Giant panda raised in captivity delivers twins
A nine-year-old giant panda, the world’s first to be raised in captivity from infancy, has given birth to twin cubs, PTI reports from Beijing.
The cubs, a female and a male, were born around midnight on Saturday at the research centre of Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in China’s Sichuan Province.
Their mother, named Princess, would take care of the daughter while the son is put on artificial feeding, said Li Desheng, vice director of the centre.
Princess was the first giant panda in the world that was brought up by people right after its birth in 1998.
Brazil to perform sex changes for free
Sex-change surgery will be performed free by Brazil’s state health system, the Brazilian government has said, signalling that it would not appeal against a court decision mandating the move, reports IANS from Brasilia.
The ruling that will oblige the state to perform these surgeries and pay the costs, estimated at some 2,000 reais ($1,000) each, was handed down by a judge in Rio Grande do Sul state, Spanish news agency EFE reported. The health minister said the decision was “in line with constitutional law”.
According to the official Agencia Brasil news service, the surgeries can only be performed on people over 21 years of age who go through a previous two-year period of “psychological studies”.
Nepal Maoists enforce
indefinite strike
Maoists in Nepal on Sunday enforced a nationwide strike closing down all public and private educational institutes indefinitely to demand release of 48 of their cadres, who were held for attacking students of rival groups despite the former rebels signing a peace accord with government, reports PTI from Kathmandu.
The arrested Maoist cadres had attacked over a dozen students belonging to Nepal Students Union, affiliated to Nepali Congress, in two colleges in Kathmandu with home-made arms last week, after they protested their presence in the colleges carrying weapons.
Post-quake, looting spreads in Peru
President Alan Garcia threatened a curfew to stop looting in earthquake-stricken areas of southern Peru, where health authorities are battling the spread of infectious diseases, reports AFP from Pisco, Peru. “I have ordered (police) to use the harshest measures, and if needed, to impose a curfew,” Garcia said on Saturday at Pisco, the town hit hardest by Wednesday’s quake, where he has been monitoring rescue efforts since Friday.
Amid increasing reports of looting and assaults, he ordered more troops to the quake-stricken area and promised that authorities would keep the peace “whatever the cost.”
Garcia tried to play down reports of looting in Pisco and Chincha, saying they were nothing more than “rumours,” but a RPP radio reporter in Chincha broke down in tears describing the prevailing lawlessness in the city.