As scientists celebrate the end of the International Polar Year, they see causes for concern on the frozen horizon, reports Quirin Schiermeier.

Russia will prioritize the strengthening of its border guards while creating a special Arctic force in line with a new strategy to protect its regional interests, a senior parliamentary member said Monday.

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THE North Pole is under siege by global warming. The sea ice there has lost half its thickness in the past six years, and all signs point to further rapid melting.

Nelson Leeson is president of Nisga'a Nation and coalition cochair. James Eetoolook is acting president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and acting coalition co-chair. This piece is written on behalf of the Land Claims Agreements Coalition. www.landclaimscoalition.ca

Articles in this series described the effects of warming on the environment and on the four million people who live in the Arctic, and scientists' assessments of the inevitability of Arctic melting.

ARCTIC -- The European Union took another step toward a ban on Canadian seal products Monday as a parliamentary committee rejected a proposal to label the products instead.

A federal fishery panel voted Thursday to close off a large swath of the Arctic sea to commercial fishing. The move was a pre-emptive measure to protect more than 150,000 square nautical miles north of the Bering Strait that have become more accessible as a result of the warming Arctic climate.

Nowhere are the effects of climate change as obvious as in the Arctic. For Greenland, that may mean economic opportunity. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister Per Berthelsen about how global warming might help the island.

Greenland is four times the size of France, but with a population of only 57,000 - and as its huge ice sheets begin to melt, it could find itself sitting on a fortune in oil and gems. Now, it has voted to cut all ties with its Danish rulers. Patrick Barkham reports from a nation in the making