Wildlife experts in New Mexico say birds in the region are dropping dead in alarming numbers, potentially in the "hundreds of thousands."

“It appears to be an unprecedented and a very large number,” Martha Desmond, a professor at New Mexico State University’s department of fish, wildlife, and conservation ecology, told NBC’s Albuquerque affiliate KOB.

New Mexico residents have reported coming upon dead birds on hiking trails, missile ranges, and other locations.

In a video posted by Las Cruces Sun News, journalist Austin Fisher shows a cluster of dead birds he discovered while on a hike on September 13 in the state’s northern Rio Arriba County.

“I have no idea,” Fisher says in the video, as he pans the camera to reveal what appears to be dozens of birds laying dead on the ground.

Desmond said it is difficult to say how many birds are dying, but that there have been reports across the state. “I can say it would easily be in the hundreds of thousands of birds."

Multiple agencies are investigating the occurrences, including the Bureau of Land Management and the White Sands Missile Range, a military testing area.

“On the missile range we might in a week find, get a report of, less than half a dozen birds,” Trish Butler, a biologist at the range, told KOB. “This last week we've had a couple hundred, so that really got our attention.”

It’s unclear to scientists why the die-off is occurring, and Desmond said it’s possible it was caused by a cold front that hit New Mexico last week or by recent droughts.

Desmond also told KOB the deaths could be related to the wildfires in the West. “There may have been some damage to these birds in their lungs. It may have pushed them out early when they weren't ready to migrate.”

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said on Twitter that “not much is known about the impacts of smoke and wildfires on birds.”

Scientists are asking the public to report sightings of dead birds to an online database, and that people safely collect the dead birds so that researchers can study them closer.

GENEVA - The UN Human Rights office reports the Myanmar military continues to attack, persecute and commit gross violations against the Rohingya Muslims three years after similar actions triggered a mass exodus of more than 750,000 Rohingya to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The report has been submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

Myanmar military operations three years ago have created a terrible human rights crisis, which is far from being resolved. A UN fact-finding mission in 2019 concluded many of the violations by the military amounted to crimes against humanity, in some cases bordering on genocide.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet says the Rohingya and other minorities are increasingly victimized by the armed conflict in Rakhine and Chin States. She says civilians are subject to disappearances and extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and deaths in custody.

United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet adjusts her glasses during the opening of 45th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 14, 2020.

“Civilian casualties have also been increasing. In some cases, they appear to have been targeted or attacked indiscriminately, which may constitute further war crimes or even crimes against humanity," said Bachelet. "It is troubling that a number of satellite images and eyewitness accounts indicate that areas in northern Rakhine have been burnt in recent months.”

Bachelet notes Myanmar has said repeatedly it wants to resolve the Rohingya crisis and ensure refugees can return to their places of origin in dignity and safety. She says the government must act now to make this happen by ending the serious violations against the Rohingya people.

Myanmar’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Kyaw Moe Tun, blames the 2017 exodus of the Rohingya on terrorist attacks. He says they were deliberate attempts to derail efforts to find a solution to Rhakine. He says the government fully shares the concerns of all affected communities and is willing and able to address the issue of accountability.

The ambassador says his government is working closely with various UN agencies and ASEAN to implement the bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh on the repatriation, resettlement and development of Rohingya returnees to Rakhine State.

The Chair of the Advisory Board of Progressive Voice, a local Myanmar human rights research and advocacy organization, is not persuaded by the ambassador’s conciliatory tone. Khin Ohmar says the civil war in Myanmar has reached an intensity not seen in decades with immense consequences on the local ethnic communities. She calls a government peace conference held in August meaningless.

“The failure of the peace process is marked by the ongoing grave international crimes that continue to be committed throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State, by the same perpetrators that committed genocide against the Rohingya," said Ohmar. "Yet, no one is being held to account and the Myanmar military continues to act with total impunity.”

Ohmar is calling on the international community to cut its business ties with the military conglomerates and to impose a moratorium on arms transfer to Myanmar. She urges UN member states and the Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or to establish an ad hoc tribunal.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The global economy is unlikely to worsen due to the coronavirus pandemic even as countries face a second wave of infections, Qatar’s commerce minister said on Monday, forecasting a recovery somewhere between a ‘U’ and ‘V’ shape.

Over 29 million people have been infected worldwide by the virus and close to a million people have died. Governments have kept people home and shuttered businesses under strict restrictions to curb the virus from spreading.

“I think we have already seen the (economic) impact (of the pandemic). Is it going to get worse? I don’t think so,” Commerce and Industry Minister Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari told Reuters by phone.

“It’s a different world today than ... when the pandemic started,” he said.

Governments were better prepared today than when the virus broke out, having invested in boosting their health sectors and their economies, he said.

The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the world economy, with economic output crashing and financial markets initially plunging as restrictions curtailed travel, leisure and social life.

A wave of new infections from Australia to Israel has brought renewed uncertainty as to when the global economy will recover from a virus that has seen many industries grind to a near-halt.

Kuwari said he expected the recovery to be faster than a gradual rebound but slower than a sharp uptick, though cautioned it would depend on when a vaccine for the virus could be found.

“I think we’re going to be looking at something between a ‘V’ and ‘U’ -shaped recovery,” he said.

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe has "lost" the global battle in cloud computing but should nevertheless resume the fight, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

"If we want our ecosystem to be sustainable, it has to be sovereign," Macron said during a conference, reiterating that Europe should not rely "on any non-European power" for data security and 5G.

U.S. giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google dominate the worldwide cloud computing business, with a combined market share of around 60%.

Macron's comments followed the announcement earlier on Monday of a partnership between Deutsche Telekom and French cloud services provider OVHcloud that aims to build a new cloud computing offer for European companies and public sector entities deemed of strategic importance.

Up north in Greenland, a 42-square-mile glacier broke off the Arctic's largest remaining ice shelf as ocean temperatures continue to warm. The Spalte Glacier has been disintegrating for several years, and after another year of record highs, finished its break this summer, BBC reports.

The Spalte Glacier was a piece of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, a massive ice shelf at the end of Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. It only recently became the largest remaining ice shelf as others also began to melt in warming waters. But it's starting to lose its area as well, as the part Greenland surrounding the ice stream has warmed by about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1980. Satellite imagery had shown the Spalte Glacier offshoot cracking since 2013, Business Insider notes. The broken Spalte Glacier and remaining ice shelf will only continue to melt as runoff water from melting pools on top of the ice.

Temperatures are spiking all over the world, leading glaciers to melt and contribute to sea level rise; to hotter and drier summers that exacerbate wildfires; and to warming oceans that worsen tropical storms.

A 14-year-old hunter apparently fell asleep in a Michigan field before he was run over and killed by a corn chopper, police say.

The boy was dropped off in a field in Chandler Township early Saturday so he could hunt, the Huron County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Once he arrived, police believe he may have fallen asleep.

Later, a 25-year-old man showed up to finish harvesting the field with a large corn chopper. The farm worker had no idea anyone was in the field and ran over the teen with the chopper, according to police.

The man quickly spotted the teen and called police. Emergency workers arrived just before 9 a.m.

The teen was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Officials have not released his name.

The Huron County Medical Examiner’s Office will perform an autopsy in the coming days.

Chandler Township is roughly 130 miles north of Detroit.