Yoko Ono asks Japan dolphin fishermen to stop

Google – AFP, 20 January 2014

This picture taken on April 19, 2012 shows a cove in Taiji town, Japan, made

 famous by the film "The Cove" which depicts the annual cull of dolphins (JIJI

PRESS/AFP/File, Jiji Press)

Tokyo — The Japanese widow of John Lennon on Monday added her voice to pleas to dolphin fishermen that they stop their hunt, days after the US ambassador to Tokyo waded into the row.

Yoko Ono published an open letter to the men of Taiji, the small town made famous by the Oscar-winning film "The Cove" which depicts the annual bloodbath, in which she urged them to halt the cull for the "future of Japan".

Ono said the hunt, in which scores of animals are corralled into a cove, with the prettiest selected for sale to aquariums and the rest butchered for meat, was damaging the reputation of Japan.

Yoko Ono, the widow of late British singer John

 Lennon, pictured in Tokyo on December 5, 2013

(AFP/File, Toshifumi Kitamura)

It "will give an excuse for big countries and their children in China, India and Russia to speak ill of Japan," she wrote.

"I am sure that it is not easy, but please consider the safety of the future of Japan, surrounded by many powerful countries which are always looking for the chance to weaken the power of our country.

"At this very politically sensitive time, (the hunt) will make the children of the world hate the Japanese.

"For many, many years and decades we have worked hard to receive true understanding of the Japanese from the world," she said.

"But what we enjoy now, can be destroyed literally in one day. I beg of you to consider our precarious situation after the nuclear disaster (which could very well affect the rest of the world, as well)."

The reference was to the 2011 triple meltdowns at Fukushima after their reactors were swamped by a huge tsunami.

The letter, which was posted on her "Imagine Peace" website and addressed to "Japanese fishermen of Taiji", bore her signature and was dated 20 January, 2014. At the foot, it said: "cc Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe".

Ono's intervention came just days after US ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy tweeted her disapproval.

"Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (US Government) opposes drive hunt fisheries," wrote Kennedy, the only surviving child of assassinated US President John F Kennedy, on January 17.

Her comments were welcomed on Monday by fugitive eco-activist Paul Watson, who said he hoped it would help convince Tokyo to put a halt to the practice.

"Hopefully this would put additional pressure to convince the Japanese government that this really has no place in the 21st century," he said.

Watson, who is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is now in the United States where he arrived last year saying he wanted to challenge a court injunction.

Protesters hold dolphin-shaped ballons and anti-dolphin slaughter placards as they

march to the Japanese embassy in Manila on September 2, 2013 (AFP, Ted Aljibe)

Japanese authorities are seeking his extradition and describe methods used by Watson's Sea Shepherd group against whaling ships -- for example blocking the boats' propellers -- as "terrorist" acts.

Watson was arrested in May last year in Frankfurt on a warrant from Costa Rica, where he is wanted on charges stemming from a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.

The Canadian-born activist fled from Germany but arrived in California on October 28, more than a year later.

Sea Shepherd says around 250 dolphins have been corralled in the cove so far, and that some have been removed, but it is not clear how many have been killed.

Related Article:

US envoy Kennedy tweets concern at Japanese dolphin hunt

Is our Sun falling silent?

BBC News, Rebecca Morelle, Science reporter, 18 January 2014

Rebecca Morelle reports for Newsnight on the solar lull that is baffling scientists

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"I've been a solar physicist for 30 years, and I've never seen anything quite like this," says Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

He shows me recent footage captured by spacecraft that have their sights trained on our star. The Sun is revealed in exquisite detail, but its face is strangely featureless.

"If you want to go back to see when the Sun was this inactive... you've got to go back about 100 years," he says.

This solar lull is baffling scientists, because right now the Sun should be awash with activity.

The Sun's activity may be falling faster than at any time in 10,000 years

It has reached its solar maximum, the point in its 11-year cycle where activity is at a peak.

This giant ball of plasma should be peppered with sunspots, exploding with flares and spewing out huge clouds of charged particles into space in the form of coronal mass ejections.

The Sun should be at the peak of its
activity - bursting with flares and coronal
mass ejections

But apart from the odd event, like some recent solar flares, it has been very quiet. And this damp squib of a maximum follows a solar minimum - the period when the Sun's activity troughs - that was longer and lower than scientists expected.

"It's completely taken me and many other solar scientists by surprise," says Dr Lucie Green, from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

The drop off in activity is happening surprisingly quickly, and scientists are now watching closely to see if it will continue to plummet.

"It could mean a very, very inactive star, it would feel like the Sun is asleep... a very dormant ball of gas at the centre of our Solar System," explains Dr Green.

This, though, would certainly not be the first time this has happened.

During the latter half of the 17th Century, the Sun went through an extremely quiet phase - a period called the Maunder Minimum.

Historical records reveal that sunspots virtually disappeared during this time.

Dr Green says: "There is a very strong hint that the Sun is acting in the same way now as it did in the run-up to the Maunder Minimum."

Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics, from the University of Reading, thinks there is a significant chance that the Sun could become increasingly quiet.

An analysis of ice-cores, which hold a long-term record of solar activity, suggests the decline in activity is the fastest that has been seen in 10,000 years.

"It's an unusually rapid decline," explains Prof Lockwood.

Londoners enjoyed frost fairs on the Thames in the 17th Century

"We estimate that within about 40 years or so there is a 10% to 20% - nearer 20% - probability that we'll be back in Maunder Minimum conditions."

The era of solar inactivity in the 17th Century coincided with a period of bitterly cold winters in Europe.

Londoners enjoyed frost fairs on the Thames after it froze over, snow cover across the continent increased, the Baltic Sea iced over - the conditions were so harsh, some describe it as a mini-Ice Age.

And Prof Lockwood believes that this regional effect could have been in part driven by the dearth of activity on the Sun, and may happen again if our star continues to wane.

"It's a very active research topic at the present time, but we do think there is a mechanism in Europe where we should expect more cold winters when solar activity is low," he says.

He believes this local effect happens because the amount of ultraviolet light radiating from the Sun dips when solar activity is low.

This means that less UV radiation hits the stratosphere - the layer of air that sits high above the Earth. And this in turn feeds into the jet stream - the fast-flowing air current in the upper atmosphere that can drive the weather.

The results of this are dominantly felt above Europe, says Prof Lockwood.

Cold, snowy winters could become the norm for Europe

"These are large meanders in the jet stream, and they're called blocking events because they block off the normal moist, mild winds we get from the Atlantic, and instead we get cold air being dragged down from the Arctic and from Russia," he says.

"These are what we call a cold snap... a series of three or four cold snaps in a row adds up to a cold winter. And that's quite likely what we'll see as solar activity declines."

So could this regional change in Europe have a knock-on effect on for the rest of the world's climate? And what are the implications for global warming?

In a recent report by the UN's climate panel, scientists concluded that they were 95% certain that humans were the "dominant cause" of global warming since the 1950s, and if greenhouse gases continue to rise at their current rate, then the global mean temperature could rise by as much as 4.8C.

And while some have argued that ebbs and flows in the Sun's activity are driving the climate - overriding the effect of greenhouse gas emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that solar variation only makes a small contribution to the Earth's climate.

Prof Lockwood says that while UV light varies with solar activity, other forms of radiation from the Sun that penetrate the troposphere (the lower layer of air that sits above the Earth) do not change that much.

He explains: "If we take all the science that we know relating to how the Sun emits heat and light and how that heat and light powers our climate system, and we look at the climate system globally, the difference that it makes even going back into Maunder Minimum conditions is very small.

"I've done a number of studies that show at the very most it might buy you about five years before you reach a certain global average temperature level. But that's not to say, on a more regional basis there aren't changes to the patterns of our weather that we'll have to get used to."

Polar lights - one manifestation of solar activity in the Earth's magnetosphere -
may dim

But this weather would not be the only consequence of a drawn out period of inactivity, says Dr Green.

"If the Sun were to get very quiet, one of the few things that would happen is that we'd have very few displays of the northern lights. They are driven by solar activity, and we'd miss out on this beautiful natural phenomenon," she explains.

However, there could be positive effects too.

"Solar activity drives a whole range of space weather, and these are ultimately effects on the electricity networks, on satellites, on radio communications and GPS on your sat-nav," she explains.

And while scientists cannot discount that the random bursts of activity may still occur, calmer periods of space weather would help to maintain the technological infrastructure that we rely so heavily on.

While the full consequences of a quietening Sun are not fully understood, one thing scientists are certain about is that our star is unpredictable, and anything could happen next.

"This feels like a period where it's very strange... but also it stresses that we don't really understand the star that we live with." says Prof Harrison.

"Because it's complicated - it's a complex beast."

Follow Rebecca on Twitter

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"...The Weather... Again

My partner has been "against the grain" in the past years, giving you what I have channelled about the weather. Is it global warming? No. Is it going to get better? No. This is a two-generation cycle. There will continue to be earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and storms. This is a recalibration of life in the ocean, and humanity must go through this in any way they can. This is a cycle, a known and expected one, but since you haven't gone through it in modern times, it's not well understood yet. ..."

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

New Mini Ice Age

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”

British Columbia salmon return one of largest seen in region (Sep 2013)

Pink salmon, shown in a file photograph, 

have a lifespan of two years

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one." 

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

World Court to Shine Light on East Timor-Australia Spy Row

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Charles Onians, January 19, 2014

East Timorese activists hold a banner during a protest outside the Australian
 embassy in Dili, East Timor, on Dec. 9, 2013. (EPA Photo/Antonio Dasiparu)

The Hague. Tiny, young East Timor drags its giant neighbor Australia before the United Nations’ top court next week in a cloak-and-dagger case with billions of dollars in natural resources at stake.

At the heart of the David and Goliath dispute at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is a controversial oil and gas treaty signed by Dili in 2006, shortly after independence from Indonesia.

East Timor wants judges at the ICJ, which rules on disputes between states, to order Australia to return documents its intelligence services seized last year relating to Dili’s bid to get the treaty torn up.

“It’s simple: we’re asking for our documents back. Australia has unlawfully taken documents that are rightfully the property of Timor-Leste,” government spokesman Agio Pereira told AFP ahead of Monday’s hearing.

East Timor gained its independence in 2002 following years of brutal Indonesian occupation but has a sluggish economy that is heavily dependent on oil and gas.

Dili wants the key treaty it signed with Canberra in 2006 dividing oil and gas resources ripped up, saying Australia spied on ministers to gain a commercial advantage.

Australia allegedly used an aid project refurbishing East Timor’s cabinet offices as a front to plant listening devices in the walls in order to eavesdrop on deliberations about the treaty in 2004.

The treaty, Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea, or CMATS, set out a 50-50 split of proceeds from the vast maritime energy fields between Australia and East Timor estimated at 26 billion euros ($36 billion).

Dili signed such treaties “at fragile and vulnerable times in our young nation’s history,” government spokesman Pereira said.

“Now, in 2014, we are acting with a new breadth of information, data and analysis, including information that Australia may have acted in bad faith and in breach of international law.”

Australian media have reported that the lion’s share of Timor Sea oil and gas would be on Timorese territory if the maritime border were defined according to customary rules of the sea.

But first the half-island nation wants the ICJ to order the return of documents seized in November when Australia’s domestic spy agency raided the Canberra offices of East Timor’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery.

Collaery is representing East Timor’s government in its bid lodged last year to get the CMATS treaty cancelled at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, housed in the same Palace of Justice in The Hague as the ICJ.

While that case is being held behind closed doors, the ICJ hearings will for the first time shine a very public light on Australia’s alleged skullduggery.

“This is going to be pretty hard on Australia’s image, it’s not exactly glorious for them,” international law expert Olivier Rentelink from The Hague’s Asser Institute told AFP.

The premises of a former Australian intelligence agent turned whistleblower in the arbitration case against Canberra were also raided.

Australia has largely refused to comment on the proceedings, although Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended the raids as in the national interest.

East Timor Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources Alfredo Pires stressed his country’s generally good relations with Australia but said: “The only avenue we have as a small country is international legislation.”

Dili has asked for “provisional measures” until the ICJ rules on the case, including that the documents be handed to the court and that Australia guarantee it will not intercept communications between East Timor and its legal advisers.

“Timor Leste is a young country, we had the UN here and everyone teaching us transparency, the rule of law, and then we get one of the great teachers not following the rules,” said Pires.

Cases at the ICJ can take years to resolve.

Agence France-Presse

US envoy Kennedy tweets concern at Japanese dolphin hunt

Google – AFP, 19 January 2014

US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, shown in Tokyo on November 27, 2013,

 has tweeted her concern at the "inhumaneness" of a Japanese village's traditional

dolphin hunt (POOL/AFP/File, Shuji Kajiyama)

Tokyo — US ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy has tweeted her concern at the "inhumaneness" of a Japanese village's traditional dolphin hunt.

"Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (US Government) opposes drive hunt fisheries," she tweeted on January 17.

Every year the fishermen of Taiji corral hundreds of dolphins in a secluded bay, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks and stab the rest to death for meat.

This year fishermen and divers in the village have caught at least 25 dolphins in a process to select captives before the mass slaughter, environmentalists said Saturday.

On Sunday a fishing industry official in Taiji said some dolphins had already been slaughtered, although he did not disclose the number.

Activists from the militant environmental group Sea Shepherd have streamed live footage of the dolphin capture in Taiji, which drew worldwide attention in 2010 when it became the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary "The Cove".

The town's fishermen defend the hunt as a cultural tradition, and "The Cove" was met by protests from right-wing activists when it was screened in Japan in 2010.

Anti-dolphin slaughter protesters at a rally in front of the Japanese embassy

in Manila on September 2, 2013 (AFP/File, Ted Aljibe)

The fishing industry official, who declined to be identified, said dolphins died almost instantaneously when their spinal cords were cut.

There was no bloodshed and the sea did not turn red, unlike scenes in "The Cove", he said.

"We've got our lives. We can't simply nod (to protests) and end centuries of our tradition... If you want to talk about cruelty, you couldn't eat cows, pigs or any other living creatures," he told AFP by telephone.

But Sea Shepherd in a statement Saturday condemned what it called a brutal practice.

"Those taken captive are forced to watch as the remaining members of their family are brutally killed for human consumption," it said.

Kennedy, the lone surviving child of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, took up the diplomatic post late last year.

Related Article:

Dolphin blood bath exposed

Cove cover-up ... tarpaulins hide the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan

Shell's profit warning linked to cost of drilling in Arctic waters

Sources say financial writedowns come from costs associated with the Alaskan drilling operation

The Guardian, Terry Macalister, Friday 17 January 2014

Shell made no mention of mishaps in the Arctic but admitted that its American
exploration business had made a loss. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

The costs of a trouble-prone drilling programme in Arctic waters off Alaska have contributed to Shell being forced to issue a shock profit warning which has shaken investor confidence.

Shares in the Anglo-Dutch oil group slumped in early trading after its newly-installed chief executive admitted that fourth quarter earnings would be around 70% lower than the same period last year.

"Our 2013 performance was not what I expected from Shell," Ben van Beurden said. "Our focus will be on improving Shell's financial results, achieving better capital efficiency and on continuing to strengthen our operational performance and project delivery."

Shell made no mention of mishaps in the Arctic but admitted that its American exploration business had made a loss. And sources said that financial writedowns had come from dry wells and costs associated with the Alaskan operation.

The group was only able to engage in a vastly reduced Arctic drilling programme in the Chukchi sea rather than the wider scheme in the Beaufort sea after equipment failures and a rig grounding during 2012 which continue to cost it money.

Shell is estimated to have spent $5bn (£3m) in the region over recent years without any tangible result so far and it is struggling to convince safety regulators that it should be allowed to drill in the Chukchi this summer.

The company also blamed higher exploration costs, security problems in Nigeria and heavier than expected maintenance work on its liquefied natural gas business, as well as a high dollar, for its lower profits.

Fourth quarter earnings on a current cost of supplies basis are now expected to be around $2.2bn while the annual result will be $16.8bn compared with $27.2bn before. The results are due to be released on 30 January.

Peter Hutton, an oil analyst at RNC Capital Markets, said the figures were disappointing, but he questioned whether the new chief executive was just throwing out all the bad costs that he could blame on his predecessor, Peter Voser, who left at the end of the year. "We think the [stock] market should become more sanguine as it reflects on these adjustments and recognises that Shell is taking a last opportunity for a bit of a bath."

Earlier this week Shell was reported to be preparing to make significant cutbacks to its operations in the UK North sea, and van Beurden is expected to announce a string of divestment targets at the end of this month.

New Year's Eve grounding of its drill rig the Kulluk.

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Australia apologises to Indonesia for border violations

Google – AFP, 17 January 2014

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press

conference in Sydney on September 30, 2013 (AFP/File, William West)

Sydney — The Australian government said Friday it had apologised unreservedly to Jakarta after its navy "inadvertently" violated Indonesian waters.

"We deeply regret these events," Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told a press conference.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spoke to her Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa on Thursday night and "offered an unqualified apology on behalf of the Australian government for inadvertently entering Indonesia's territorial waters," Morrison said.

She also gave "an assurance that such a breach of Indonesian territorial waters would not re-occur".

Morrison said Australia's embassy in Jakarta would make a formal apology Friday.

He said the government received information on Wednesday that Australian authorities had "inadvertently" entered Indonesian waters on several occasions, in breach of Australian government policy.

"I should stress this occurred unintentionally and without knowledge or sanction by the Australian government," he said.

Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, who heads the military-led Operation Sovereign Borders to stop asylum seekers arriving in Australia by sea, refused to detail the border violations for "operational reasons".

Under Australia's new government, asylum-seekers arriving by boat are sent to Pacific islands camps for processing with no chance of settlement in Australia, while boats intercepted at sea can be turned back to Indonesia.

The policy has angered Indonesia which has suggested it could infringe its sovereignty.

Campbell said the breaches involved "the passage of a vessel or vessels on several occasions".

"Positional errors have been made in the movement of our vessels," he said.

"The personnel on these vessels believe they were at all times operating outside Indonesian waters.

"I believe our people were acting in good faith."

The chief of staff and the head of the border protection agency would review the violations, Morrison said.

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Asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran cry as Indonesian officers
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Environmentalists pleased over whale beer ban

Google – AFP, 16 January 2014

A smoked puffin dish and local beer are on display at a bar and restaurant

in Reykjavik, April 23, 2010 (AFP/File, Emmanuel Dunand)

Reykjavik — Environmentalists on Wednesday welcomed a decision by Icelandic authorities to ban a local beer containing whale meal.

The controversial beer was the result of a joint business between a Stedji, a small local brewery, and whaling company Hvalur (whale in Icelandic), and contained whale meal, a byproduct of reducing whale meat and bones to oil.

"Obviously we are pleased," Whale and Dolphin Conservation spokesman Danny Groves said.

"Initially the whaling company didn't have a permit to sell this product."

The whale beer was banned last Monday by local health inspectors, who ruled it did not fulfill food production regulations.

"Hvalur does not have permission to produce meal for food production, so we had to put a stop to this," public health inspector Helgi Helgason told public broadcaster Ruv.

Environmentalist see the beer as an attempt to open new markets for whale products.

"The lack of demand in Iceland and also in Japan means that the whalers are resorting to finding new markets for their meat," Groves said.

"Beer is just another example of this approach."

The beer was to be sold at a mid-winter festival in the island nation, where brewer Dagbjartur Ariliusson said he wanted to serve "something ethnic" to drink.

"If I was to describe the beer, it is dark, with a rich taste and you can feel the whale taste in the undertone and the aftertaste," Ariliusson said.

"We don't use much whale meal in the manufacturing and the whale meal existed already."

Stedji used around one kilo (2.2 pounds) in 2,000 litres (528 gallons) of beer.

Brewer Ariliusson was disappointed, saying the whale beer had passed all tests.

"But if this is the final decision, then we will of course have to obey," he said.