Already famous at home, China's wandering elephants are now becoming international stars.

Ivory jewelry made from elephant tusks was recently taken from a traveler at Detroit Metro Airport, officials said.

HARARE The number of elephants dying in western Zimbabwe from a suspected bacterial infection, possibly from eating poisonous plants, has risen to 22, and more deaths are expected, a spokesman for the countrys parks agency said Wednesday. Most of the elephants dying in the Pandamasue Forest, located between the vast Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls, were young or weak, said Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Animal welfare groups such as the African Wildlife Foundation, have expressed concern at the mysterious deaths of elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Last year about 200 elephants in Zimbabwe died of starvation as a result of the countrys drought. More than 50 people have been killed in such conflicts countrywide so far this year, the deadliest in a decade, said the parks spokesman.

HARARE Zimbabwe's parks authorities in Zimbabwe are investigating the death of 11 elephants in a forest in the west of the country, a parks spokesman said Sunday. In recent years poachers in Zimbabwe have poisoned dozens of elephants and then have taken their ivory tusks to sell them to illegal traders. We are also ruling out poachers because the tusks were intact.The mysterious deaths of the elephants in Zimbabwe appears similar to the deaths last month of more than 275 elephants in neighboring Botswana. Scientists are still investigating the deaths of the elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta area and poaching, poisoning and anthrax have been ruled out. Last year about 200 elephants in Zimbabwe died of starvation as a result of the country's drought.