Scientists have warned that the North Pole might be free of ice before the end of this year, turning into a vast expanse of water. Arctic scientists are preparing for this grim possibility after seeing a number of factors that have led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable, as it enters its summer melting season. The extent of the ice is only half the picture, with satellite images showing that most of the Arctic ice at the moment is thin, young ice.

Cairn India, which is developing the oilfields in Rajasthan discovered by its parent Cairn Energy in 2004, has started preliminary work on the pipeline to bring the oil to market, its chief executive said on Monday.

Cairn India, the oil company 69 per cent owned by FTSE 100 listed Cairn Energy, is raising $625m from a private placement of shares to two investors, one of them Petronas, Malaysia's national oil company. The money will be used to invest in Cairn India, including the development of its large Rajasthan oil fields, for which cost estimates have been rising.

In the heart of India's Silicon Valley, Bruno Maddox finds a city transformed by globalisation, dreaming of the future.

He said the melting glaciers could cause a rise in sea levels which could collapse Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets. This in turn, he said, could have a disastrous effect on countries like Mauritius and Bangladesh.

IAF Wing Commanders Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar are circling the globe.

Countires across the globe celebrate World Environment Day on June 5. And the theme this year is 'Melting Ice a Hot Topic.'

A Mahavir Swami deity was installed as well, to include the Jain community in the area, the spokespersons said.

The warming of Earth and increases in sea level would continue for centuries even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized, says the summary of a UN report leaked to the media.

Global cooling - though never widely supported - is a theory postulating an overwhelming cooling of the Earth which could involve glaciations.

Monga said the most difficult stretches they hoped to come across will be the icy wastelands of Siberia, Iceland and Greenland.