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Emaar MGF IPO extended to Monday - source
2008-02-07 13:16:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - A $1.6 billion initial public offer from realty firm Emaar MGF Land Ltd has been extended until Feb. 11, a banking source said on Wednesday. The IPO, scheduled to close on Wednesday, had received 61.8 million bids, or 60 percent of the issue of 102.57 million shares by 5:51 p.m., mostly at the lower end of the price band, data from the National Stock Exchange showed. The company, an Indian joint venture of Dubai's Emaar Properties, had cut the offer price range on the eve of the opening on Feb. 1 because of volatile market conditions.
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Boeing, Tata unit sign components deal for 787
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Boeing Co has signed an agreement with TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors Ltd, for making structural components for the 787 Dreamliner, the companies said. TAL will build floor beams for the 787 using advanced titanium and composite materials, resulting in a "significant weight saving", they said in a joint statement on Wednesday. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The floor beams will be made at TAL's new facility in Nagpur and shipped to Japan, Italy and the United States for further assembly. "We believe this agreement has the potential to develop into a more broad-based alliance that would enable both organisations to utilise the most competitive resources," Ravi Kant, chairman of TAL and managing director of Tata Motors, was cited as saying. Boeing Commercial Airplanes estimates India will need aircraft worth about $86 billion over the next 20 years.
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Software, banks pull Sensex down 2.8 pct
2008-02-07 12:59:00
By Hiral Vora MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian shares fell 2.81 percent on Wednesday as investor fears of a recession in the United States again spooked global markets, with software services exporters such as Infosys Technologies Ltd leading losses. Markets worldwide have buckled this year on concerns a U.S. recession will drag down global growth and signs of more subprime-mortgage related problems in the financial sector. India's benchmark BSE 30-share index closed 523.7 points down at 18,139.49, with 28 components in the red. It fell about 4 percent in opening deals. Shares in software services exporters, which earn more than half of their revenue from the United States, fell with bellwether Infosys down 6.3 percent to 1,510.60 rupees. Its rival and top exporter Tata Consultancy Services fell 5.2 percent to 900.55 rupees, while the sector index dropped 5.6 percent. "The technology stocks are taking a beating because of the uncertainty in the U.S. ... I don't think that in t...
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In U.S., some illegal immigrants are rich
2008-02-07 12:59:00
By John Buchanan ATLANTA (Reuters) - Many illegal immigrants in the United States are manual labourers on low wages. But there's another group that attracts much less attention: entrepreneurs who have set up businesses, created jobs and grown affluent. There are up to 20,000 illegal immigrants earning upward of $100,000 a year as entrepreneurs, and their existence challenges the stereotype that illegal immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy, according to immigration lawyers and academics. Many say they are living the "American Dream," but almost none trumpet their achievements because they fear deportation. One example is a 38-year-old computer engineer who overstayed his visa after arriving from Colombia in 1999. Not long after, he founded a Web design firm in Miami that specializes in e-commerce. Today it's a fast-growing, tax-paying company that recently developed a Web platform for online radio and television that could be a breakthrough technology. &quo...
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Bharti, partners to lay India-France telecom cable
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India 's top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said on Wednesday it would build an undersea cable between India and France in partnership with eight telecoms firms to meet growing demand for data transfer. The network, to be called I-ME-WE, will cover 14,000 km and connect India and western Europe via the Middle East, Bharti said in a statement, adding it would be ready by late 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed. Other partners in the project include India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, UAE's Etisalat, Saudi Telecom Co (STC), France Telecom, Lebanon's Ogero, Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd, Telecom Egypt and Italy's TIS Sparkle, Bharti said. Bharti owns the i2i cable system, which connects India with Singapore and is one of the consortium partners in the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable system that connects India with Europe.
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SocGen races towards discounted capital hike
2008-02-07 12:59:00
By Marcel Michelson PARIS (Reuters) - With a slew of potentially damaging public hearings on the Societe Generale rogue dealing scandal over for the time being, attention turned on Wednesday to a capital increase needed to shore up the French bank's finances. Le Figaro reported that the board of the bank would meet on Wednesday, a day after Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer expressed astonishment at the failure of the bank's systems to spot unauthorised deals that led to 4.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) loss. The board could give the go-ahead for a 5.5 billion euro capital increase needed to plug the losses following days of private presentations and talks with shareholders, the newspaper said. With global share markets crumbling and doubts swirling over SocGen's independence, the bank is expected to offer a steep discount to ensure the operation's success, traders said. SocGen said it had no immediate comment. The bank is also under pressure to secure the capital...
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Bharti: KKR to invest $250 mln in tower unit
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, said on Wednesday private equity Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) had agreed to invest $250 million in its tower unit. Bharti Infratel owns 20,000 mobile towers and 42 percent in a joint venture company, Indus Tower s, along with Britain's Vodafone and No. 6 mobile firm Idea Cellular. In December, the New Delhi-based mobile operator had said it was selling a 9 percent stake in the tower unit for $1 billion to seven international investors, including Singapore's Temasek, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. India is the fastest growing mobile services market that has been adding about eight million subscribers a month. The outlook for growth is huge as rising incomes, cheap tariffs and expansion of networks to rural areas boost demand. With 233.6 million subscribers at end-December, only slightly over a fifth of India's population has access to a mobile phone now. On Monday, smaller rival Reliance Communications sai...
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Sensex provisionally ends 2.9 pct down
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian shares provisionally fell 2.91 percent on Wednesday, joining a global slide and led lower by top listed Reliance Industries Ltd and bellwether software services exporter Infosys Technologies Ltd. The 30-share BSE index provisionally closed 543.6 points lower at 18,119.57, with 27 components in the red. The 50-issue NSE index provisionally fell 3.09 percent to 5,314.60.
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StatoilHydro, ONGC to explore CCS projects
2008-02-07 12:59:00
OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's StatoilHydro and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp will jointly explore potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and other environmental projects in India, StatoilHydro said on Wednesday. "The two companies have agreed to jointly screen possibilities for developing CCS and (clean development mechanism) projects within ONGC's operations in India," StatoilHydro said in a statement. Cooperation could result in projects to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and to promote energy efficiency and growing use of renewable energy under the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, the Norwegian oil and gas company said.
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India sees low-key gold demand, buyers eye falls
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India 's gold market saw low-key demand on Wednesday at slightly higher prices mainly from wedding shoppers even as dealers said major purchasing of the busy season is yet to be seen. "Demand has revived a bit in the last two days as there is some desperate buying due to weddings," said Mayank Khemka, managing director of Khemka International Pvt Ltd, a gold importing company in New Delhi. India's season for Hindu weddings that will go on till the end of May, is a succour for the gold trade, as it has forced many people to ignore prices and buy whatever their budget permits, dealers and traders said. Demand will pick up only after gold prices drop to 11,000 rupees per 10 grams, Khemka added. A dealer in a private bank said there was "not much" buying as gold's slide from a life-time peak at $936.50 an ounce last week had fuelled hopes of further corrections. International gold rebounded on Wednesday on bargain hunting after three continu...
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Iceland's Glitnir takes stake in India geothermal JV
2008-02-07 12:59:00
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Iceland 's Glitnir Bank will take a 40 percent stake in a geothermal energy joint venture with India 's LNJ Bhilwara group, officials from both firms said on Wednesday. Iceland's third-largest bank by market capitalisation, which has also applied to set up a liaison office in India, sees geothermal energy as one of its focus areas for investment. "India is a vast country and we believe there are a number of unexplored resources in geothermal," Chief Executive Larus Welding told reporters at a news conference. The diversified LNJ Bhilwara group has over 2,800 megawatts of energy projects in various stages of development, but this is its first in the geothermal segment. Glitnir has been involved in a similar project in China, a statement said. "Glitnir will provide us with the geothermal expertise," LNJ Bhilwara Chairman Ravi Jhunjhunwala said, adding the bank's experts would arrive in India in March to study locations for plants. Jhunj...
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Ashok Leyland Jan vehicle sales down 5.7pct
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Ashok Leyland Ltd, India's second-biggest bus and truck maker, said on Wednesday it sold 9,112 vehicles in January, down 5.7 percent from a year earlier. It said domestic sales fell 7 percent to 8,477 units from 9,113 units, while exports rose to 635 units from 554 units.
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Gold bounces from two-week low, platinum off peak
2008-02-07 12:59:00
By Lewa Pardomuan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold bounced on Wednesday after a drop to its lowest in almost two weeks attracted bargain hunters, while platinum also rebounded, holding near an all-time high around $1,800 an ounce. Spot gold rose to $887.50/888.20 an ounce from $886.85/887.55 late in New York. The metal hit a low of $885.30 on Tuesday on a firmer dollar and also after a slide in global shares forced some investors to sell gold to cover losses. "Gold is still trading between $880 and $905. Just for today," said William Kwan, a dealer at Phillip Futures in Singapore. "Short-term market participants have decided to liquidate their gold holdings before the Chinese New Year. They prefer not to have any outright position over the long weekend," said Kwan. Gold rallied to a record high of $936.50 an ounce on Feb. 1 amid worries about U.S. economic growth before a rebounding dollar sparked heavy selling to as low as $904.70 on the same day. It had surge...
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Mid-day to sell printing, publishing business to unit
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher Mid-day Multimedia Ltd said on Wednesday its board has decided to sell its printing and publishing business to a new wholly-owned unit at a price not less than 170 million rupees. Shares in the company closed down 1.5 percent at 39.50 rupees in the Mumbai market.
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RBI puts UBS retail licence bid on hold
2008-02-07 12:59:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India has put on hold approval for Swiss bank UBS AG's application for a retail banking licence to open a branch in India, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "An in-principle approval given to UBS has been kept on hold pending investigations," RBI spokeswoman Alpana Killawalla told Reuters, responding to a newspaper report. She did not elaborate. Citing unidentified sources, the Mint newspaper said on Wednesday that the central bank had withheld the approval because of the Swiss bank's "reluctance to cooperate" with an investigation into alleged money transfers between an Indian businessman and a Saudi arms dealer. "We don't comment on market speculation or rumours. There is not much I can say more than that," Mark Panday, a spokesman for UBS in Hong Kong, said. UBS already has a broking and investment banking unit in India. The pause on the retail banking licence application is unlikely to affect UBS's i...
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No change in Myanmar policy for new Thai government
2008-02-07 12:44:00
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai land's new government will not change the country's policy on Myanmar of non-interference and working with Southeast Asia to push the junta towards democracy, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said on Thursday. "Non-interference in others' internal affairs remains the thrust of our diplomacy," said Noppadon, a former lawyer and spokesman for ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup. Noppadon, an Oxford graduate, said democracy and human rights were internal affairs of the former Burma, ruled by the military since 1962 and the focus of international opprobrium since crushing pro-democracy protests in September. Thailand would rely on the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, one of the few international groups willing to have Myanmar as a member, to bring change about, Noppadon told a news conference. "We will work under the ASEAN framework to make democracy in Myanmar prosper and a bring better sta...
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RBI appoints new member on financial panel
2008-02-07 12:44:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed a senior finance ministry official to one of its panels on the financial sector, it said in a release on Wednesday. Arun Ramanathan, secretary (financial sector) with the government, has been appointed a member of the committee on financial sector assessment, the central bank statement said.
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Reporting in the dark in icy New Year China
2008-02-07 12:44:00
By John Ruwitch CHENZHOU, China (Reuters) - I stepped nervously from the over-crowded sleeper onto the frigid platform with no hotel, no contacts and no plan other than to find out what it was like to be in a city of 4 million in the midst of a 12-day blackout. The ride aboard the L44 train should have taken 4-1/2 hours. Across the snowbound country it had taken four times as long by the time we pulled into Chenzhou, only the second stop on a northbound slog to Beijing from the southern city of Guangzhou. Freezing rain and snow in late January coated much of south-central China with a thick layer of ice, contorting tree branches and crumpling some 1,000 high-tension power pylons. Chenzhou was at the heart of the freak winter disaster that halted transport and stranded millions in the days before the biggest holiday on the Chinese calendar, the Lunar Yew Year . The slush-lined streets were alive with activity, and I learned over the next few days that stoic resignation bolstered ...
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China starts to thaw out as weather crisis recedes
2008-02-07 12:44:00
By Royston Chan CHENZHOU, China (Reuters) - The thunder of firecrackers ushered in the Year of the Rat on Thursday, but millions of Chinese spent a cold holiday as repair teams fought to restore power knocked out by the worst winter weather in a century. China's leaders spent the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday in some of the worst-hit parts of south-central China commiserating with residents and encouraging relief workers. Premier Wen Jiabao was in the provinces of Jiangxi and Guizhou on his third tour of disaster areas in nine days. He visited one city that has been without electricity for three weeks. As well as mobilising more than a million soldiers and reservists to combat the snow and ice, the state has cranked up its propaganda machine to lift spirits for the most important day in the calendar. "When disaster struck, help came from all sides, which indicated the superiority of China's socialism," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying. In Ch...
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Israel kills five Hamas gunmen, teacher in Gaza
2008-02-07 12:44:00
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel i troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched a raid into the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing five Hamas gunmen and a schoolteacher, the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction and hospital officials said. Residents said tanks and heavy bulldozers penetrated the border fence near the town of Jabalya in the coastal territory. Israeli forces also struck in Beit Hanoun, a border community often used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets into Israel. Hamas said five of its gunmen died fighting the Israeli troops. Hospital officials said an Israeli missile hit a school in Beit Hanoun, killing a teacher and wounding two colleagues. A military spokeswoman confirmed Israeli forces were operating in the Gaza area but said she could not immediately elaborate. Hamas said it was responsible for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed a woman in Israel on Monday, the first such claim from the group since 2004. Israeli forces frequently carry out raids in G...
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StanChart says gets many bids for Indian fund
2008-02-07 12:44:00
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Standard Chartered Plc has received several bids for its Indian mutual fund business, Neeraj Swaroop, regional chief executive for India and South Asia, said on Wednesday. He said the bank plans to raise its stake to 74 percent in its Indian broking firm by May from 49 percent now.
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All clear after threat in German town Erdogan to visit
2008-02-07 12:44:00
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police gave the all clear on Thursday after checking the threat of an attack on the Labour Office in the western city of Ludwigshafen, which Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due to visit later in the day. "We assume this is a very bad joke," a police spokeswoman said. On Sunday, a fire in a housing block in Ludwigshafen killed nine people with Turkish backgrounds. Erdogan is due to visit the site later.
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Russia says will move AIDS prisoner to hospital
2008-02-07 12:44:00
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia 's prison service bowed to international pressure on Thursday by announcing it would transfer Vasily Alexanian, an inmate gravely ill with AIDS, to a specialist clinic. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has issued three instructions to the Russian authorities to move Alexanian to a hospital. He has said he will die unless he receives life-saving treatment. Valery Zaitsev, deputy spokesman for the federal prisons service, told Reuters Alexanian, 36, would be transferred to a clinic "in the near future."
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Russia says regrets Europe vote watchdog's stance
2008-02-07 12:44:00
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia 's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he regretted the way Europe 's main election watchdog had behaved in a dispute over monitoring a March 2 presidential vote. "ODIHR (the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) has been making public statements, the essence of which is that it has made its demands and if these are not met ODIHR will not come," Lavrov told a news briefing. "We regret that this approach has prevailed in ODIHR's position." The vote watchdog is in dispute with Russian election officials over the size and scope of the observer mission it is seeking to send to the March 2 vote, which an ally of outgoing President Vladimir Putin is expected to win. Russia has said the observers can come no earlier than Feb. 20 but ODIHR says it needs its teams in Russia no later than Feb. 15 if it is to conduct a meaningful observation. The body has said it will pull out if its conditions are not met. Officials ...
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Egypt multi-vehicle road crash kills 24, fog cited
2008-02-07 12:44:00
CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 24 people were killed and 16 others injured in a multi-vehicle road crash on a highway outside the Egypt ian capital on Thursday, and fog was the probable cause, security sources said. The sources said the collision took place when a bus and a minibus collided southeast of Cairo. At least six other vehicles then rammed into them because fog had lowered visibility on the road and they could not see the crash. The security sources, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the confirmed death toll in the crash was at least 24, although one source put the number of dead at 25. Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions contribute to many road crashes in Egypt. A series of fatal road and rail accidents in recent years also triggered a public outcry over the government's handling of transport safety.
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Arroyo orders inquiry into Philippine kickbacks row
2008-02-07 12:44:00
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an inquiry on Thursday into allegations of government kickbacks in a deal with China's ZTE Corp, in which her husband's name has figured. The move comes a day before the Senate resumes its own inquiry into the $330 million deal and hears testimony from a senior government official who disappeared for over 24 hours after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong. "The president has directed the Department of Justice to conduct preliminary investigation against those who may be liable for violation of procurement laws as well as anti-graft laws in connection with the ZTE project," Arroyo's chief spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement. Arroyo has survived three attempts to impeach her in the past three years on charges of cheating in elections and corruption. On Tuesday, her supporters in the House of Representatives unseated Speaker Joe de Venecia, apparently to punish him for his son appearing as a...
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Russia's Putin, Japan PM may meet over island row
2008-02-07 12:44:00
TOKYO (Reuters) - Russia n President Vladimir Putin has offered new talks to resolve the fate of four rocky islands seized from Japan in the closing days of World War Two, prompting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to consider a visit to Moscow. Fukuda said he had received a letter in which Putin had expressed his willingness to end the territorial dispute, which has prevented the two countries signing a peace deal in the six decades since the war ended. "Resolving the Northern Territories issue and concluding a peace treaty is essential to lift Russo-Japanese ties to higher levels," Fukuda told a packed hall in Tokyo to mark Northern Territories Day, an annual rally to remember the loss of the islands. Scores of riot police used buses and gates to block off the Russian embassy in Tokyo on Thursday as dozens of right-wing campaigners cruised the streets in loudspeaker vans blaring nationalist music and chanting slogans calling for the return of the islands. Despite ...
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Strong Quake rocks Indonesia's Sulawesi island
2008-02-07 12:44:00
JAKARTA (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale shook the northern part of Indonesia 's Sulawesi island on Thursday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, a meteorology official said. The undersea quake was centred 118 km northwest of Gorontalo at a depth of 35 km, said Andi Zulfikar of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 6.0. Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes since it lies on an area of intense seismic activity where a number of tectonic plates collide.
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Romney's White House bid in doubt after losses
2008-02-07 12:26:00
By Jason Szep BOSTON (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney has carefully nurtured an image as a turnaround specialist who has revived battered companies to reap big rewards and saved the debt-ridden 2002 Winter Olympics from financial disaster. But after investing at least $35 million of his own money and more than two years in a hard-fought campaign for the White House , his chances of reviving his candidacy look slimmer than ever after a disappointing "Super Tuesday" in which he failed to win key target states. "He's a businessman and on a cost-benefit basis it just doesn't look to be in his advantage to continue much longer," said Thomas Whalen, a professor at Boston University who has tracked Romney's political career. Analysts say the multimillionaire's quest for "the heart and soul of Republican Party" -- as Romney often describes his presidential bid -- is all but over after he failed to place first or second in most of the states where he ca...
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Australia releases Japanese whaling pictures
2008-02-07 12:26:00
By Rob Taylor CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia released on Thursday pictures of whales being killed by Japan in the Southern Ocean, fueling public anger and prompting a warning to Tokyo that legal evidence was mounting against the yearly hunt. A photo of an adult minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of a Japanese factory processing ship in Antarctic waters prompted headlines including "They call it science". "When I saw the photos I just felt a bit of a sick feeling as well as a sense of sadness," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said. One image showed what appeared to be the young whale's intestine spilling from an explosive harpoon wound. "This isn't about science, it isn't about research. They're calling it science, but really it's killing whales," Garrett said. Japan plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales for research over the Antarctic summer. Despite a moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual "...
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