Waiting for pandas

Two pandas will be flown over the Taiwan Straits for the first time amid warmer ties between Taiwan and the mainland.

Giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, offered by the mainland as gifts to Taiwan in 2005, may finally arrive at the island after years of delay.

Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said yesterday he hopes, if everything goes smoothly, the pair of pandas will go together with him when he makes planned visit to the island for talks in late October.