South Korea has said that it wants to begin hunting whales under rules permitting whaling for scientific research following the example of its close neighbor, Japan. South Korean delegates told a meeting of International Whaling Commission they would submit their whaling plans to an international panel of scientists for scrutiny. The proposal was strongly condemned by anti-whaling governments at the meeting in Panama City, from where Richard Black reports.

Korea has a longer documented history of whale meat eating than anywhere else in the world,

dating back

possibly 8,000 years. But recently, catchers have been limited to minke whales

snared

in fishing nets, officially by accident. The South Korean government would like to let its fishermen hunt whales openly around the coast. But that's prohibited under IWC rules, hence the proposal to follow the Japanese example – a new scientific whaling regulations. How many whales will be targeted isn't clear. The South Korean delegation here said the proposals would first have to be scrutinized by an international panel of scientists.

The authorities in France have placed the former boss of one of Europe's largest telecommunications companies under formal investigation over the suicides of more than 50 employees. Didier Lombard of France Telecom is accused by French unions of presiding over management that caused staff intolerable levels of stress. Some left suicide notes blaming the company for their deaths.