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.

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

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.

A coalition of conservation-minded nations have managed to thwart Japan’s attempt to form a pro-whaling majority on the International Whaling Commission and reverse the moratorium on commercial hunting that went into effect two decades ago.

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.

A new study shows there is no justification for scientific whaling programmes under which thousands of the mammals have been killed in the name of research, Australia’s environment minister said today.

Australia will soon announce a new greenhouse gas emission pact with the US, China, India and South Korea as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, the environment minister said today.

The International Whaling Commission urged Japan to drop plans to more than double the whales it hunts per year for scientific research, passing an Australia-sponsored resolution today saying Tokyo shouldn’t kill the whales to study them.

Australia remained defiant over the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, despite Russia’s decision to approve the deal.

In the five years that Martha Lane Fox has spent at the helm of lastminute.com she has earned a fortune, lost much of it and climbed out of the wreckage of the dot.com crash – and all before the age of 30.

Australia may slaughter 57,000 sheep or dump then on an island if it fails to find a buyer this week for the animals, which have been stranded for two months on a ship in the Gulf.

MICHAEL HOEY broke the course record with a flawless eight-under-par 63 in the first round of the European Tour School stage one qualifier at Carden Park, Cheshire, yesterday.

Ireland’s Michael Hoey and Ian Campbell from Wales will contest the 106th Amateur Championship final after both came through their semi-final encounters at Prestwick yesterday.

A British animal welfare group has released a video of conditions on pig farms which it claims may have contributed to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.