangui flight, judicial officials said. Ziguele, who was prime minister between 2001 and 2003 and who was defeated by Francois Bozize in presidential elections in 2005 and 2011, said the meat was for his personal consumption. The amount of the fine was not revealed.