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Mon 02 Feb 2007Japan launches bid to end ban on whale huntingJapan:Japan launches its most determined bid yet to end the two-decade ban on whale-hunting tomorrow when it hosts a special meeting that some fear could seal the fate of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).The three-day Tokyo conference on "normalising" the IWC makes good a long-standing threat by Japan to bypass the world's whaling regulatory body, which it says has been "hijacked" by environmentalists.