From the Associated Press

SYDNEY – Anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters in the second major clash this year in increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.

No one was injured in the clash Saturday, which each side blamed on the other.

The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd , which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, accused the Japanese ship of deliberately rammed the Bob Barker — named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions of dollars for the anti-whaling group to buy it.

But Japan’s Fisheries Agency said the activist boat caused the collision by suddenly approaching the harpoon vessel No. 3 Yushin Maru to throw bottles containing bad-smelling butyric acid at the Japanese ship.

The agency accused Sea Shepherd of “an act of sabotage” on the Japanese expedition, noting that it is allowed under world whaling regulations as a scientific expedition. Conservationists call the annual hunt a cover for commercial whaling.

Neither side’s account could be verified. Video shot from the Bob Barker and released by Sea Shepherd shows the two ships side by side moving quickly through the water. The ships come closer together and the Japanese ship then appears to turn away, but its stern swings sharply toward the Bob Barker. The collision is obscured by spray, but a loud clanging noise can be heard before the vessels separate.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said a 3-foot-long, 4-inch-wide (1-meter-long, 10-centimeter-wide) hole was torn in the Bob Barker’s hull, but it was above the water line and was not a threat to the ship. The Japanese agency said Yushin Maru sustained minor damage to its handrail and hull.

Bob Barker, famous for hosting “The Price is Right” for more than 30 years, said he had spoken to Watson about the collision and was happy to continue supporting the Sea Shepherd leader.

“I hope he is able to bankrupt them,” Barker told The Associated Press. “He wants to sink this Japanese whaling ship economically. He wants to make it so they can’t afford to continue to business. I’m all too happy to be able to support him.”

Barker described the $5 million he donated for the purchase of the ship as “one of the best investments I’ve ever made.”

Saturday’s collision was the second this year between a Sea Shepherd boat and the Japanese fleet.

On Jan. 6, a Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd’s high-tech speed boat Ady Gil and sheared off its nose. The Bob Barker then came to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil, which sank a day later.

Sea Shepherd and the whalers have faced off in Antarctic waters for the past few years over Japan ’s annual whale hunt, with each side accusing the other of acting in increasingly dangerous ways.

Sea Shepherd activists try to block the whalers from firing harpoons, and they dangle ropes in the water to try to snarl the Japanese ships’ propellers. They also hurl packets of stinking rancid butter at their rivals. The whalers have responded by firing water cannons and sonar devices meant to disorient the activists. Collisions have occurred occasionally.

On Saturday, the Bob Barker found the whaling fleet for the first time since the Ady Gil clash , Watson said.

Watson said by satellite telephone on Saturday that the Bob Barker took up a position behind the Nisshin Maru — the Japanese factory ship where dead whales are hauled aboard and butchered — so the four harpoon vessels could not reach it.

“The harpoon ships started circling like sharks,” Watson said from his ship, the Steve Irwin. “They were making near passes to the stern and the bow of the Bob Barker, then the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Bob Barker.”

Welders aboard the ship were patching the hole, and the Bob Barker would resume its pursuit of the whalers, Watson said.

The Japanese fisheries agency said the Bob Barker came to too close to the Yushin Maru 3, which “immediately moved away to avert a collision, but it was grazed in its tail area.”

The governments of Australia and New Zealand, which have responsibility for maritime rescue in the area where the hunt is usually conducted, say the fight between the two sides is becoming increasingly dangerous and have repeatedly urged them to tone it down.

From the Associated Press by Rohan Sullivan

SYDNEY – Anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters in the second major clash this year in increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.
No one was injured in the clash Saturday, which each side blamed on the other.
The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, accused the Japanese ship of deliberately rammed the Bob Barker — named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions of dollars for the anti-whaling group to buy it.
But Japan’s Fisheries Agency said the activist boat caused the collision by suddenly approaching the harpoon vessel No. 3 Yushin Maru to throw bottles containing bad-smelling butyric acid at the Japanese ship.
The agency accused Sea Shepherd of “an act of sabotage” on the Japanese expedition, noting that it is allowed under world whaling regulations as a scientific expedition. Conservationists call the annual hunt a cover for commercial whaling.
Neither side’s account could be verified. Video shot from the Bob Barker and released by Sea Shepherd shows the two ships side by side moving quickly through the water. The ships come closer together and the Japanese ship then appears to turn away, but its stern swings sharply toward the Bob Barker. The collision is obscured by spray, but a loud clanging noise can be heard before the vessels separate.
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said a 3-foot-long, 4-inch-wide (1-meter-long, 10-centimeter-wide) hole was torn in the Bob Barker’s hull, but it was above the water line and was not a threat to the ship. The Japanese agency said Yushin Maru sustained minor damage to its handrail and hull.
Bob Barker, famous for hosting “The Price is Right” for more than 30 years, said he had spoken to Watson about the collision and was happy to continue supporting the Sea Shepherd leader.
“I hope he is able to bankrupt them,” Barker told The Associated Press. “He wants to sink this Japanese whaling ship economically. He wants to make it so they can’t afford to continue to business. I’m all too happy to be able to support him.”
Barker described the $5 million he donated for the purchase of the ship as “one of the best investments I’ve ever made.”
Saturday’s collision was the second this year between a Sea Shepherd boat and the Japanese fleet.
On Jan. 6, a Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd’s high-tech speed boat Ady Gil and sheared off its nose. The Bob Barker then came to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil, which sank a day later.
Sea Shepherd and the whalers have faced off in Antarctic waters for the past few years over Japan’s annual whale hunt, with each side accusing the other of acting in increasingly dangerous ways.
Sea Shepherd activists try to block the whalers from firing harpoons, and they dangle ropes in the water to try to snarl the Japanese ships’ propellers. They also hurl packets of stinking rancid butter at their rivals. The whalers have responded by firing water cannons and sonar devices meant to disorient the activists. Collisions have occurred occasionally.
On Saturday, the Bob Barker found the whaling fleet for the first time since the Ady Gil clash, Watson said.
Watson said by satellite telephone on Saturday that the Bob Barker took up a position behind the Nisshin Maru — the Japanese factory ship where dead whales are hauled aboard and butchered — so the four harpoon vessels could not reach it.
“The harpoon ships started circling like sharks,” Watson said from his ship, the Steve Irwin. “They were making near passes to the stern and the bow of the Bob Barker, then the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Bob Barker.”
Welders aboard the ship were patching the hole, and the Bob Barker would resume its pursuit of the whalers, Watson said.
The Japanese fisheries agency said the Bob Barker came to too close to the Yushin Maru 3, which “immediately moved away to avert a collision, but it was grazed in its tail area.”
The governments of Australia and New Zealand, which have responsibility for maritime rescue in the area where the hunt is usually conducted, say the fight between the two sides is becoming increasingly dangerous and have repeatedly urged them to tone it down.

From the Associated Press by Rod McGuirk

CANBERRA, Australia – Japanese whalers and militant conservationists have clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days, with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of rancid acid, both sides said Wednesday.

Each accused the other of coming dangerously close during the clashes. Neither reported any injuries or ship damage.

The New Zealand-registered Sea Shepherd Conservation Society shipAdy Gil came within 66 feet (20 meters) of colliding with the bow of Japanese harpoon ship Sonan Maru No. 2 on Wednesday, the Japanese government-sponsored Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement.

The activists tried to blind the Japanese crew with lasers and “fired ball-like projectiles with a projectile-launching device” during an attack that lasted 3.5 hours, the statement said.

Sea Shepherd accused the Japanese of using crowd-control sound technology known as a Long Range Acoustic Devices, or LRADs, as well as water cannon against the Ady Gil crew. The activists said they responded with lasers to get the Japanese to back off to a safe distance.

The Japanese said the attack on Wednesday was more dangerous than a confrontation late Tuesday between the same whaler and Sea Shepherd’s Netherlands-registered flag ship Steve Irwin.

The Japanese accuse both Sea Shepherd ships of trailing ropes in failed bids to entangle the whaler’s rudder and propellor.

The whalers also accused the Steve Irwin crew of hurling bottles of butyric acid — a rancid liquid that occurs in spoiled butter — during a two-hour conflict on Tuesday.

Sea Shepherd makes an annual attempt to stop Japanese whalers from harpooning hundreds of whales during the southern hemisphere summer, which began this month.

The first clash of the current whaling season happened Dec. 14 when the Steve Irwin and Sonan Maru No. 2 exchanged water cannon fire.

Japan’s whale hunts are allowed under international rules as a research program, despite a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts.

From the Associated Press

MEXICO CITY – Investigators have found evidence linking an animal rights group to homemade bombs that burned seven vehicles in Mexico City, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The symbol of a local version of the Animal Liberation Front was found painted near the attacks in a residential neighborhood on the city’s south side, assistant city prosecutor Luis Genaro Vasquez told the Televisa news network. An anarchist symbol was also found.

The assailants apparently tossed bottles filled with flammable liquids at cars and trucks.

Police have detained three youths who say they are 17-years-old.

Vasquez said that animal rights activists may have committed other recent small bomb attacks againstMexico City businesses.

There was no mention of the Tuesday car burnings on a Spanish-language Web site dedicated to the Mexican group and no reply to e-mails sent to the site, which says it has no contact with the Front. The group has no listed Mexican telephone number.

Jerry Vlasak, a press officer for the U.S.-based North American Animal Liberation Press Office, said his organization receives anonymous news statements from the Mexican group but does not know who its members are because they operate secretly.

He said he had not received any statement about the car burnings, but added it would be typical of the Mexican’s group actions.

“They are not vandals. They’re not doing this for personal gain. They do this because they love animals,” Vlasak said.

From The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine – Bolstered by out-of-state money and volunteers, both sides jockeyed Monday to boost turnout for a Maine referendum that could give gay-rights activists in the U.S. their first victory at the ballot box on the deeply divisive issue of same-sex marriage.

The state’s voters will decide Tuesday whether to repeal a law that would allow gay marriage. The law was passed by the Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci last May but has never taken effect.

The contest is considered too close to call, and both campaigns worked vigorously — with rallies, phone calls, e-mails and ads — to be sure their supporters cast votes in the off-year election.

If voters uphold the law, it will be the first time the electorate in any state has endorsed marital rights for same-sex couples, energizing activists nationwide and deflating a long-standing conservative argument that gay marriage lacks popular support.

Conversely, a repeal — in New England, the corner of the country most receptive to same-sex marriage — would be a jolting setback for the gay-rights movement and mark the first time voters overturned a gay-marriage law enacted by a legislature. When Californians voters rejected gay marriage a year ago, it was in response to a court ruling, not legislation.

Elsewhere around the country, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is locked in a tight battle for re-election in New Jersey, Republican Bob McDonnell is heavily favored in the race for Virginia governor, a hotly contested special congressional election in upstate New York has exposed a rift in the GOP between moderates and conservatives, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is expected to coast to victory in his bid for a third term as mayor of New York.

Apart from Maine, five states have legalized same-sex marriage — Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. But all did so via legislation or court rulings, not through a popular vote. By contrast, constitutional amendments banning gay marriage have been approved in all 30 states where they have reached the ballot.

“The eyes of the nation will be on Maine,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “The stakes are high, but so is our hope that Maine will remain among the growing number of states that extend the essential security and legal protections of marriage to all loving, committed couples.”

Brian Brown of the New Jersey-based National Organization of Marriage, which has contributed $1.5 million to the repeal campaign, agreed the election is critical for both sides.

He took heart in polls showing a close race, saying polling in other states that voted on the issue tended to underestimate the eventual opposition to same-sex marriage.

“New England is the one area where it’s much tougher ground for us than other states,” Brown said. “The fact that in a state like Maine we’re polling relatively even shows the depth of support for saying marriage is between a man and a woman.”

In downtown Portland, hundreds of people carrying signs gathered for a raucous noontime rally Monday in favor of gay marriage. Participants were exhorted to go to City Hall to vote — and make sure others vote as well.

Meredith Hunt, who hopes to wed her partner of 15 years, Melissa Hamkins, has been doing door to door, working the phones and recruiting volunteers. She took time off from her job as a nurse practitioner Monday to join in the final push for gay marriage.

“I’m running on adrenaline at this point. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” said Hunt, 45, who lives on a farm in Bowdoin. “This isn’t politics. This is personal.”

On the other side, Jeannette Saucier, 71, of Topsham, telephoned potential voters in hopes of stopping gay marriage.

“It’s not that I feel bigoted to gay people. We have gay people in my own family, but I don’t see them having to be married to prove a point,” she said.

Both campaigns have attracted volunteers and hefty financial support from out of state, but the financial advantage went to the side defending same-sex marriage, Protect Maine Equality. It raised $4 million, compared with $2.5 million collected by Stand for Marriage Maine, which forced the repeal vote through a petition drive.

Marc Mutty, on leave from a job with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland to run the Stand for Marriage campaign, said in a homestretch appeal for donations that the election “is about the future of marriage in Maine, and thus the nation.”

“It is about whether marriage will continue to be between one man and one woman as God intended and human history has affirmed, or if we will plunge our state into a radical social experiment of ‘any two will do,’” he said.

The diocese coordinated $550,000 in contributions to the repeal campaign and has criticized Baldacci, a Catholic and former altar boy, for signing the marriage law.

Gay-marriage opponents have stressed the theme — disputed by their rivals — that gay marriage will be taught in schools if the law is allowed to stand. A Stand For Marriage radio ad Monday focused on an attempt to strip the state license from a high school counselor who spoke out against gay marriage in a television commercial.

“Don’t be fooled. If Question 1 fails and homosexual marriage is legalized, those in power in Maine schools will push it on students just as they are trying to punish one of Maine’s best educators for supporting traditional marriage,” the radio ad said.

Gay rights was also on the ballot Tuesday in Washington state, where voters will decide whether to uphold or overturn a recently expanded domestic partnership law that gives same-sex couples the same state-granted rights as heterosexual married couples.

Among other ballot items around the country:

• Measures in Maine and Washington that would limit state and local government spending by holding down increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth. Voters would have to approve of any spending over the limits, or any tax hikes.

_A measure in Maine that would allow dispensaries to distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes. It is a follow-up to a 1999 measure that legalized medical marijuana without setting up a distribution system for patients who don’t grow their own pot.

_In Ohio, a measure that would allow casinos in four major cities: Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. Voters have defeated four previous gambling proposals over two decades, but casino supporters — who claim 34,000 jobs would be created_ say the woeful economy might produce a different outcome this time.

From the Associated Press

HONOLULU – Environmental activists are petitioning the federal government to put 83 coral species on the endangered species list.

They say global warming and ocean acidification are threatening the corals with extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity said Tuesday that the coral species in question are found in Hawaii, Florida and U.S. territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must respond to the group’s petition within 90 days and decide within a year whether listings are warranted.

Warm ocean temperatures can cause corals to expel algae they rely on for growth, resulting in what’s called bleaching.

Bleaching episodes can kill coral if they occur often and last for long periods.

From The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Thousands of gay and lesbian activists marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and allow same-sex marriages.

Rainbow flags and homemade signs dotted the crowds filling Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as people chanted “Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama” and “We’re out, we’re proud, we won’t back down.” Many children were also among the protesters. A few counter-protesters had also joined the crowd.

Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights.

“If somebody doesn’t have equal rights, then none of us are free,” he said.

“For all I know, she’s gay or he’s gay,” he added, pointing to his children.

Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energized by Obama’s blunt pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech to the nation’s largest gay rights group Saturday night.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that Congress will need to muster the resolve to change the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — a change that the military may be ready for.

“I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Obama’s political energies have been focused on two wars, the economic crisis and health care reform, though he pledged “unwavering” commitment even as he wrestled with those problems.

March organizer Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a protege of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, said he had initially discouraged a rally earlier in the year. But he and others began to worry Obama was backing away from his campaign promises.

“Since we’ve seen that so many times before, I didn’t want it to happen again,” he said. “We’re not settling. There’s no such thing as a fraction of equality.”

Jones noted that the debate over how to achieve progress has at times been bitter, but said people should look to the civil rights debates of 1963.

“There should be heat. There should be controversy because … we’re trying to change the strategy” to pursue full equality rather than a piecemeal approach, he said.

Unlike the first march in 1979 and others in 1987, 1993 and 2000 that included celebrity performances and drew as many as 500,000 people, Sunday’s event was driven by grassroots efforts and was expected to be more low-key.

Many organizers were outraged after the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which canceled the right of gays to get married in the state, and over perceived slights by the Obama administration.

Kipp Williams, a 27-year-old San Francisco resident, said he moved to California from the South seeking equality but realized after Proposition 8 that gay people are second-class citizens everywhere.

Contrary to the California Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of the referendum, he said “there is no exception to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.”

Sara Schoonover-Martin, 34, came from Martinsburg, W.Va., with her wife, Nicki, wearing matching veils and pink T-shirts that said “bride” and “I do.” The couple eloped at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts earlier this year.

“When marriage is legalized in West Virginia, we will renew our vows and have our family and friends there,” Sara said. “I’m angry that it hasn’t occurred quicker. This affects my life every day, 365 days a year.”

For Lt. Dan Choi, the day began with a jog around Washington’s memorials, calling cadence at 8 a.m. with fellow veterans and supporters before joining the march. Choi, a West Point graduate, Arabic speaker and Iraq war veteran, is facing discharge under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for revealing in March that he is gay.

“We have fought in battles to protect our country, and now we are fighting at home for equal and full protection under the law,” he said. He later stood outside the White House in uniform with his partner.

On Saturday, he led a group of gay veterans in laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery to honor gay and lesbian soldiers who have died in the line of duty.

Other veteran activists doubted the march would accomplish much. They said the time and money would have been better spent working to persuade voters in Maine and Washington state, where the November ballot will include a measure that would overturn a bill granting same-sex couples many of the benefits of marriage.

A bill introducing same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital also was introduced last week by the District of Columbia Council and is expected to easily pass.

Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, said the marchers should be lobbying their lawmakers. He said the demonstrations are simply “an emotional release” that do little to pressure Congress.

“The only thing they’re going to be putting pressure on is the grass,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Friday.

From the Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Three animal rights activists protesting seal hunting have been arrested in front of the Canadian embassy in Washington.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says officers arrested three members of PETA Wednesday morning on charges of disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and failure to obey. The women taken into custody wore white seal costumes streaked in red paint to represent blood.

The protesters crawled onto Pennsylvania Avenue and blocked traffic. When they refused to move officers removed their masks, handcuffed them and carried them to the sidewalk.

About 15 other activists nearby held signs asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper to “stop the seal slaughter.” The group says harp seals are targeted in Canada and wants to send Harper a message as he visits President Barack Obama.