Panda at Washington Zoo delivers twins

A giant panda gave birth to two cubs hours apart at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC. The keepers at the zoo realized that the panda named Mei Xiang was pregnant during an ultrasound scan last week. The zoo's director, Dennis Kelly said the cubs were small and very loud.

Mei Xiang, who has two other pandas, is one of the zoo's star attractions. A Panda Cam on her enclosure crashed within seconds of the birth being announced because of the number of people trying to view it. The panda population is threatened by habitat loss as land is increasingly being taken over by humans. There are about 1,800 pandas in the wilds in China.

Everyone is going bananas for bananas

Supermarkets and grocers are warning of a banana shortage after a cargo ship bringing bananas from Ecuador broke down a couple of weeks ago. Wholesalers said that customers could face up to four days without bananas. Although a back up ship is due to arrive the banana will still need up to a week to ripen.

The produce marketing and distribution company, Fresh Max has told its customers to manage their stock during this shortage. The All good Banana company, which supplies fair trade bananas, said that since they opened five years ago this was the first time they've faced a shortage of this nature.

State Houses for Sale

Thousands of Government-owned State Houses will go up for sale in an attempt to bring more affordable houses for citizens and community groups. Around 1,140 state houses in Tauranga and another 370 in Invercargill will be the first to be sold under the new Government is Initiative 'Social Reform Housing Program.'

The houses will be sold to registered social housing providers who have agreements with the Government. The tenants who are already in the houses could stay in their houses when they are sold, as the properties will remain social housing unless the Government decides otherwise. The Government has plans to sell up to 8000 state houses to community groups by 2017.

-Internet