World

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE ANTARCTIC / Whalers, conservationists collide <

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, accused the Japanese ship of deliberately rammed the Bob Barker - named after the 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 smelly butyric acid at the Japanese ship.

NORTHERN IRELAND / IRA splinter group to give up its weapons

The Irish National Liberation Army, a ruthless IRA splinter group responsible for some of Northern Ireland's most notorious killings, said Saturday it has surrendered its weapons just days before an Anglo-Irish disarmament deadline is due to expire. Two representatives of the outlawed organization told The Associated Press that the INLA handed over weapons stockpiles to Northern Ireland's disarmament commission at secret meetings in November and January.