The BBC quoted South Korea’s delegation head, Joon-Suk Kang, as saying the program was needed “for the proper assessment of whale stocks,” and to answer questions that non-lethal research had been unable to solve.

The head of the New Zealand delegation said the plan “bordered on the reckless.”

Japan each year kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters that are considered a sanctuary by Australia and New Zealand, who conduct whale-watching tours, AFP wrote.

The Japanese whalers are often shadowed by the militant US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

South Korea is to follow Japan and begin “scientific whaling,” killing minke whales, according to reports.

Earlier, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) narrowly agreed to extend whaling rights for indigenous populations in the US, Russia and the Caribbean during its annual meeting taking place in Panama.

Agence France-Presse, meantime, reported that South Korean delegates confirmed the plan Wednesday and would submit future whaling plans to a scientific committee of the global body.

Seoul was not looking for approval by other nations.

The BBC reported that the whaling would take place near the Korean coast, and would target minke whales.

It said it was not clear how many whales would be killed.

Japan conducts says its whaling program is technically abiding by a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling as its activities are for research.

The BBC quoted South Korea’s delegation head, Joon-Suk Kang, as saying the program was needed “for the proper assessment of whale stocks,” and to answer questions that non-lethal research had been unable to solve.

The head of the New Zealand delegation said the plan “bordered on the reckless.”

Japan each year kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters that are considered a sanctuary by Australia and New Zealand, who conduct whale-watching tours, AFP wrote.

The Japanese whalers are often shadowed by the militant US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

It’s fair to say that the world of particle physics is pretty excited about this “milestone.” All the evidence seems to point to the existence of some kind of Higgs boson. Further study could even show there is more than one, unlocking a whole new realm of physics.

It also offers scientists at CERN — the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research that houses the Large Hadron Collider project — a chance to trumpet success at a time of European economic turmoil, when funding for big ticket science ventures is drying up.

The collider has been beset by financial questions from the outset.

When it was switched on in 2008, the British government’s then chief science advisor, David King, asked whether its $10 billion dollar budget couldn’t be put to better use combating climate change or disease.

That was before the full of extent of Europe’s debt crisis was known. Had the collider still been in its infancy today, when governments are plundering academic grants and other spending to pay off creditors, its future would doubtless face greater uncertainty.

Annual operating costs are estimated to be about $1 billion. The private sector, including Intel, IBM, Oracle and AcelorMittal, sponsors some this. More comes from Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States, but CERN provides a significant chunk.

In 2009, Germany, France, Italy and Spain accounted for 55 percent of CERN’s budget. The UK added 14.7 percent and Greece chipped in almost 2 percent.

Given recent events — Germany’s austerity crusade, the huge bailouts required by Greece and Spain, the weak economic forecasts for Italy and France, and the UK’s double-dip recession — European appetite for investment in esoteric projects that do not appear to be showing positive results will be weak at best.

Globally, such experiments are clearly not immune to financial pressure. In 2011 the Tevatron particle accelerator, built under the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois to pursue the Higgs boson, was shut down due to budget cuts just as it was starting to gather crucial data.

Physicists involved in the LHC insist it is worth every cent. It might not offer any tangible benefits at the moment they say, but it is the final part of a century-long journey of scientific discovery that has already gifted mankind many medical and technological breakthroughs.

But since the latest announcement out of CERN stops short of claiming the existence of Higgs boson, is it enough to merit the money lavished upon it?

Let’s have a quick look at the science:

The theory of the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” underpins what is commonly referred to as the Standard Model of how our universe works. It is believed these “bosons” give each molecule the mass that allows it to bond into matter. They also mediate a field that fills the entire universe.

To prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs boson (physicists would be delighted either way), CERN in 1998 began building the Large Hadron Collider, a device housed in 17 miles of subterranean tunneling that lurks beneath the Franco-Swiss border.

The LHC is designed to smash together opposing particle beams at a velocity near the speed of light. By observing billions of collisions, scientists have been hoping they will be able to observe the elusive Higgs boson before it decays.

Proof of the Higgs boson would be perceived as one of the most important scientific discoveries for decades. Disproving its existence would be even more substantial, as this would lead to a tearing up of current scientific textbooks and a major rethink about the way the universe works.

This week’s announcement is an indication that the boson almost certainly does exist. But scientists, being scientists, are wary of giving iron clad guarantees without irrefutable evidence. That will have to wait for months or years, while CERN’s computers crunch through the data.

Will this week’s semi-cooked announcement be enough to ward off the budget slashers? Cuts have already come dangerously close. CERN in 2010 agreed to tightening its belt to the tune of $315 million — although this has not yet affected the collider.

While debates over the experiment’s value for money persist in public debate forums online, ringing government endorsements of the latest breakthrough appear to suggest Europe’s leaders are still willing to pay, even if some citizens believe it a “complete waste of time, money and brainpower.”

Columbia University physicist Peter Woit — whom The Atlantic described as the TMZ of the Higgs boson story — also insists the LHC looks safe for the foreseeable future.

He says the impetus to rush out their incomplete findings this week seems to have been the start of the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics in Melbourne, Australia. In the world of atom smashing, this is a big deal.

“I don’t think funding issues have much to do with this,” Woit told GlobalPost.

“As far as I know, CERN has no immediate budget problems. Their experimental program for the next few years is mainly just to operate the LHC, not build something new or upgrade the LHC, where funding might be a problem.”

Instead, he says, the main pressure on the physicists operating the collider has been to achieve the optimum result in time for the Melbourne conference using the data collected to date. And, he says, the results they have so far certainly warrant all the excitement.

“I don’t think pressure is causing them to overplay evidence for the Higgs when they don’t have it. The evidence they have found appears to be overwhelming.”

Anthony said that unless the Nigerian government financially compensates fighters and other communities, his boys are ready to return to battle. He said weapons and soldiers are at the ready — but he won’t say how many.

It’s impossible for an outsider to tell if the captain’s bravura portends an imminent attack or if it’s a strategic threat. But as thousands of “boys” return to the Niger Delta from their job training, many are left wondering if the region’s fragile peace will fall apart.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil exporter. It’s the fifth-largest oil supplier to the United States, with companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Exxon-Mobil shipping the easy to refine crude oil directly to America’s East Coast.

The cause of the battles that once raged on the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta — poverty and corruption in a land awash with natural wealth— has not been resolved. And it’s not just the “boys” who are angry.

Amnesty International reports that foreign oil companies continue to rake in huge profits from Nigeria’s natural resources, helped along by corrupt officials and weak governance. Meanwhile, average people in the Niger Delta live on less than $1 a day and lack access to electricity or transportation other than dug out canoes. Oil spills, too, have poisoned much of the water and decimated the fishing and farming industries.

Many officials and activists here said they don’t blame the young militants for fighting for the rights to the Niger Delta’s resources, even as they condemn the violence and hope it remains a thing of the past.

Some of the now-skilled former soldiers, however, say they don’t want to go back to the creeks to fight. They just want jobs to help them develop the region.

Kalos Gas, 26, was once a gunman on a boat. He is now a trained welder looking for work. He said that no matter what happens, he wouldn’t go back to war. If the amnesty program breaks down, or stops supporting the boys when its mandate ends in 2015, he hopes peace can somehow be maintained even if many are still out of work.

“I don’t know what will happen,” Gas said as he eagerly laid out his training certificates on the coffee table. “Some people are making noise. But we’ll not pray for that. We’ll pray for everyone to be silent.”

Other former militants are less hopeful. A room full of former rebels who recently completed job training got rowdy when the prospect of finding a job — something few have achieved — came up.

“We don’t want to go back to the creeks. We want to work,” said one young man with an anchor pendant around his neck. “If there is no work then we will have no choice.”

The young men generally agree with this statement, but they seem more focused on finding a job than preparing for renewed conflict. They complain that the amnesty program is often inconsistent and corrupt. Some former rebels have received promised payments, they said. But officials in charge of the money often steal the payments of others.

Nigerian authorities say that any suggestion of renewed violence is alarmist. They say that young men like these, with job skills and who are fully aware of the dangers of war, are unlikely to want to fight again.

The amnesty program was designed to be sensitive to the needs of the people, said Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, media coordinator for Nigeria’s security forces in the Niger Delta. Its success is evidenced by the fact that waterways that were once a war zone are now relatively safe, he said.

Security forces once tasked with fighting militants are now responsible for protecting Nigeria’s oil resources, he said. They monitor the waterways, punishing criminal behavior — sometimes with the help of former militants who are participating in the amnesty program.

“We are seriously carrying out aggressive and robust patrol of the waterways,” Nwachukwu said. “We’ve had clashes and fire fights and combat with sea robbers and a number of pirates.”

Nwachukwu said none of the 86 people who have been arrested for working in the illegal oil trade this year — an activity that was once known to fund the militant groups — have been former soldiers associated with the amnesty program.

Lucky Daniel, the former chair of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, lives in oil-rich but cash-poor Bayelsa State. He said the government’s amnesty has offered hope for some young people, but others have been left behind. The boys sent abroad for training are the lucky ones, he said, even though most can’t find work.

“We have no industries at all. No companies. Nothing to absorb those that come back when they have been trained,” Daniel said. “And then … what about the rest who are still loitering in the creeks?”

“I have witnessed extensive damage and the people are facing one of the worst floods in recent times,” Singh is quoted as saying. “There has been loss of lives and damage inflicted on infrastructure.”

The Indian army has been deployed to help flood victims, says Voice of America, and their helicopters were dropping food packets to people who have been marooned.

Twitter says the case could put it in the unwanted position of having to take on legal fights that users could otherwise conduct on their own, CBC reports.

Harris’ case is just the first of hundreds of disorderly conduct prosecutions stemming from the Oct. 1 Occupy march.

HRW emergencies researcher Ole Solvang, said: “By publishing their locations, describing the torture methods, and identifying those in charge we are putting those responsible on notice that they will have to answer for these horrific crimes.”

Tariq, an opposition activist from Latakia who spent 40 days in solitary confinement, told CNN he was subjected to the “dulab,” in which his legs and head were pushed through a car tire before he was beaten. He was also tied to a board and beaten in another technique known as the “basat al reeh.”

“They threw cold water on our naked bodies and they also urinated on us … they are really good at what they do.”

Another man, 31, who was interviewed by HRW, said he was detained in the Idlib area last month in June and told to remove his clothing. His fingers were squeezed with pliers, and staples were put through his fingers, chest and ears.

“They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice. I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days,” he said.

The United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 people have been killed during the Syrian conflict.