ACCORDING TO REPORT

 
Published: Saturday 28 February 2009

Long live the emperor: Emperor penguins, the only penguin variety that breed during the harsh Antarctic winters, are headed towards extinction, said a research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If climate change continues to melt ice at rates published in the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the population of penguins would decline to 600 breeding pairs by 2100 AD, said researchers in the US. Their extinction would affect the food chain balance.

Unemployed youth: The global economic meltdown could render up to 50 million people unemployed in 2009 and sub-Saharan Africa will be the hardest hit, said ILO's latest Global Employment Trends Report. This will undo the recent gains in employment in the poorest nations. In recent years, overall unemployment has come down to 7.9 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hungry Myanmar: Over five million people in Myanmar face food shortage due to last year's cyclone Nargis and a rat infestation that destroyed crops, said a UN report. Rats ravaged stocks in Chin State, along Myanmar's western border with India. The country would need 185,000 tonnes of emergency food.

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