Pandas Sent by China Arrive in Qatar

Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
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Pandas Sent by China Arrive in Qatar

Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)

Qatar received on Wednesday Chinese giant pandas Suhail and Soraya ahead of next month's World Cup.

Crowds of children and reporters watched as the four-year-old male and three-year-old female took their first steps in a temporary enclosure in a ceremony at the Al Khor park about 50 kilometers north of Doha.

The Chinese government sent the animals as gift to mark the World Cup that starts November 20.

Suhail, who weighs 130 kilograms, and his female partner, who is 70 kilos, must undergo a 21-day quarantine following their arrival along with two keepers, said Al Khor's zoological director Tim Bouts.

"In a few weeks, or in a month's time, they will be ready to be shown to the world," Bouts added.

Eight hundred kilograms of fresh bamboo will be flown in each week to feed them.

Pandas, which reproduce rarely in the wild and rely on a diet of bamboo in the mountains of western China, remain among the world's most threatened species. An estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild, while another 500 are in zoos or reserves, mostly in Sichuan.



Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
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Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo

Greece will soon set up an evacuation port on the island of Santorini to facilitate the safe escape of people in case a bigger quake hits the popular tourist destination, a Greek minister said on Monday.
Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, has been shaken by tens of thousands of mild quakes since late January, forcing thousands of people to flee, and authorities to ban construction activity, and shut schools and nearby islands.
No major damage has been reported but scientists have said the seismic activity was unprecedented even in a quake-prone country like Greece and have not ruled out bigger tremors.
They have identified the main ferry port at the foot of a precipitous slope and other sites across Santorini as weak links, although they have not said they cannot be used in an emergency situation, Reuters reported.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece will build an evacuation port for the safe docking of passenger ferries until a new port infrastructure is in place.
"Along with the new port in Santorini which is being prepared, there was a decision for setting up an escape port on the part of the island where passenger ferries would be able to dock in an emergency," he said in an interview with Greek ANT1 television.
Although the tremors lessened over the weekend, local authorities extended emergency measures for a third week on Sunday and reiterated calls for people to stay away from coastal areas and steep hillsides prone to landslides.
"This story is not over," Costas Papazachos, a seismology professor, and a spokesperson for the Santorini quakes told public broadcaster ERT.
"Both authorities and habitants should get used to a rather unpleasant situation for some time, it could be another two, three months."
Santorini took its current shape following one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, around 1600 BC.
Seismologists have said the latest seismic activity, the result of moving tectonic plates and magma, has pushed subsurface layers of the island upwards.