A government official says Japan has temporarily suspended its Antarctic whaling operations after repeated disruptions by a conservation group.

The skipper of a Sea Shepherd protest boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship said today that the head of the conservation group ordered him to let the vessel sink because it would help win public support.

Japanese prosecutors have indicted an anti-whaling activist for illegally boarding a harpoon boat as part of a protest against the ship’s whale hunting expedition in Antarctic seas in February.

Australia’s prime minister has set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling programme that kills hundreds of the creatures every year in Antarctic waters, or face legal action.

An anti-whaling activist from New Zealand is in custody on a Japanese vessel and will be taken to Japan to face charges after secretly boarding the ship as part of a protest, officials said today.

An anti-whaling activist from New Zealand was being held in custody on a Japanese whaling boat today after secretly boarding it in a protest, the whalers said.

Anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers exchanged water cannon fire in the Antarctic Ocean as two boats tailed the whaling fleet in an attempt to prevent the killing of any whales.

A CONSERVATION group’s boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water yesterday after it was struck by a Japanese whaling ship in the freezing waters of Antarctica, the group said.

A conservation group’s boat was sinking today after its bow sheared off in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.

Japanese whalers and militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of rancid acid.

A group of radical anti-whaling activists said they were pelted with bloody chunks of whale meat and blubber after their boat collided with a Japanese whaling vessel in a dramatic Antarctic Ocean clash.

JAPANESE whalers blasted water from a cannon at conservationists who hurled bottles of rancid butter and paint during a clash in frigid Antarctic waters yesterday.

Japanese whalers and conservationists clashed again in the Antarctic today.

The Australian government said radical conservationists who have been pursuing Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters could refuel their ship in Hobart, Tasmania, despite Japan’s claim that they are tantamount to terrorists.

A radical conservationist group said it lobbed 25 bottles of rotten butter at Japanese whalers in the remote and icy Antarctic Ocean, but denied claims that it rammed their vessel.

Conservation groups called today for Japan’s whaling fleet to turn back as the first ship set sail for the annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.

Activists who have clashed violently with Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters in recent months were headed back to port today because they were running out of fuel.

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

Graphic pictures of Japanese hunters harpooning whales and dragging their carcasses aboard a ship near Antarctica were evidence of “indiscriminate” slaughter, Australia said today.

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.

Japanese whalers and the activists who have vowed to stop them pledged to continue their activities in Antarctica today.

Two activists who jumped on board a Japanese whaling boat off Antarctica have been returned to their ship by Australian officials.

TWO anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese harpoon ship in a protest were last night transferred to an Australian vessel.

Two anti-whaling activists, one a Briton, who boarded a Japanese harpoon ship in a protest were tonight transferred to an Australian vessel.

Two anti-whaling activists were still on board a Japanese ship today as protesters continued to shadow its hunting fleet.

Japan has agreed to release a Briton and an Australian who were detained after storming aboard a Japanese whaling ship near Antarctica, Australian officials said today.

TWO anti-whaling protestors, were held on a Japanese whaling ship yesterday after boarding it in a protest.

An Australian judge today banned the company that conducts Japan’s whale hunt from killing the animals in a large part of its regular hunting grounds off Antarctica.

The widow of TV “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin is to launch non-lethal research of whales in Antarctic waters next year, in a bid to shame Japan’s scientific whale kill.

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

'Heroes' TV star Hayden Panettiere and fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, video footage shot by the protesters showed.

An anti-whaling group’s boat collided twice with a Japanese whale-spotting vessel in Antarctic waters today, tearing a three-foot gash in the protest ship, the Sea Shepherd conservation group said.

Searchers in freezing Antarctic waters found two anti-whaling activists today after their inflatable dinghy became lost in heavy fog, the international conservation group Sea Shepherd said.

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.

Environmental group Greenpeace said today that it would continue hounding Japan’s whaling fleet despite a damaging collision between the whalers and a protest ship.

THE sea turned blood red when Japanese fishermen hacked to death dolphins they had trapped in coves around a small port.