New Zealand will push ahead with attempts to get a diplomatic solution to whaling in the Southern Ocean at the International Whaling Organisation despite new revelations of corruption.
The lawyer for Auckland whaling protester Peter Bethune, on trial in Tokyo and facing up to 15 years in prison if found guilty, says is confident he will not be convicted of the charge of assault against a Japanese whaler.
The Government will consider joining Australia's international legal action against Japanese whaling, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.
New Zealand will not be joining Australian legal action against Japan over whaling in the Southern Ocean until diplomatic avenues are exhausted, Prime Minister John Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully say.
Australia is launching legal action to stop Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters.
New Zealand anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune is likely to plead guilty to four of the five charges laid against him when he goes on trial in Tokyo District Court tomorrow.
The Government will continue to seek a diplomatic solution to whaling although the latest proposal to resolve the problem is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.
Negotiations over the future of international whaling are delicately poised and a compromise between pro- and anti-whaling nations is the only realistic goal to push for, the Government says.
Oh lucky man: the political gods continue to smile on How else to explain the incredible switch in American attitudes to New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy - as witnessed in Washington this week?
Japan's coast guard has added a set of new allegations against an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand who is in custody for illegally boarding a Japanese harpoon boat on a whaling expedition
The Green Party says whaling protester Peter Bethune may have been legally entitled under international maritime law to attempt a citizen's arrest on the captain of Japanese vessel Shonan Maru, and that the New Zealand Government needs to act to assist him from a legal perspective.
The Labour Party has launched a petition against allowing commercial whaling to restart.
A Maori fisheries trust has no plans to pull its support of whaling for indigenous people, and supported scientific research by the Japanese to determine whale numbers.
Anti-whaling boat, the Steve Irwin, has come under fire from water cannons on Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean.
