The cold snap that has swept across South Africa in the first week of the World Cup has killed nearly 500 African penguin chicks, South Africa’s national parks authority said.
The dead chicks represent half the young penguin population at Algoa Bay in Eastern Cape province, SANParks said late on Tuesday. “The chicks, aged between a few weeks old and about two-months-old and covered only with down feathers, succumbed to the cold and wet weather which has hit Bird Island,” SANParks spokeswoman Megan Taplin was quoted by SAPA news agency as saying. More penguins had died on St Croix Island near Port Elizabeth, home to 300 breeding pairs.
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N. Korea warns UN Council of military action
United Nations : North Korea’s UN envoy said on Tuesday that any UN Security Council action over the sinking of a South Korean naval ship that was hostile to Pyongyang would be met by a military “follow-up.” Seoul, which has accused North Korea of torpedoing the corvette Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors, brought the dispute to the Security Council in June, asking the 15-nation body to take action to deter “further provocation.”
“If the Security Council release any documents against us condemning or questioning us in any document then myself as diplomat I can do nothing, but the follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces,” North Korea’s UN ambassador Sin Son-ho said. —Reuters