Pandas can help on human rights issues, say Lib Dems

The arrival of two pandas at Edinburgh zoo should be used as a chance to engage China over human rights issues, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said. "The pandas have caught the public's imagination. Now is the time to put human rights front and centre of the political debate while people are listening," he said. "Alex Salmond has been curiously silent over human rights issues. He must tell us what discussions he has had about human rights during his trip. We must make this about more than the cuddly and cute." Tian Tian and Yang Guang, an eight-year-old breeding pair, will be the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years.