Japan said yesterday it plans to ask Australia and possibly New Zealand and Chile to ban an anti-whaling protest ship from using their ports to refuel, heightening a cat-and-mouse game in Antarctic waters between Japan’s whaling fleet and the conservationists.
The Sea Shepherd group has said its anti-whaling ship, the Steve Irwin, has left pursuit of Japan’s whaling fleet after chasing it for 3,200km and is now headed to port to refuel. It suggested on its Web site it will seek a port call in Australia, but has not provided further details.
Japan, which considers the actions of the Steve Irwin to be tantamount to piracy, reacted yesterday saying it will ask countries where the ship might make port calls to refuse it entry.
“We are going to request a port closure against it,” Japanese Foreign Ministry official Chiharu Tsuruoka said. “They have obstructed our activities in the past, and their action is extremely dangerous. They are like pirates.”
Tsuruoka said Tokyo has not made such a request yet because it is not clear where the Steve Irwin will go. He said the possibilities have been limited down to Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
The Steve Irwin’s captain, Paul Watson, said he intended to dock in Australia to challenge that country’s support for his efforts despite the Japanese pressure for a port closure.
“After chasing the Japanese whaling fleet for over 2,000 miles, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin must return to port for fuel,” the group said on its Web site on Sunday.
“Although the ship is as close to Puntarenas, Chile as it is to Hobart, Tasmania and even closer to Dunedin, New Zealand, Capt. Paul Watson has decided that the ship will return to Australia,” it said.
Turning heads as they cruise past office buildings and malls, driverless taxis are slowly spreading through Chinese cities, prompting both wariness and wonder. China’s tech companies and vehicle manufacturers have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology over the past few years in an effort to catch industry leaders in the US. Now the central city of Wuhan boasts one of the world’s largest networks of self-driving cars, home to a fleet of more than 500 taxis that can be hailed on an app just like regular rides. At one intersection in an industrial area of Wuhan, AFP reporters saw at least five
China and Vietnam yesterday inked 14 documents spanning cross-border railways to crocodile exports after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met with new Vietnamese leader To Lam in Beijing. The Vietnamese president’s visit to Beijing, his first overseas trip since becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam earlier this month, signals a desire between the two communist neighbors to strengthen ties, amid growing trade and investment, despite occasional clashes over boundaries in the South China Sea. “China has always regarded Vietnam as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, and supports Vietnam in adhering to the party leadership, taking the socialist
A former Saudi Arabian official alleged in a report that the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman forged the signature of his father on the royal decree that launched the kingdom’s years-long, stalemated war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the allegations made without supporting evidence by Saad al-Jabri in an interview published yesterday by the BBC, but the kingdom has described him as “a discredited former government official.” Al-Jabri, a former Saudi Arabian intelligence official who lives in exile in Canada, has been a years-long dispute with the kingdom as
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