Several Russian oil companies have applied for drilling licenses in the Barents-, Kara- and Pechora Seas.

The newly drafted Swedish constitution has declared that the Saami are no longer an ethnic minority but a fully-fledged people.

EDMONTON _ Greenland says Canadians shouldn´t worry that offshore oil drilling in the Arctic just over the international boundary could lead to a disaster like that in the Gulf of Mexico.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Moscow Region — Russia’s biggest shipping company, state-owned Sovkomflot, has agreed to carry oil to China across the Arctic Ocean, an unusual route for such cargo, a senior government banker said Wednesday.

The Obama administration plans to halt new deepwater drilling for six months, suspend exploratory drilling that had been scheduled off Alaska this summer and cancel a lease sale off Virginia.

Next month, when the great pan of ice covering Davis Strait flushes south toward Labrador, two leased drilling vessels will steam across the slushy waters and begin boring into the region’s sea floor for the first time in a decade.

CALGARY - Environment Minister Jim Prentice says he will demand the highest environmental standards be followed as Greenland explores offshore oil drilling just outside of Canada's territorial waters.

The interest towards shipping between Europe and Asia across the Arctic Ocean is increasing. This autumn the first shipment of iron ore is planned to go from Kirkenes, Norway, to China through the Northern Sea Route.

QUEBEC CITY — The eight-nation Arctic Council needs a big makeover, a group of academics, former politicians and policy advisors said May 18 at a conference on sovereignty and sustainable development held at Laval University in Quebec City.

Territorial and federal governments have agreed with fewer than a dozen of almost 200 recommendations made by a panel supporting a proposed Mackenzie pipeline, which includes developing three major natural gas fields on the shores of the Beaufort Sea, associated gathering and processing facilities, as well as the 1,700-kilometre pipeline to Alberta.