A spectacular sight has unfolded along the Dongping Lake in east China, where thousands of migrating wild cormorants have swooped in and come to rest, with the birds each perched atop man-made installations in the water.
Forming orderly rows with almost military-like precision as they each sit on their own individual pole protruding above the water surface, the cormorants appear like watchful "sentinels" quietly guarding the shore.
Serving as an important stopover along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway -- one of the natural world's great migration events -- Dongping Lake's unique aquatic environment and abundant food resources make it an ideal habitat for migratory birds during their mammoth journey.
As the second largest freshwater lake in the eastern Shandong Province, the lake provides a safe haven for over 300,000 waterbirds that stop over, settle, or overwinter here each year.
Migrating wild cormorants form military-like rows during stopover at Chinese lake
Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, has sent a letter to the UN to protest the U.S. and Israel listing Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi as assassination targets, according to Iranian media reports on Friday.
In the letter, Iravani said the reports that the two have been temporarily removed from the U.S.-Israeli hit list prove that the threat of assassination does exist.
Iravani expressed his hope that UN Security Council members would immediately pay attention to the media reports.
The reports indicate that there is indeed a framework for the assassination of senior Iranian officials, and it has been systematically carried out since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, he said.
Iravani said that such assassination policies seriously violate international law, and this threat stems from a criminal mentality.
Citing U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Iranian parliament speaker and foreign minister have been temporarily removed from the U.S.-Israeli hit list for four to five days to facilitate U.S.-Iran negotiations.
Iran protests U.S.-Israeli hit list targeting senior Iranian officials
