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Iceland's second polar bear shot dead

ICELAND authorities shot a polar bear they had hoped to save after it was found hundreds of kilometres from its natural habitat. It was the second bear to be killed in two weeks in Iceland, where sightings of the threatened species are rare. It had apparently travelled several hundred kilometres atop an ice floe. Despite protests after the first bear was killed, the animal was shot when it panicked and charged a group of journalists. Bear sightings have lent credence to warnings that climate change is creating a more perilous habitat by melting Arctic ice.