From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Global warming and the rush to the Arctic.

Hello again, I'm Orin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Russia's most famous Arctic explorer, Artur-Chilling Goddorf has placed a titanium flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is just back from the Arctic Ocean, where he made plans for an Army training center in a deep-water port.

Melting ice may free up both the Northwest Passage and one quarter of the world's

undiscovered oil and natural gas.

On to the point, it's the Wild Wild West all over again, will the U.S. stake its own claims?

What are the prospects for international conflict?

On reporter's notebook later on, Pentagon contracts with a man called an

international merchant of death. First, here's the news. Support for To the Point comes from

subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose

contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again.

Warman Alney back with To the Point. Global climate change is melting the ice above the Arctic Circle,

creating a rush to control new shipping lanes and untold riches beneath the sea. On To the Point,

will the Russian flag beneath the North Pole be a Sputnik moment for the United States. We heard about domestic politics

and the potential for international conflict. On reporter's notebook, America's missing weapons in Iraq

was the world's most notorious arms dealer part of the action. First, this news update for the second

time in two weeks, Mattel has announced a toy recall. This time it's nine million toys, once again made in China,

recalled because of magnets children can swallow or because of lead paint. Nicholas Casey reports

...