Pandas in Taiwan

TAIPEI: A pair of giant pandas arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday as a gift from rival China, another symbolic step forward in the two sides’ rapidly improving relations. “Tuan Tuan” and “Yuan Yuan” set down at the Taipei airport after a three-hour flight from Chengdu in Sichuan province, as Taiwanese around the island watched spellbound on local television. Taken together, the pandas’ names mean reunion - underscoring Chinese hopes that the animals’ arrival in Taiwan will spur unity between the sides, 59 years after they split amid civil war. — AP

Bird flu outbreak

DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities said on Tuesday a new outbreak of bird flu had been detected at a village in the north of the country as they struggled to contain the disease. Livestock department spokesman Salahuddin Khan said at least 100 birds were slaughtered on a farm in the northern Kurigram district late Monday after the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza was discovered. “This is the fifth district to have been hit by bird flu since it re-emerged in October after a break of four months,” Khan said. — AFP