Twin panda cubs born at Zoo:
Madrid’s panda family grew Monday with the birth of twin cubs, a boost to the popular species that is considered China’s national treasure.
The twins were born to their mother, Hua Zuiba, and father, Bing Xing, a pair of giant pandas on loan from China, the Madrid Zoo announced in a statement.
The births took place with a four-hour difference on Monday morning, the zoo said. Veterinarians were waiting to determine the pair’s sex, weight and vital signs. But the zoo statement said the birth had been “calmer” due to the mother’s experience.
Madrid’s adult pandas have had four other cubs earlier, including another pair of twins in 2010. They were all sent back to China after a few years in the Madrid Zoo.
In a video released by the zoo, Hua Zuiba can be seen vocalizing while moving into the labor position. A cub appears in just a few seconds, wiggling energetically before the mother takes the newborn with her mouth and licks it while holding it in her lap.
Panda cubs are born without hair and with pink skin, and are completely depend on their mother for at least four months. (AP)
ATHENS, Greece: Hundreds of people, some carrying flowers, gathered Monday at Athens Cathedral to pay their final respects to Greek composer and politician Mikis Theodorakis, who was an integral part of the Greek political and musical scene for decades.
Theodorakis, who died Thursday at 96, is lying in state in a cathedral chapel for three days ahead of his burial on the southern island of Crete. His body arrived Monday after a nearly two-hour delay amid a dispute over burial details.
Over the weekend, his family reportedly lifted their objections to him being buried on Crete in accordance with his last wishes. A court had temporarily halted burial plans pending a resolution of the dispute.
Theodorakis’ daughter had said earlier that he would be buried near Corinth in the village of Vrahati, where he maintained a holiday home. But a 2013 letter Theodorakis had written to the mayor of the town of Chania in Crete was made public, in which the composer said he wanted to be buried in the nearby cemetery of Galatas, despite his family’s disagreement.
Theodorakis was as well-known in Greece for his political activism as for his musical career. He penned a wide range of work, from somber symphonies to popular TV and film scores, including for “Serpico” and “Zorba the Greek.”
He is also remembered for his opposition to the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974, a time during which he was persecuted and jailed and his music outlawed.
Greece’s Communist Party said over the weekend that Theodorakis’ body will lie in state beginning Monday, and a “farewell ceremony” will be held Wednesday, before the late composer is flown to Crete. The church service and burial will be on Thursday.
Theodorakis had a tumultuous relationship with the Communist Party, known by its Greek accronym KKE, leaving it in the late 1960s, rejoining in the late 1970s and getting elected as a lawmaker with the conservative New Democracy party in 1990.
But he wrote a letter in October to Communist Party SecretaryGeneral Dimitris Koutsoumbas, essentially entrusting him with the funeral arrangements.
“Now, at the end of my life, at the time of taking stock, details are erased from my mind and the ‘Big Things’ remain. So, I see that I spent my most crucial, forceful and mature years under KKE’s banner. For this reason, I want to depart this world as a communist,”
Theodorakis wrote. (Agencies)
❑ ❑ ❑ SALEM, W.Va: The Salem Apple Butter Festival in north-central West Virginia has been canceled due to concerns about COVID-19.
Festival Chairman announced the cancellation of the festival, which had been scheduled for Oct 7 to 10, The Exponent community, our vendors, contestants, Telegram reported. The festival and volunteers first.” wasn’t held in 2020 either. The festival isn’t the only event
In a news release, Martin said being canceled this year. the festival’s board looked at The West Virginia Italian Heritage information from the Harrison Festival, the West Virginia County Health Department, as Black Heritage Festival, Frontier well as the rapid spread of the Days, the Barbour County Fair virus, in making the decision “to and the Blackberry Festival were put the health and safety of our canceled previously. (AP)