I hope they get the guy!:hmm:
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I hope they get the guy!:hmm:
AAPQuote:
Japan has rubbished claims by one of the two freed anti-whaling activists that crew attempted to push him overboard.
The Yushin Maru No. 2 handed over Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, to the Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking this morning and they have since returned to anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin.
Mr Potts said he feared for his life while he was being held by the Japanese.
"Once we boarded, the Japanese crew came down and physically restrained us on the lower deck,'' the Australian activist said.
"A number of them grabbed us and they attempted to throw me overboard. They were unsuccessful because I held onto a guard rail. One bloke picked up my shoulders and the gunner picked up my legs.''
However, Gabriel Gomez, spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research that organises Japan's hunts, said it was "absolutely untrue that the Japanese crew assaulted the two, or tried to throw them overboard."
The AP news service reported him saying the two had been briefly tied up because the crew had no idea what their intentions were when they boarded them and their backpacks could have potentially contained explosives.
Gomez said when their backpacks were searched they had clothes, toothbrushes and a flask of rum - seeming to counter the activists' claims they planned to leave the vessel after delivering their letter.
Gomez also said whaling was expected to resume within days, and accused Sea Shepherd activists of launching an attack with bottles of acid on another harpoon boat, the Yushin Maru 3, four hours after the hand-over.
Mr Potts said both he and Mr Lane were denied access to most information about their plight.
"We were really kept in the dark until our release,'' Mr Potts said.
"We were denied any contact with our ship or with the Australian or British governments.
"The information we got we had to fight for and it came to us slowly and through someone who spoke minimal English.''
He said he finally learned he was to be returned to the Australian customs vessel about 8.30pm yesterday.
The pair had warned they would start a hunger strike if they were not told what was going to happen to them, he said.
Mr Lane, from southern England, said despite his experience he thought it had been worth it, because it had given worldwide exposure to the anti-whaling cause, and stopped the Japanese hunting for several days.
"We would do more of the same without a second thought,'' Mr Lane said.
"We did deliver our letter. They weren't overly happy to receive it, but it was passed up to the head of the fleet and no doubt the Japanese government as well.''
During the time were held by the Japanese it is understood they were fed rice and given green tea and water to drink.
The captain of the Steve Irwin, Paul Watson, said he and his crew will continue to harass the whalers.
"They haven't killed any whales for the last week."
Mr Watson said no deal had been done with the Japanese whalers.
"We made no deal at all," he said.
"When people are holding our crew hostage and making demands we're not going to acquiesce to that."
Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Japanese whaling programme, said the whaling fleet, which is on its annual hunt for nearly 1000 whales for a so-called research programme, would now resume operations.
"It was certainly quite handy for the Japanese government that the (Oceanic Viking) was there because it helped them resolve the situation with the two illegal intruders," Mr Inwood told Radio New Zealand this morning.
"It became very clear yesterday after 24 hours of receiving no communication from the Sea Shepherd organisation that they had no intention of removing the men from the Japanese vessel and therefore the Australian government was asked to intervene and take them aboard their Customs vessel," he said.
Sea Shepherd international director Jonny Vasic said the activists had peacefully boarded the harpoon ship to deliver a letter of protest.
"They got on and planned to get right back off," he said.
"Our intention is to stop the whaling in the Antarctic whale sanctuary where they are breaking international law ... we are enforcing conservation law.
"(The) mission accomplished so far is no Australian humpbacks are going to die this year because of international pressure and especially Australia standing up and saying enough's enough."
Mr Vasic said the whaling season ran until the end of March and the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society would continue fighting to stop whales being killed.
Mr Watson said he did not believe there would be any further attempts to board Japanese vessels by any crew of the Steve Irwin.
"I think we've already delivered the letter, I don't see that happening again," he said.
"We'll just continue to chase the whalers.
"As long as we're chasing them they're not going to kill the whales."
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said neither Sea Shepherd nor the Steve Irwin would be billed for the rescue of the two men.
"The Oceanic Viking was in the Great Southern Ocean intending to do its original mission which was to gain evidence of Japanese whaling in the course of this whaling season for potential use in the international court," he said.
" ... our ultimate objective is to get the Japanese to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean.
"Our objective in the last couple of days has been to ensure the safety and welfare and wellbeing of Benjamin Potts and the UK national."
Mr Smith said the Australian and Japanese governments had made arrangements to transfer the two men while ``agreeing to disagree'' about whaling.
"It's one thing about a strong relationship. If there hadn't been such a strong relationship we wouldn't have seen such a speedy agreement."
Mr Smith said he would continue to call for restraint on the part of everyone involved in the whaling issue and did not believe there would be a repeat of the ship boarding incident "in coming weeks".
He said a recent Federal Court decision ruling Japanese whaling in Australian waters illegal would be difficult to enforce.
But he said the strong view of the Australian community was that the federal government should continue to pursue all reasonable means of stopping the whaling.
Agence France-PresseQuote:
REPUBLICAN presidential hopeful and former Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee has linked gay sex to bestiality and abortion to slavery in an interview today and explained why, if elected, he would try to amend the constitution.
"Marriage has ... as long as there's been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?'' he asked in an interview with online Beliefnet magazine.
"Well, I don't think that's a radical view, to say we're going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal,'' he added.
"The Bible was not written to be amended. The Constitution was,'' he said, announcing his intention to amend the document if he were to be elected president in November to ban abortion and establish that life begins at the moment of conception.
Leaving it up to individual states to outlaw abortion within their own borders is not enough, he said.
"That's again the logic of the Civil War - that slavery could be okay in Georgia but not okay in Massachusetts. Obviously we'd today say, 'Well, that's nonsense. Slavery is wrong, period. It can't be right somewhere and wrong somewhere else.' Same with abortion,'' Huckabee said.
Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucuses earlier this month, the first contest in the race for each party's nomination to run for the White House.
He is in second place behind Arizona Senator John McCain in opinion polls for Saturday's primaries in South Carolina.
AAPQuote:
THE CIA has backed the Pakistan Government's assertions that members of al-Qaeda and allies of a tribal leader were responsible for the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Al-Qaeda and Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud are also responsible for a new wave of violence threatening the country's stability, CIA director Michael Hayden has told The Washington Post.
Mr Hayden said Ms Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from the al-Qaeda network.
Soon after Ms Bhutto's December 27 assassination at a political rally in the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistani officials released intercepted communications between Mehsud and his supporters in which the tribal leader praised the killing and, according to the officials, appeared to take credit for it, The Post reported.
Until now, US officials have been been cautious about publicly embracing Pakistan's assessment.
There is deep suspicion among many Pakistanis that the Government of President Pervez Musharraf - a close US ally in the fight against terrorism - had a role in the killing.
But Mr Hayden said: "This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that."
He told The Post that the assassination was "part of an organised campaign" that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.
"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there," Mr Hayden said.
"You've got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between al-Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups.
"It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists."
Since she was killed, Ms Bhutto's family has perpetuated public scepticism about who was to blame, alleging a wide conspiracy involving Government officials.
AAPQuote:
CHINA has ordered all dogs be given compulsory inoculations against rabies to try to quell an upsurge in the disease amongst humans, the Health Ministry announced.
The country has an exploding dog population, but less than 10 per cent are vaccinated against rabies, the ministry's official Health News said.
China recorded 3311 human cases last year, up from 2651 in 2004, it added.
"The situation is extremely serious," the report said.
"In order to control as soon as possible the rise in infections and protect people's health and security, the Health and Agriculture Ministries have demanded the strengthening of vaccination work and that all dogs be inoculated," it added.
It did not say how much the push would cost, nor provide details on how the order would be enforced. Once banned as a bourgeois extravagance in China's Communist heyday, pet ownership has shot up since economic reforms began in the late 1970s.
The Government tries to enforce a "one-dog policy" in cities and a size requirement that bans large dogs, saying one of the reasons is to keep a lid on rabies.
But it has come under criticism for cruelly removing pets from owners and arbitrary application of rules.
Nice read, thanks:)
Thanks for this.
Agence France-PresseQuote:
A HIGH-level al-Qaeda associate has been sentenced by a New York court to life in prison for plotting to bomb US embassies in Manila and Singapore, in a case shrouded in secrecy since his arrest in 2002.
Mohammed Mansour Jabarah pleaded guilty six years ago to conspiracy to kill US citizens in plots against the two embassies. Prosecutors had requested Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, be handed down a life sentence.
The sentence was due to "the nature of your participation in two conspiracies at the very highest level,'' federal judge Barbara Jones said.
According to US agents, Jabarah met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was sent by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, to meet Jemaah Islamiyah figures in Southeast Asia to plan the bombings.
Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for the 2002 bombings on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists.
According to a sentencing memorandum produced by US prosecutors, Jabarah secretly plotted to kill US agents with whom he was supposedly cooperating after his arrest in Oman in 2002.
Jabarah pleaded guilty in July of that year after being brought to the United States and initially cooperating with federal investigators.
But according to the sentencing memorandum, Jabarah was "secretly planning to exploit the perception of cooperation that he created.
"Weapons and papers seized from Jabarah during an impromptu search of his quarters left little doubt that Jabarah was bent on carrying out a martyrdom mission to murder the 'infidel' agents and prosecutors whom he considered responsible for his capture,'' the memorandum said.
Documents drafted by Jabarah while in jail "demonstrated his commitment to waging jihad against the infidels, killing his captors, and presumably himself,'' it said.
Thanks for this.
-AAPQuote:
A Japanese whaling group has accused the Sea Shepherd activist group of attacking a second ship in the Southern Ocean.
The Japanese Whaling Association (JWA) said the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society launched a small zodiac boat which attacked Yushin Maru No. 3 - the sister vessel of the Yushin Maru No. 2 - overnight.
It also accused the Australia of giving "limousine service" to Sea Shepherd activists Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane, who were detained on the Yushin Maru No. 2 before being handed over to the Australian customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, yesterday.
"At 2am 18th of January, SS (Sea Shepherd) zodiac boat sneaked up during the dark night and attacked her sister ship, Yushin Maru No. 3, one of the Antarctic research expedition vessels owned by the Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, by throwing 10 butyric acid bottles," the JWA said in a statement.
Japanese government-backed company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha president Kazuo Yamamura said the attack on the Yushin Maru No. 3 was akin to terrorism.
"We have handed two illegal intruders safely to Australian authorities despite that SS has been unlawfully attacking our vessels," he said.
"Nevertheless, SS attacked our vessel again during the night.
"Such action should be condemned as an inhumane terrorist attack.
"To ensure safety of our crew, the government of Australia should order the seizure of the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin."
JWA president Keiichi Nakajima said the Australian government had wrecked the efforts of the International Whaling Commission to ensure safety at sea.
"The Australian government has rejected and thus spoiled the International Whaling Commissions' efforts to ensure safety at sea and protection of the environment with its desire to give limousine service to two illegal Sea Shepherd intruders," he said in a statement.
"These two violent pirates have been provided a first-class delivery service straight back to the Steve Irwin via Australian customs.
"(The) government of Australia should have detained the two illegal intruders and held them on board the Oceanic Viking for investigation of their criminal activities, but it is obvious they would rather assist Sea Shepherd with its violent illegal actions against Japan's perfectly legal research program.
Mr Nakajima said Australia's decision to hand back Mr Potts and Mr Lane to Sea Shepherd showed it would rather side with a vigilante group of extremists rather than the international community.
Comment was being sought from Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson aboard the anti-whaling ship, The Steve Irwin, and from Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.