Map of shame: Greenpeace highlights junk and debris in dozens of sites across the 'pristine' environment.

But seals prove more adept at undertaking polar missions, including potentially killing intruders, say experts.

A major new Arctic clean-up expedition is poised to start work getting rid of junk and pollution blighting this vast region.

Some 16 from the aircraft with military personnel on board are 'severely injured' and were flown by helicopter to hospitals in Tiksi.

A Copenhagen scientific expedition is on its way to prepare a claim that vast energy wealth under the Arctic belongs to the Danish Crown.

One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.

Endemic to the remote island of Novaya Zemlya, it survived the Ice Age here, scientists believe, the only creature known to have done so.

Homage to the remarkable bravery of sailors and troops who repelled the Germans in the only World War Two combat action in Siberia.

Both Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund are expressing grave concern at the risk of contamination in the Pechora Sea.

Rusting Sherman dating from WW2 airlifted all the way across Russia for use in major military parade.