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MOSCOW: Russia has ordered the urgent evacuation of the 16-strong crew
of a drifting Arctic research station after ice floe that hosts the
floating laboratory began to disintegrate, officials said Thursday.Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Sergei Donskoi set a three-day deadline to draft a plan to evacuate the North Pole-40 floating research station, the ministry said in a statement.
"The ice is disintegrating," a ministry spokeswoman told AFP. "Cracks appeared in the floe."
The station is currently home to 16 personnel.
