Australia to mount legal bid against Japan whaling

Japan says its whale hunt is legal under the international convention

Australia has said it will begin legal action against Japan over its whaling in the Antarctic.

It will argue that the annual whaling hunt in the Southern Ocean is in violation of an international ban on commercial whaling.
Japan, which kills hundreds of whales ever year, says the hunt is carried out for scientific research purposes.
Critics say this is a cover for commercial whaling and that whale meat not used in research is sold for food.
The Australian government says it will lodge formal proceedings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague next week.
The move comes ahead of a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Morocco next month, where agreement is being sought on a new approach to whaling, which would allow commercial hunting but with strict quotas.
Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Attorney General Robert McClelland said in a joint statement that the move underlines their "commitment to bring to an end Japan's program of so-called scientific whaling".

Bradford accused gives name as 'crossbow cannibal'

A man charged with the murders of three Bradford women has referred to himself as the "crossbow cannibal" in court.

Stephen Griffiths, 40, is accused of murdering prostitutes Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage, and Susan Rushworth.
Mature student Mr Griffiths, of Thornton Road, Bradford, was remanded in custody by magistrates and later by a judge at the city's crown court.
Recent events have been described in some of the tabloid press as the "crossbow cannibal killings".
When asked to confirm his name by magistrates, Mr Griffiths told the court he was "the crossbow cannibal".
Relatives in court Asked for his address, he replied: "Erm... here I guess."
Relatives of some of the victims were in court for the magistrates' court hearing. Some wiped away tears at the start of the proceedings.
After appearing before magistrates, Mr Griffiths was then taken to Bradford Crown Court.
During this appearance, which lasted only 10 minutes, Mr Griffiths - flanked by security officers - spoke only to confirm his name.
He will next appear at the crown court via video link on 7 June.
Stephen Griffiths was arrested in Bradford on Monday He is accused of murdering Ms Blamires, 36, between 20 May and 25 May; murdering Ms Rushworth, 43, between 22 June, 2009, and 25 May this year, and murdering Ms Armitage, 31, between 25 April and 25 May this year.
Police said body parts found in the River Aire on Tuesday were from Ms Blamires, who had lived in Barkston Walk, Allerton, and was last seen on 21 May.
Ms Armitage, also from Allerton, has been missing since 26 April and Ms Rushworth, from the Manningham area of the city, disappeared on 22 June last year.
Mr Griffiths is reported to be a psychology graduate undertaking postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University.
He was arrested on Monday at his third-floor flat, which is on the edge of the city's red light district and a short distance from Bradford city centre.

US President Barack Obama to visit oil-hit Louisiana

US President Barack Obama is to visit the Louisiana coast to view first-hand the damage wrought by what is said to be the largest oil spill in US history.

BP is continuing to pump heavy mud into the damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the high-risk "top kill" procedure to block the flow of oil.
BP's chief executive Tony Hayward said the outcome would not be clear for another 48 hours.
BP said its response costs to the huge oil spill had risen to $930m (£640m).
Mr Hayward told US media that the "top kill" process - untested before at this depth of 5,000ft (1.5km) - was "going pretty well according to plan".
He said that BP engineers had successfully completed a second phase - pumping in debris known as a "junk shot" - which would next allow them to pump in more heavy-weight mud.
If the mud works in stopping the flow, BP can then pour cement to seal the well for good.
"Clearly I'm as anxious as everyone in America is to get this thing done," Mr Hayward said.
Responsibility Mr Obama's trip later on Friday will be his second to the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April, killing 11 workers.
He will tour affected areas to try to reassure Americans he remains in charge of the clean-up operation, correspondents say.
The thick crude oil has already permeated more than 110km (70 miles) of Louisiana's coastline, threatening fragile wetlands and putting the vital fishing industry at risk.

China 'will not protect' Korea ship attackers

China "will not protect" whoever sank a South Korean warship in March, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said.

"China objects to and condemns any act that destroys the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," Mr Wen was quoted as saying after talks in Seoul.
South Korea has blamed the North for sinking the Cheonan with a torpedo.
Beijing is under pressure to take a strong stance against North Korea but so far has not accepted the findings of an independent investigation.
"The Chinese government will decide its position by objectively and fairly judging what is right and wrong about the incident while respecting the international probe and responses to it by each nation," said Mr Wen.
Beijing has previously called for all sides to show restraint.
The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says Beijing's refusal so far to condemn its old ally has been a major source of frustration to South Korea and President Lee Myung-bak.
But some in South Korea will see Mr Wen's comments as a sign of a subtle and careful shift in position by the Beijing authorities, says our correspondent.
A spokesman for Mr Lee said Seoul was "fully concentrating on diplomatic efforts to hold North Korea responsible" for the 26 March attack on the Cheonan, which left 46 sailors dead.
In a rare news conference on Friday, North Korea again accused the South of "fabricating" evidence, and warned an "extremely serious situation is being created in the Korean peninsula in which a war may break out at any moment".
Sanctions
South Korea says an investigation involving international teams uncovered indisputable evidence that North Korea fired a torpedo at the ship.

ANALYSIS

Continue reading the main story

John Sudworth
BBC News, Seoul

Wen Jiabao's comment buys Beijing a bit of time and prolongs the really difficult decision - choosing between its understandable desire not to provoke its prickly neighbour, and its need to be seen to be acting as a responsible global power.
The dilemma highlights, some observers say, a tension within China's ruling elite. For the old guard the ties with North Korea run deep, forged on the battlefield of the Korean War in which many Chinese lives were lost fighting on the northern side. For the new generation of leaders, China's growing relationship with South Korea is the way of the future, with two way trade now worth more than $150bn (£100bn) a year.
In the end, these younger voices may win out and North Korea may become to be seen, not as an ally but as a strategic liability. That would be a very bleak prospect for Pyongyang indeed.
Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis Decoding North Korea's wrath

Investigators said they had discovered part of the torpedo on the sea floor which carried lettering that matched a North Korean design.
Seoul has announced a package of measures, including a halt to most trade with North Korea and is also seeking action via the United Nations Security Council.
Pyongyang, which fiercely denies the allegations, has retaliated by scrapping an agreement aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea.
It also warned of an immediate attack if the South's navy violated the disputed Yellow Sea borderline - the site of deadly naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.
On Tuesday, North Korea announced it would sever all ties with the South. It had also banned South Korean ships and planes from its territory.
At the press conference in Pyongyang on Friday, North Korea's policy chief, Maj Gen Pak Rim-su, accused Seoul of trespassing in its waters and "kicking up a frenzy for confrontation".
He said blaming North Korea for the sinking was "an open declaration of war and a heinous criminal act which drives inter-Korean relations to the situation of war and the self-destruction of digging their own grave".
Meanwhile, Japan has said it is tightening its already stringent sanctions against North Korea.
It said it was lowering the amount of cash which individuals can send to North Korea without declaring it from 10m yen (£110,000: £75,000) to 3m yen.
The parliament in Tokyo also passed a bill to enable the Japanese coastguard to inspect vessels on the high seas suspected of carrying North Korean weapons or nuclear technology, in line with a 2009 UN Security Council resolution.
The Associated Press news agency quoted the head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency as saying he had ordered officials to keep a closer eye on the some one million North Koreans living in Japan.
North and South Korea are technically still at war after the Korean conflict ended without a peace treaty in 1953.

Pakistan mosque attacks in Lahore kill dozens

Gunmen have attacked two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 70 people, officials say.

The death toll has been rising as rescuers pull bodies from the mosques, which were packed for Friday midday prayers at the time of the attacks.
Police are reported to have secured one of the buildings, while operations continue at the second.
Lahore has been the scene of a string of brazen militant attacks.
No-one has yet said they carried out the attacks but suspicion has fallen on the Pakistani Taliban, Ali Dayan Hassan of Human Rights Watch told the BBC.
Mr Hassan said the worshippers were "easy targets" for militant Sunni groups who consider the Ahmadis to be infidels.
'Indiscriminate' firing It is unclear whether gunmen are still holding people hostage inside the mosque in the heavily built-up Garhi Shahu area, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.