odds ’n’ ends

AMSTERDAM:

The Netherlands will welcome its first giant pandas this week at a zoo fitted out with a pagoda-style enclosure as its new centrepiece, crowning 16 years of hard lobbying by Dutch animal lovers.

To celebrate the arrival of Xing Ya and Wu Wen, the Ouwehands Zoo in the central town of Rhenen commissioned “Pandasia”, a complex of buildings that will house the couple on its ground floor and a Chinese restaurant on the floor above.

Rare, picky in their diet, and reluctant lovers, pandas are in demand from zoos all over the world, and the ceremonial bestowing of a loan panda on favoured countries has become a hallmark of Chinese cultural diplomacy.

Dozens of Chinese companies contributed to the building of the new enclosure. (RTRS)

SWEDEN:

Amateur dog-sled racers pushed themselves to the limits to complete a 300 km journey in temperatures as low as -24ºC in the Arctic wilderness.

Some 30 competitors led more than 200 Alaskan and Siberian Huskies between Signaldalen in Norway and Jukkasjarvi in Sweden in just five days for the Fjallraven Polar 2017 race organised by a Swedish outdoor clothing and equipment company.

The participants, hailing from 12 different countries, slept in the open, braving the occasional snow storm. They also were accompanied by the magical Northern Lights filling the sky. (RTRS)

PITTSBURGH:

A Pittsburgh city councilwoman who’s running for mayor is defending Facebook pictures of herself riding a circus elephant and a camel, saying she just wanted to “see how they’re taken care of”.

Democrat Darlene Harris posted a picture of herself atop the Shrine Circus elephant and another riding the camel . The circus was at PPG Paints Arena over the weekend.

Harris, who’s running against Mayor Bill Peduto in the primary, rejected critics’ claims that circus animals are abused, saying, “Those animals are taken care of better than some people take care of people.” (AP)

PROVINCETOWN, Massachusetts:

Coastal researchers in Massachusetts say they found more endangered right whales in Cape Cod Bay recently than on any one day in recent history.

A spokeswoman for the Center for Coastal Studies says researchers found 112 of the rare whales in the bay Sunday. The spokeswoman says the next highest number for one day was 96 in 2014. (AP)