South Korea plans to resume hunting whales for research purposes, officials said today, drawing immediate protests from non-whaling nations and environment groups.

The United States is set to announce possible trade and diplomatic sanctions against Iceland for ramping up its whale hunts despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan and other pro-whaling nations have walked out of a meeting of the International Whaling Commission to protest at a proposal for a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.

Japan’s fisheries agency said the country is planning to host a rally for pro-whaling nations to build support for lifting a decades-old ban on commercial whale hunts.

THE International Whaling Commission withdrew yesterday behind closed doors within minutes of kicking off a tense meeting that could end a global ban on commercial whaling.

Japan is considering withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission if no progress is made towards easing an international ban on commercial whaling, its fisheries minister said today.

Australia said today that it will take Japan to the International Court of Justice to argue that its “so-called scientific whaling” in the Antarctic violates international obligations.

The International Whaling Commission has proposed allowing the first legal commercial whale hunts in 25 years, ending an outright ban that had many exceptions.

Australia has called for a gradual phasing out of whaling around the world in a proposal submitted to the International Whaling Commission.

Anti-whaling activists threw rotten butter at a Japanese whaling ship today in an attempt to sabotage their operations.

Japan has resumed its annual whale hunt off Antarctica now that anti-whaling activists have stopped pursuing the country’s fleet, a Japanese official said today.

A government minister said today Japan’s whaling fleet was heading towards New Zealand-controlled waters in Antarctica, in breach of an agreement to remain in Australian waters during this year’s whale hunt.

JAPAN is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica, the country’s top government spokesman said yesterday.

Australia and New Zealand appealed to Japan today to halt a fleet headed for the Antarctic to hunt humpback whales.

One of Japan's coastal whaling towns butchered its first catch of the season in front of watching children today.

A 21-year moratorium on commercial whaling has been upheld by the International Whaling Commission meeting in the US.

Renewing a five-year bowhead whale quota for Alaska native communities that rely on subsistence whaling is crucial, the International Whaling Commission has been told.

A fleet of six Japanese whalers left port today for their annual hunt in the Antarctic, where they hope to kill 860 whales for a controversial research programme.

ICELAND has broken a global moratorium on commercial whaling, killing an endangered fin whale for the first time since the 1980s.

THE International Whaling Commission (IWC) has entered unknown territory after a majority of members resolved to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan today vowed to press ahead with a campaign to overturn a two-decade ban on commercial whaling, after a slim majority of nations in the International Whaling Commission voted to overturn the moratorium.

The 20-year-old ban on commercial whaling remained intact today, but the International Whaling Commission entered unknown territory after a majority of its members voted to overturn the moratorium.

Japan and other pro-whaling nations will today try to rebound from two early defeats to win a majority at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting and pave the way for commercial whale hunting, which was banned 20 years ago.

JAPAN and its pro-whaling allies yesterday narrowly lost a vote that conservationists feared would lead to the end of a two-decade ban on whale hunting as Tokyo said it would increase the number of animals it kills for scientific study before selling their meat.

Japan has caught 59 minke whales in its latest hunt as part of a research programme that critics have denounced as thinly-disguised commercial whaling.

A meeting on global whaling headed into its final day amid controversy as the US threw its support behind a proposal on how to manage whale-hunting if a 1986 ban on commercial whaling were to be lifted.

Japan proposed hunting nearly 3,000 minke whales a year in the Antarctic today, saying populations of the giant sea mammals in the southern oceans were healthy enough to sustain the losses.

JAPAN has asked the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to let it restart the commercial hunting of whales amid accusations of a “hostile takeover”.

THEY are the largest and most spectacular mammals on earth, but commercial slaughter and the continued pollution of the oceans is threatening the future of whales.

ANIMAL welfare campaigners yesterday criticised the killing of Iceland’s first whale in 14 years.

The International Whaling Commission ignored threats of a Japanese walkout today and voted to step up efforts to protect whales, adopting a proposal “strengthening the conservation agenda” of the group.

New Zealand is forging a coalition of South Pacific nations committed to banning whaling in their waters after repeatedly being frustrated in its attempts to set up an internationally recognized whale sanctuary in the area.

The international ban on commercial whaling may soon be lifted.