South Korean Zoo Welcomes Giant Panda Twins 

Giant Panda Ai Bao holds her baby panda with mouth after giving birth to twin at Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, July 11, 2023. (Samsung C&T/Yonhap via Reuters)
Giant Panda Ai Bao holds her baby panda with mouth after giving birth to twin at Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, July 11, 2023. (Samsung C&T/Yonhap via Reuters)
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South Korean Zoo Welcomes Giant Panda Twins 

Giant Panda Ai Bao holds her baby panda with mouth after giving birth to twin at Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, July 11, 2023. (Samsung C&T/Yonhap via Reuters)
Giant Panda Ai Bao holds her baby panda with mouth after giving birth to twin at Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, July 11, 2023. (Samsung C&T/Yonhap via Reuters)

A South Korean zoo said on Tuesday it had recently welcomed the first giant panda twins to be born in the country.

The twins, both female, were born at the Everland theme park near the capital Seoul on Friday, the zoo announced in a video on its YouTube channel.

"This feels like a great opportunity to call for better protection and preservation of pandas, which have become a symbol for endangered species," Donghee Chung, the head of the zoo, said.

The first twin weighed 180 grams (6.35 oz) and the second, which arrived nearly two hours later, weighed 140 grams.

Between 40% to 50% of panda births result in twins, Chung said.

China has been sending its black and white ambassadors abroad in a sign of goodwill since the 1950s as part of what is known as "panda diplomacy".

The birth of the twins comes nearly three years after Fu Bao, the first panda to be born in South Korea, came into the world with the same parents Ai Bao and Le Bao.

"Compared to when Fu Bao was born, there are two of them this time and I think (the parents) must be twice as happy," zoo keeper Cherwon Kang said.

The mother Ai Bao's labour has been smoother than during her first pregnancy, Kang said, adding that he felt moved by the way she handled the delivery and on the display of motherly love.

Fu Bao is due to be returned to China by July next year at the latest, the zoo said.



Hundreds of Firefighters Battling Wildfire in Southern France

An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
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Hundreds of Firefighters Battling Wildfire in Southern France

An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)

Nearly 1,000 firefighters and helicopters battled a wildfire about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of France's second-largest city Marseille on Friday, but officials said lower temperatures and increased humidity had improved the situation.

The 240-hectare (593 acres) wildfire flared up a week after a separate conflagration reached the northwestern outskirts of Marseille, forcing people to evacuate or into lockdown and temporarily shuttering the area's airport.

Pierre Bepoix, the colonel of rescue operations and deputy director for the area's firefighters, said 150 people had been evacuated, but firefighters had managed to save 150 homes and portions of the area's forests.

"It was a fire that swept through relatively dense vegetation ... which made our work particularly complicated," Bepoix told Reuters. "Obviously, priority was given to the preservation and protection of these homes and the lives that could be in these buildings."

Local officials said in a statement that 120 homes had been threatened by the fire, adding that it was not possible yet to identify any possible damage to them, and that two firefighters had been injured.

Meanwhile in Spain, a wildfire that broke out on Thursday evening in the central Toledo province and could be seen from downtown Madrid, ravaged 3,200 hectares of woodland.

Regional emergency services said early on Friday firefighters had secured the perimeter, though there were concerns over strong winds and high temperatures forecast throughout the day.