evidence: Sitting in the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait between the north-western coast of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island, the uninhabited half-mile-square Hans Island has no mineral resources nor much else of interest unless you are a visiting seabird. Shaped like a muffin and surrounded by cliffs, it was for centuries an Inuit hunting ground. Crucially, however, it has been at the centre of a long-running border dispute between Canada and Denmark – via Greenland’s home rule government – with Copenhagen claiming that geological evidence points to Hans Island being part of Greenland – a claim rejected by Ottawa. Canada and Denmark agreed in 1973 to create a border through Nares Strait, halfway between Greenland and Canada. But they were unable to agree which country would have sovereignty over Hans Island, which lies about 680 miles (1,100km) south of the north pole. In the end they decided to work out the question of ownership later.