 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Canada to monitor traffic in Northwest Passage
Ottawa (AFP) Sept 25, 2007 Sea traffic in the famed Northwest Passage will soon be monitored by underwater listening devices to be installed by Canada to bolster its disputed claim over the Arctic, media said Tuesday. Canada's military will start keeping tabs on trespassers -- ships and submarines -- in the region as early as mid-2008, said public broadcaster CBC. The detection technology is to be installed at Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island, near one of the main arteries of the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the CBC said, citing unnamed sources. A defense ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Canada is at odds with Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States over 1.2 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles) of Arctic seabed. Each nation is claiming overlapping sections of the sea floor, believed to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves. All of them, including its allies, deny Ottawa's hold on the Northwest Passage. Of late, the international rivalry has heated up, with Russia planting a flag at the North Pole and Canada holding its largest ever Arctic military exercise in the North in recent months, as melting polar ice caps make the region more accessible to economic activity and shipping. In July, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans to build six to eight Navy ice-breakers, a deep sea port in Nanisivik on Baffin Island and a military winter fighting school in Resolute Bay to firm its claim to the lonely region. Related Links Beyond the Ice Age
Russo-US pact on polar bear protection comes into effect
Moscow (AFP) Sept 24, 2007A treaty inked in 2000 between Russia and the United States to protect polar bears in their respective nations has just come into effect, the Russian foreign affairs ministry said Monday. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement |
