Russian mini-sub descends towards North Pole seabed

One of Russia’s two deep-diving miniature submarines today began its descent more than two-and-a-half miles beneath the ice to the ocean floor beneath the North Pole, RTR television reported.

During what the expedition leaders describe as a perilous dive, crew members planned to drop a titanium capsule containing the nation’s flag on the bottom, symbolically claiming almost half of the planet’s northern polar region for Moscow.