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)

Latest developments on A/H1N1 flu worldwide

Special Report: World Tackles A/H1N1 Flu 

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of A/H1N1 flu outbreaks worldwide on Wednesday, according to the World Health Organization and government data.

Confirmed deaths worldwide: 31. Twenty nine in Mexico and two in the United States.

Confirmed sickened worldwide: 1,883. Some 942 in Mexico; 651 in U.S.; 165 in Canada; 57 in Spain; 27 in Britain; nine in Germany; six in New Zealand; five in Italy; four in Israel and France; two each in El Salvador and South Korea; one each in Austria, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, China's Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland.

Two hospitalized in NYC, confirmed swine flu cases a lot more than 45, mayor says

NEW YORK, April 28 (Xinhua) -- One adult and one child have been hospitalized in New York and the city's confirmed swine flu cases could be much higher than the 45 as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.

Both hospitalized patients, a two-year-old Bronx boy and a woman in Brooklyn with suspected swine flu, are now recovering, the mayor said.

So far, all the confirmed cases are from St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens, though authorities are probing P.S. 177, a public school not far away from St. Francis, and Ascension School in Manhattan for possible cases.

Bloomberg warned that the number of confirmed cases in St. Francis Preparatory School could go much higher if all the more than 100 students with flu-like symptoms were tested.

"We can get a lot more by just testing everybody at St. Francis," the mayor told a press conference. "You'll be shocked if out of the other 100 plus students who have a cough and a fever don't have it."

So far, the majority of the cases are all very mild and need no hospitalization.

Bloomberg said authorities have decided to stop testing each and every one of them because "it does not add any new information."

"If they are very sick, we'll test every case in the city," he said. "If they are just mild, we're just going to focus on other things."

Bloomberg said there are five new probable cases in New York City, with two unrelated to the St. Francis private school.

Eleven students at P.S. 177, a special needs school that is also known as the Robin Sue Ward School for Exceptional Children, were sent to hospital Monday after complaining of high fever. Three adults, including the school's assistant principal, were also sent home.

The assistant principal tested negative for swine flu.

According to the school's guidance counselor, the child of one of the teachers at P.S. 177 is one of the students at St. Francis Preparatory School who is confirmed to have swine flu.

Aside from St. Francis, which remained closed Tuesday, and P.S.177, where students were sent home with a letter saying the school would be closed on Wednesday, most of the city's schools remained open.

In flyers taken home by students, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene urged parents to be "alert but calm."

There were no evident signs of panic in New York, though some of the city's drug stores have run out of face masks and hand sanitizers, as was the case at a Rite Aid on Northern Boulevard at85th Street in Queens.

Monica Granja, the 27-year-old manager, said the items had been bought up as early as Monday morning.

"I just hope it doesn't get close to us," said Granja, who has a 7-year-old son.

At a CVS drugstore several blocks away, customers are asked to check back Thursday evening or Friday morning.

On the chain's website, CVS.com, all face masks are listed as "out of stock" Tuesday afternoon, even the one with a warning that "it does not eliminate the risk of contracting any disease or infection," which was available the night before.

In Atlanta, CDC acting director Richard Besser said the total of confirmed swine flu cases has risen to 64, with at least five having been hospitalized -- three in California and two in Texas.

"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Besser said.

In addition to the 45 in New York, the other confirmed cases are 10 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio.

"We are in a pre-pandemic period," Besser said.

In neighboring Mexico, the epicenter of the current outbreak, swine flu was believed to have killed 149 people and hospitalized 776 others. Another 1,070 people were treated for the flu, but were well enough to go home.

Two of the world＊s smelliest flowers are about to bloom

BEIJING, April 28 -- Its bizarre appearance and sheer size have long
attracted curious visitors and avid gardeners alike.

But anyone wanting to see this Titan Arum flower would be wise to keep
their distance this weekend. For when it blooms 每 which experts predict should
occur in the next few days 每 it will release not the fragrant scent of most
flowers, but a revolting stench rather like rotting flesh.

And to make matters worse, two Arums are due to flower at the same time 每 a
first in Kew Gardens' 250-year history. The plant 每 which is indigenous to
Indonesia and also goes by the name "the corpse flowe"＊ 每 blooms just once every
six or seven years.

Twelve of them are housed in Kew's Princess of Wales Conservatory among
hundreds of other tropical plants. At the Arum＊s base is an outer layer of
grooved leaves, which open to form a bell-shaped cup or deep red "spathe."

A band of cream flowers circles the base of the stem or "spadix,"

which
sits on a ring of larger, pink flowers. When the plants are ready to pollinate,
the spadix heats up to release a pungent smell, which lasts for about three
days. Flesh-eating beetles, attracted by the "fragrance," crawl into the open
cup while bees and other insects flock to its coloured base.

Once inside, pollen is transferred from the flower to the insects, which
become trapped in the chamber.

The spathe then withers to allow the pollen-covered insects to escape and
pollinate other Arums in the rainforest, or in this case the greenhouse. Phil
Griffiths, Kew Gardens＊ conservatory co-ordinator, said: "Most people miss the
actual flowering when the smell has dissipated.

"The smell is strong and pungent, as if you were in the tropics and had
passed something dead and rotting by the side of the road. It comes at you in
waves 每 at first you can't really smell anything, then it hits you."

He added that the largest Arums at the gardens weigh about 200lb (90kg) and
grow at a staggering rate of a quarter of an inch an hour. Four members of staff
are drafted in to help when any Arum needs repotting.

It guzzles liquid fertiliser and potassium each week to keep up its
strength while bedded in roomy surroundings.

Sir David Attenborough, who invented the name Titan Arum, was the first to
capture its flowering on film for his BBC TV series The Private Life of Plants.

He dropped the plant＊s original name 每 Amorphophallus 每 perhaps because of
the reference to male genitalia.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)

Cat adopts two puppies, teaches them feline tricks

BEIJING, April 10 -- A cat named Tom is proving that cats and dogs can live together in harmony, at least in one home in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

In addition to caring for the two puppies, Tom has trained them to chase after mice.

The cat adopted the puppies after their mother died giving birth to them, according to homeowner Shen.

The cat also recently gave birth to three kittens. The two puppies feed on her milk, Shen said.

(Source: China Daily)