Greenhorn and professional rock and gemstone collectors would be able to find all types of samples at the Sac & Fox Lapidary Club's annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Sunday at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

According to show co-chairman Bill Rathbun, the affair showcases the lapidary and rock collecting pastime of the club's members and offers the chance for the general public to acquire equipment and products related to the hobby, too hand-made jewelry, conversation pieces, fossils and home decorations.

It also provides a great chance to pick up superiority geodes, Iowa's state rock, he added.

Colombo, 25 August,: Sri Lanka, the world's oldest foundation of the most amazing gemstones would now showcase the beauty and rarity of her superb sapphires and dozens of other varieties of gemstones at "Facets Sri Lanka," the International Gem and Jewellery Show in September 2006.

Held yearly in Colombo since 1991, "Facets Sri Lanka" made a thrilling new beginning in September 2005, when the show moved to a elegant new venue, the BMICH Exhibition and Convention Center in Colombo. Exhibitors increased by more than 50 percent and the show took on a whole new professional and global atmosphere, with attractive new booths displaying a better variety of fine gemstones and exquisite jewellery.

"Facets Sri Lanka 2006," promises to be even better and better. Numbers of exhibitors are predictable to grow by a further 30 percent and the Fair would showcase a wide variety of sapphires and gemstones from producers and wholesalers from all the chief producing areas of Sri Lanka.

Jade prospectors are putting one of China's rivers in danger and might soon exhaust supplies of the precious stone.

About 200,000 people are sifting the Yurungkax River in Xianjiang for Hotan jade - which costs up to $120 (£63) a gramme - state media reports have said.

In addition to the prospectors, around 2,000 mechanical diggers are sifting through the river bed for the gemstone.

Experts say the search is destructing the river bed and its biological system leading to serious soil erosion.

"The river bed, which is hundreds of millions of years old, is undergoing unprecedented degradation," said Wang Shiqi, a gemstones specialist at Beijing University.

"If the mass hunting continues like this, the river's Hotan jade resources will disappear in five to six years," he added.