Lies covered whale slaughter

RUSSIAN and Japanese whalers slaughtered almost 10 times more sperm whales than they admitted officially before the practice was banned in 1986, according to new figures.

Up to 70,000 sperm whales - the largest animals on Earth - were illicitly hunted down between 1949 and 1971, data presented to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) shows. The killings were covered up with "deliberate" lies by the Japanese and KGB threats to Russian scientists, claimed the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), based in London. It said this shows commercial whaling cannot be controlled, and should not be allowed to restart.