Japanese whalers were accused yesterday of injuring two activists in a high seas clash in the Antarctic and of deploying a new “military grade” acoustic weapon against protesters.
One activist was cut and bruised after being knocked over by a high pressure blast of water and the other was hit in the face by a metal ball thrown by the whalers, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said.
Both men had been on small inflatable boats launched from the group’s ship, the Steve Irwin, to “harass the [Japanese whaling] fleet and to hurry them along,” Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
PHOTO: AP
The environmental group, which has been accused by Japan of “eco-terrorism” for its attempts to disrupt the annual whale hunt, said the whalers had used a new “acoustic weapon” against protesters.
“The factory ship the Nisshin Maru [No. 1] and the two harpoon vessels in the fleet are equipped with long range acoustical devices,” it said. “This is a military grade weapon system that sends out mid to high frequency sound waves designed to disorient and possibly incapacitate personnel. It is basically an anti-personnel weapons system.”
The Steve Irwin retreated when within range of the acoustic weapon but generally had “a very successful day,” captain Paul Watson said.
“All we need to do is to keep them running and to keep them from whaling and that is exactly what we are doing,” he said.
A spokesman for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research would not confirm that the fleet was using sound waves against the activists.
“We can neither confirm nor deny the strategies employed by the Japanese research vessels to protect themselves from the criminal actions committed by the Dutch vessel,” Glenn Inwood told Australia’s national AAP news agency. “We can say, however, that all legal means available will be used to ensure these pirates do not board Japanese ships or threaten the lives of the crews or the safety of the vessels.”
An international moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986 but Japan kills hundreds each year in the name of “research.”
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS