Extinction rates expected to increase
WASHINGTON – Global warming will eventually push 1 out of every 13 species on Earth into extinction, a new study projects.
It won’t be as bad in North America, where only 1 in 20 species will be killed off because of climate change or Europe where the extinction rate is nearly as small. But in South America, that forecasted heat-caused extinction rate soars to 23 percent, the worst for any continent, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.
University of Connecticut ecologist Mark Urban compiled and analyzed 131 peer-reviewed studies on species that used various types of computer simulations and found a general average extinction rate for the globe: 7.9 percent.
Obama picks Chicago for presidential library
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has chosen his hometown of Chicago to host his future presidential library, two individuals with knowledge of the decision said Thursday, placing the permanent monument to his legacy in the city that launched his improbable ascent to the White House.
Obama’s library will be built on Chicago’s South Side, where the University of Chicago has proposed two potential sites not far from the Obama family’s home. It was unclear which of the two sites had been selected, but an official announcement was expected within weeks.
For Chicago, the decision solidifies the city’s claim to Obama and the legacy of the nation’s first black president.
North Korea protests human-rights event
UNITED NATIONS – A U.S.-organized event on North Korea’s human rights briefly turned into chaos at the UN on Thursday as North Korean diplomats insisted on reading a statement of protest, amid shouts from defectors, and then stormed out.
The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, tried to quiet the diplomats at the event that featured more than 20 defectors. She called North Korea’s statements “totally self-discrediting.”
The North Korean diplomats did not comment as they left the chamber after diplomat Ri Song Chol read out a statement in protest of the event, even as North Korean defectors stood and shouted in their faces.
2 more rescued after Nepal earthquake
KATHMANDU, Nepal – Cheers rang out in Nepal’s capital Thursday as rescuers pulled a teenager alive from the earthquake rubble he had been trapped in for five days. A woman was rescued hours later.
Hundreds cheered as the 15-year-old, Pemba Tamang, was pulled out of the wreckage, dazed and dusty, and carried away on a stretcher. He had been trapped under the collapsed debris of a seven-story building in Kathmandu since Saturday, when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck.
On Thursday evening, police in Kathmandu said a woman in her 20s, Krishna Devi Khadka, was rescued from earthquake rubble in another location.
Associated Press
