Japan today cancelled the rest of its whale hunting season in Antarctic waters because of repeated harassment by Sea Shepherd activists at sea, after netting only a fifth of its targeted catch of 850 whales.

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.

The jury in the trial of a labourer accused of murdering two young jockeys by setting light to a block of flats was sent out to consider its verdicts for a second day today.

The jury in the trial of a labourer accused of murdering two young jockeys by setting light to a block of flats was sent out to consider its verdicts for a second day today.

Lawyers for a man accused of killing two young jockeys in a flat fire told a jury today the strength of the evidence against him “is not something you would hang an old coat on, let alone convict a man for the offence of murder”.

A man accused of killing two young jockeys, one of them Irish, by setting fire to the block of flats in which they were sleeping declined to give evidence at his trial today.

The owner of a block of flats where two young jockeys, one of them Irish, died in a fire told a jury today how the man accused of starting the blaze was “making life difficult” for firefighters as they fought the flames.

A group of militant conservationists embroiled in a series of violent clashes with Japanese whalers in the Antarctic Ocean decided to end its campaign for the season.

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.

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.

The captain and first officer of a ship used by a conservation group to protest against Canada’s annual seal hunt have been charged with getting too close to hunters.

The Canadian government plans to bring charges against a conservation group which it said came too close to sealers as it protested against the country’s annual hunt.

A coastguard icebreaker and a ship owned by a conservation group collided today as tensions mounted over the annual Canadian seal hunt.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Former French film star Brigitte Bardot returned to Canada, joining animal conservationists in the growing protest against the country’s contentious seal hunt.

The most powerful hurricane to hit Bermuda in 50 years tonight unleashed winds which uprooted palm trees, blew tiles off roofs and left residents sheltering in their homes.