Mother panda Yuan Yuan plays with her 3-month-old cub Yuan Zai at Tapei Zoo in Taiwan.An April Fool report claiming that one of Taiwan's beloved pandas had been infected by parasites and could be euthanised went "too far", the upset mayor of Taipei said Wednesday.An April Fool report claiming that one of Taiwan's beloved pandas had been infected by parasites and could be euthanised went "too far", the upset mayor of Taipei said Wednesday.The story, published on the homepages of Next Media websites in Hong Kong and Taiwan, claimed that Yuan Yuan, mother of the first Taiwan-born panda cub Yuan Zai, was seriously ill."Taipei Zoo officials have been discussing euthanizing her... much like Copenhagen Zoo recently did with its giraffe Marius," the story said.The story sparked immediate concern from local media, and saw the concerned Taipei government rush to check with zoo authorities whether it was true."All the three pandas have been in good shape," Taipei mayor Hua Lung-bin said, according to a spokesman. "We don't know the motive of the story. The joke has been taken too far."To help pacify concerns, the zoo released photographs showing an energetic Yuan Yuan at the zoo.Panda-mania swept Taiwan after her cub was delivered on July 6 last year.Since her public debut on January 6, the cub, Yuan Zai, has attracted more than 1.6 million visitors, according to zoo authorities. A Wal-Mart representative demonstrates a Scan & Go mobile payment application on a smartphone in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2013.BERLIN - Big retailers are muscling in on the likes of Visa, MasterCard and Google in a fiercely competitive and growing mobile payment market that promises to cut transaction costs and increase customer loyalty.Stores such as British supermarket Tesco and France's Auchan hope their "digital wallets" - apps which allow users to pay with their smartphones rather than cash or cards - will also give them more comprehensive data about customers' shopping habits than ever before so they can target advertising.They are joining a crowded market - banks, card companies and tech firms like Google and Apple are all entering the mobile payment business, each hoping their app will become the industry standard. eBay's PayPal, well established in e-commerce, is also experimenting with the technology.Retailers hope to attract customers to their own services by giving discounts and rewards to those using them, while also linking payments automatically to loyalty schemes and offering features like saved shopping lists.The global market for mobile payments is forecast to grow about threefold by 2017 to some $721 billion worth of transactions, with more than 450 million users, according to research firm Gartner.The growth could benefit retailers as the competition from a host of payment providers should help drive down the fees stores pay to have transactions processed - a service currently dominated by banks and card firms Visa and MasterCard."We view merchants as overall beneficiaries of the trend toward mobile payments," said Morgan Stanley, which estimated retailers in developed countries spent up to $150 billion in 2012 to accept card payments."Expected returns should justify any incremental investments required