Yet another burning oil slick, the third-largest reported in history, threatens the ecologically-fragile Arctic. The 60,000-tonne slick in the Russian province of Komi has reportedly originated from leaks in a 47-km pipeline managed by Komineft, a Russian oil company.

According to US officials, the spill, releasing 8 times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, started way back in February. But disaster struck with the heavy rains in October. A dam built to contain the oil spill burst, letting it into 2 tributaries of the Pecora river, the Usa and the Kolva. The disaster has spurred a call by Greenpeace for "an international clean-up effort on the scale of the Gulf war oil fires".