Australia has set a deadline for Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean by November this year, or face international legal action. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was still hopeful that talks with Japan would lead to a voluntary halt. Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada is to visit Australia this weekend. Despite a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan kills hundreds of whales each year, ostensibly for scientific research. Blunt talk Mr Rudd told the Channel 7 TV station that Australia would ‘work with the Japanese to reduce, through negotiation, their current catch to zero’. If we don’t get that as a diplomatic agreement, let me tell you, we’ll be going to the International Court of Justice ‘If that fails – and I’m saying this very bluntly… – if that fails, then we will initiate that court action before the commencement of the whaling season in November 2010.’ Australia has made such threats before but correspondents say the timing and assertive tone of this statement – coming just one day before Mr Okada is due to visit – gives the words added weight. The BBC’s Nick Bryant in […]