Ryan McCaig also admitted the robbery of a woman working at an ice cream kiosk in Crosby on 14 July.

BBC: Marcos Ringle attack in Crosby: McCaig brothers jailed

Earlier this month NSICD scientists reported that winter sea ice cover in the Arctic was just 14.7 million square kilometers (5.7m square miles) -- slightly better than the all-time low 14.5m square kilometers (5.6m square miles) in 2006 -- but well short of the 15.7m average for 1979-2000.

CNN: Arctic melt worse than predictions

Between 2004 and 2005, 14 percent of the Arctic Ocean's perennial ice disappeared - some 720, 000 square kilometers (447, 000 square miles) -- a depletion Lynas calls "instantaneous" in geological terms.

CNN: Six degrees of devastation

The same phenomenon was seen Friday on Dauphin Lake in Manitoba, about 75 miles northwest of Winnipeg, where a wall of ice up to 30 feet high destroyed six homes and damaged 14 others, according to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

CNN: 'Ice tsunamis' sweep into homes

Standing at 4, 465m (14, 649ft) and covered in a treacherous carpet of snow and ice, Mont Maudit near Chamonix, is a challenge for the most intrepid climbers.

BBC: Why risk an avalanche to climb?

About 14 million years ago, a period of climate change caused the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet, which averages one mile in thickness and gets up to three miles thick in some parts.

BBC: How Antarctica works