The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Naples invents big bang ‘The Spread’ firecracker Posted: 26 Dec 2011 02:52 AM PST  Apart from football legend Diego Maradona, who used to play for Napoli, other firecrackers in recent years have been named after Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and – somewhat incongruously – Pope Benedict XVI. – shutterstock.com "The Spread" and "The Mario Monti" have "a shockwave more powerful than the famous Maradona bomb and are the instruments of choice for Neapolitans to exorcise the crisis," said a report by ANSA news agency recently. Apart from football legend Diego Maradona, who used to play for Napoli, other firecrackers in recent years have been named after Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and – somewhat incongruously – Pope Benedict XVI. This year the spread – the differential between the rates on Italian 10-year government bonds and benchmark German ones – has risen to record highs because of fears about Italy's toxic mix of high debt and low growth. Panic on the markets helped push Silvio Berlusconi out of power and bring in Monti, a mild-mannered professor who has promised to save Italy but has pushed for Italians to make sacrifices with tax hikes and pension reforms. Recently, Naples city officials launched a public awareness campaign advising people not to buy illegal firecrackers which they likened to "hand grenades" and to come and watch official firework displays instead. New Year celebrations in Naples are famously riotous. Apart from powerful firecrackers, pedestrians also have to keep an eye out for falling crockery as household goods are frequently thrown out of windows in an age-old tradition. "It's getting worse because of the import of illegal pyrotechnic material from China. It's a subculture phenomenon that has to be crushed," Mariano Marmo, a local doctor leading the campaign, said at a press conference. – AFP Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| China to release six pandas into wild Posted: 26 Dec 2011 12:20 AM PST  Six captive pandas will have a new home in an enclosed forest in southwestern China next year. – shutterstock.com It said the six, aged two to four, had been chosen from 108 captive-bred animals at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and researchers believed the mass release would increase their chances of survival. A total of 10 pandas have been individually released since 1983, it said, but only two remain in the wild, with the breeding centre taking six back after they lost weight, one found dead and the other also believed to have died. Despite three years of preparatory training the confirmed fatality, Xiang Xiang, a five-year-old male, was found dead a year after his 2006 release, following a fight with wild pandas in a remote part of a nature reserve. "Human-raised pandas have great difficulty surviving in the wild," Xinhua said, citing a statement from the breeding centre. China engages in "panda diplomacy", using the endangered but iconic bears as diplomatic gifts to other countries, and also runs a lucrative trade hiring the animals out to foreign zoos. Only around 1,600 remain in the wild in China, with some 300 others in captivity. – AFP Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan