Australia gives Chinese panda pair star treatment

Two giant Chinese pandas began a decade-long stay in Australia Saturday with star treatment, with a refrigerated police escort and green lights all the way to their new home, officials said.

Wang Wang, four, and his three-year-old female companion Funi were whisked from the airport to Adelaide Zoo in the comfort of a climate-controlled semi-trailer, after arriving on a chartered jumbo jet from China.

They went straight into quarantine and were enjoying some specially delivered bamboo from their home in Sichuan Province, where the Panda Protection and Research Centre at Ya'an offered them on long-term loan. AFP