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Foldable Helmets Provide Better Protection for Bikers

Bud Kerr of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, arrives for a Bikers for Trump 2016 rally at Jergel?s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale, Pennsylvania April 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alan Freed
Bud Kerr of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, arrives for a Bikers for Trump 2016 rally at Jergel?s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale, Pennsylvania April 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alan Freed
    Berlin, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Foldable Helmets Provide Better Protection for Bikers

Bud Kerr of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, arrives for a Bikers for Trump 2016 rally at Jergel?s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale, Pennsylvania April 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alan Freed
Bud Kerr of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, arrives for a Bikers for Trump 2016 rally at Jergel?s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale, Pennsylvania April 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alan Freed

Foldable helmets for bikers who ride expensive motorcycles provide protection better than other low-cost competitor helmets.

The design of folding helmets allows the biker to fold the lower part of the helmet right towards the upper part for easy packing and storage.

Germany's Motorrad magazine has tested 12 different types of folding helmets priced between $163 and $763, according to the German news agency (DPA).

The Schuberth C4 helmet, which is for $763 as a starting price, comes in first place, beating the BMW 7 Carbon helmet which costs $646.

The lowest-priced model among these helmets came in last place and was viewed by some as an acceptable helmet that does its job.

At the same time, all the helmets tested have been shown to provide minimum security and safety requirements.

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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)

A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.
The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year, The Associated Press reported.
The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.
But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.
The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland's then-President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.
The Ähtäri Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some 8 million euros ($9 million) in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve.
The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.
The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ähtäri to solve its financial difficulties by, among things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements.
However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter into a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.
Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.