Xiang Xiang, a 5-year-old female panda born in Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens, finally departed for China on Tuesday. Her parents were loaned to Tokyo for breeding research under a deal that the offspring would belong to China.
BBC News
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A lone Republican senator has blocked a congressional vote to create two new Smithsonian museums dedicated to American women and Latinos.
Casting his dissenting vote, Senator Mike Lee said they would further divide an already divided nation .
The legislation received unanimous bipartisan support by the remainder of the 100-member Senate.
Founded 170 years ago, the Washington-based Smithsonian features 19 museums.
It boasts of being the world s largest museum, education and research complex, with the newest Smithsonian museum - the Museum of African American History and Culture - added in 2016.
A museum for Latino history has been being considered for at least 20 years, after a government report found in the early 1990s that the Smithsonian displays a pattern of wilful neglect toward Latinos and almost entirely excludes and ignores Latinos in nearly every aspect of its operations .