Anti-whaling activists are claiming a victory in their fight aginst Japanese whalers. Japan has called off its whale hunts in the southern ocean because it says activists are stopping its fleet from refueling. Earlier, the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd accused whalers of attacking its boats.

 

The federal government has backed down on its hospital funding row with Victoria. It's agreed to reinstate more than 100 million dollars it had cut from that state's health funding. The Greens are warning it could have implications now for other states.

 

An Indonesian court has jailed a 19-year-old Afghanistan man for 6 years for his part in a people smuggling operation that ended in tragedy. Police say the man admitted to helping organize a boat that sank near Christmas Island last year, killing 19 asylum seekers. They say the man confessed of being involved in organizing three other trips.

 

And that fishing trawler that's been stranded on rocks at Cronulla, south of Sydney has been salvaged. The speed of this morning's operation took everyone by surprise. The 50-meter trawler was lifted by the tide, it floated free on its own just after 4 this morning.