Rare bird flies back from the dead

BEIJING,May 9-- The future of a rare species of bird that was once thought to be extinct got a huge lift this month when a chick was born at a zoo in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Without feathers and barely able to walk, the 30-gram pink bird, a white-eared night-heron, is eating four small fish every one and a half hours and making great progress since it broke out of its shell on May 3 at Nanning Zoo, Nanning Evening News reported on Friday.

The bird was hatched in an incubator and is being fed artificially but is 100 per cent real - one of only a handful of the species on the planet.

The bird should be strong enough to walk in 20 days and ready to meet the public three months later.

It is the offspring of two herons that were found in 2003, along with a third that subsequently died, by local people, who sent them to the zoo. The parents laid two eggs last April, which they broke accidentally, and two more on April 4, that they abandoned in the nest. Those eggs were put in an incubator and one hatched.

White-eared night herons, or Gorsachius magnificus, are one of the most endangered species of birds in the world.

They were thought to be extinct until some were found in mountainous areas of Zhejiang, Fujian and Hainan provinces in the 1920s.

(Source: China Daily)

2010 World Expo: Tour the world in one day

BEIJING,May 1-- How much will it cost to
tour the world? The answer is 160 yuan (23.35 U.S. dollars). In just a year's
time, people will be able to enjoy tea in a French garden, chat with friends on
Australia's Uluru and take a trip on Switzerland's Mount Titlis cable car, all
on the same day. The dreamlike journey will take place in the 2010 World Expo
site along the Huangpu River in Shanghai.

A transparent coniform "sun valley", a
projectwhich will capture sunlight and disperse it along the one
kilometre long boulevard of 2010 World Expo,is seen in this photo
taken on April 30, 2009. The one year countdown to the opening of
the 2010 World Expo will be marked on May 1, 2009. (Xinhua
Photo)
Photo
Gallery

With 365 days to go and more than 1 million tickets
already sold in China, it's time to think about what the 2010 world fair will
have to offer.

What can visitors expect for their 160 yuan? The
organizers have the answers: pavilions, foreign cultures, exhibitions,
performances as well as cuisine and shopping.

Visitors will be dazzled by more than 200 innovative
pavilions. For example, the United Kingdom Pavilion will be a huge "light box"
with 60,000 spines projecting out into the air. The Poland Pavilion will be
designed like a *** cutting. The Spain Pavilion will look as if it was woven
out of reeds. The newly unveiled India Pavilion will replicate a 2,000-year-old
Buddhist stupa.

While strolling around the world, visitors can also
experience the atmosphere of the exotic. Couples may like to take in a French
wedding in the France Pavilion. The Republic of Korea will let visitors to walk
through Seoul's streets. Visitors to the Norway Pavilion will have the chance to
stroll through Scandinavian fjords and forests.

The Expo site will be huge, but never mind, people
can borrow bicycles from the Denmark Pavilion and ride around the world.

Activitiesgreeting the one year
countdown to the opening of the 2010 World Expo will are held in Pudong
Disctrict, Shanghai.The one year countdown to the opening of
the 2010 World Expo will be marked on May 1, 2009.
(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery

The Expo site will also become one of the world's
most packed museums as many countries have decided to bring their national
treasures to the event.

Denmark's Little Mermaid, Japan's Monk Jianzhen
statue, and paintings by Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne from the Musee d'Orsay will
be displayed. Moreover, a mysterious national treasure will be on show at the
China Pavilion.

For 160 yuan, locals could expect to buy a ticket or
two to a film at a Shanghai cinema. But at the Expo, many films using new
technology and shown on various innovative screens will be on offer. The spines
of the UK Pavilion will be tipped with tiny colored lights to display images.
The Theme Pavilion, built by the organizers, will have a dome-shaped screen to
imitate the curvature of the Earth and give people a bird's eye view of our blue
planet.

Every day, more than 100 performances will be held
across the Expo site. China's Shaolin and Wudang kung fu will fight for mastery.
The Joint-Africa Pavilion will be a paradise of the continent's folk music.
Visitors can also become performers at the Expo by joining a 1,000-person
chorus.

A tourist poses for a photo in front of
a countdown board for the Shanghai World Expo at the Tian'anmen Square in
Beijing, April 30, 2009. The one year countdown to the opening of the 2010
World Expo will be marked on May 1, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery

If they feel tired, visitors will be able to take the
weight off their feet at the Expo Center while listening to a forum about the
future of our cities.

The Urban Best Practices Area is one of the
innovations of the Shanghai event. Experiences of tackling the problems facing
the world's urban areas will be shared by more than 50 cities, while Shanghai's
"eco-house" will display an idealized living space.

The Expo will also be a real feast. Chinese food,
French wine, wild fish from Finland, Mexican hoecake and Japanese cuisine will
be on offer. And shopping fans will be busy in the Expo site, too. Almost all
the pavilions will devote about 20 percent of their space to shopping areas, so
people can pick up souvenirs or buy products from across the world without
leaving the city.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)

One-year-old boy survives night in woods in T-shirt, diaper

OTTAWA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Police called it a
miracle Monday when a one-year-old boy was found in good health after he spent a
cold night alone in a forest in the eastern Canadian province of Quebec.

The child spent about 12 hours in the forest Saturday
night wearing just a T-shirt and diaper in rainy, five-degree weather, local
media reported Monday citing provincial police.

He was allegedly abandoned by his father, police
said.

Authorities got a call from the boy's mother saying
that the father had left the house and was in the vehicle with the one-year-old
baby, and the man had been drinking, police Sgt. Joyce Kemp said.

Police found the empty vehicle a short while later,
and tracked down the father at a hospital early Sunday morning.

After realizing that the baby was lost in the woods,
police started search with dog handlers, emergency units and a helicopter.

Around noon they were able to locate the child in the
forest. The baby is fine, Kemp said.

The father was arrested and will likely face charges
connected to the incident, police said.