News bites: Oil markets await Bernanke, UN warns of enviro tipping point

The Associated Press explores how oil markets are behaving ahead of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s closely watched remarks later Thursday.

AP also looks at a sobering report from the United Nations Environment Program.

“A United Nations report warns that the earth's environmental systems ‘are being pushed towards their biophysical limits’ and that sudden, irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes are looming,” AP reports.

Time magazine unwraps a separate study showing that “the Arctic [is] rapidly responding to climate change by sprouting sudden trees in the tundra.”

Reuters reports on data showing that India has sharply cut oil imports from Iran, which could help the country avoid U.S. sanctions.

“The cutbacks raise New Delhi's chances of winning a waiver similar to that granted by the United States to Japan and some European countries after 'substantial' reductions in their imports,” the news service reports.