Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Tuesday he is resolved to settle a longstanding territorial dispute with Russia at an annual rally calling for the return of all four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido in northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported. "We'll continue to make steady and determined efforts to move ahead with negotiations," Noda said, stressing the need to sign a peace treaty with Russia. The four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories - has been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two nations since the end of World War ...
Amanda Knox's Italian lawyer has filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy, a Knox family spokesman inSeattle said Monday. In October, an Italian appeals court overturned the young Seattle woman's murder conviction in the 2007 death of her British roommate in Perugia. But the same court upheld Knox's conviction for slander — for falsely accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of involvement in the slaying. Lumumba was freed after two weeks in prison for lack of evidence. Knox later said she was "manipulated" during her lengthy police interrogation. An appeal of the slander conviction was filed Monday, Knox family spokesman Dave Marriott confirmed. He doesn't know when the Italian ...
The Dutch railway will remain 'vulnerable' during wintry weather but Dutch Rail (NS) and track operator ProRail did not help matters during the current cold snap by the late introduction of schedule adjustments to cope with the conditions, transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen told parliament in a briefing on Tuesday. The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament. Drivers and conductors ...
Greece can leave the eurozone without damaging monetary union, European digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kroes says in an interview with the Volkskrant on Tuesday. Kroes, a member of the Dutch ruling right-wing Liberal party VVD, is not a supporter of Greece exchanging the euro for the drachma, but says: 'It is absolutely not a case of man overboard if someone leaves the eurozone.' The commissioner is very critical of the new Greek government and says they are not fulfilling their promises. 'Too few spending cuts, too little restructuring,' she says. She says the Greeks should follow the example of Italy where the new ...
Mitt Romney hopes his presidential campaign hasn't ignored Rick Santorum's aggressive attacks for too long, as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday could reshuffle the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum largely bypassed Florida and Nevada to blanket the two caucus states with criticism of Romney and lay the groundwork among conservatives who have great sway in the process. RivalNewt Gingrich praised Santorum's strategy as shrewd even as he signaled he had no interest in exiting the four-way race, which also includes Ron Paul. "I think that Santorum's going to have a pretty good day," Gingrich told reporters on the eve of the caucuses. "He targeted differently than I ...
Glencore and Xstrata agreed an all-share merger worth $90 billion (56 billion pounds) on Tuesday in the industry's largest ever deal, creating a commodities powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading. Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities tradinghouse, will issue 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in a deal they said was a "merger of equals." The ratio is a 15.2 percent premium to Xstrata shareholders compared with its share price last Wednesday before word leaked out about the merger talks, a joint statement said. "A merger between Glencore and Xstrata offers a unique opportunity to create a new business model in our industry to respond to ...
US White House hopeful Mitt Romney aims for another big caucus win in Colorado on Tuesday, as his well-oiled campaign machine works to cement his position as the Republican front runner in the US presidential race. Polls suggest he should triumph easily in the western US state -- where he scored 60 percent in 2008 -- although there is a tighter race in Minnesota, where last-placed Rick Santorum is hoping to snatch a win. Romney's main rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, is battling to stay in the race after two heavy losses in a row to the former Massachusetts governor, who ...
As President Christian Wulff remains mired in allegations of impropriety, anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI) has called for politicians to use the case as a chance to open up German politics. “We are very concerned that people seem to be starting to think that all politicians behave like Wulff, and that would be fatal,” Christian Humborg, TI Germany’s managing director told The Local. “I think the Wulff affair is a wonderful opportunity for German politicians to react to the cynical attitude that this is normal, and improve things,” he said. He said the fact that the authorities were investigating whether Wulff and his ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy in his tough re-election battle on Monday, saying the two right-wingers were from the same "political family". Despite accusations in both countries of interference, Merkel used a visit to Paris for a joint Franco-German cabinet session to make clear her support for Sarkozy, who has increasingly cited Germany as a model for France. "We belong to the same political family. He supported me and it is natural that I support him in his campaign," Merkel said during a joint television interview with Sarkozy to be broadcast later on French and ...
Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt thinks that Swedes need to be prepared to work a lot longer than they do today in order to keep the same living standard as when they were working. “The pensions scheme isn’t based on magic. It is a welfare ambition based on large-scale re-distribution and citizens’ own work. If people think that we can live longer and shorten our work life, then pensions will get lower,” Reinfeldt said in interview with daily Dagens Nyheter (DN). According to Reinfeldt, the expectation to retire at 65 is a problem in Sweden today. He thinks that Swedes may have to ...
Canada’s privacy czar, who got Facebook to agree last year to better protect users’ personal information, will launch a new investigation over complaints that the changes sometimes make things worse. The office of Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said on Wednesday the investigation would focus on a tool introduced by the social networking website last month that requires users to review their privacy settings. It will look... [more]
Talks on a landmark treaty to cut Cold War nuclear arsenals are nearly complete, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed in a telephone call on Wednesday. The call, which the Kremlin said was initiated by Washington, followed comments by Russian Foreign Ministry officials that negotiators from both countries were likely to agree on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) within... [more]
International charities pouring a jumble of aid into Haiti must work better together to reach and help survivors of the catastrophic earthquake, President Rene Preval said on Wednesday. Preval also said Haiti would indefinitely postpone February 28 parliamentary elections and that he would not seek to stay in office after his term expires in February 2011. That means his government will have just over one year to rebuild the earthquake-ravaged... [more]
The son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas admitted in a New York court on Wednesday to possessing heroin and dealing large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine out of his hotel room. Cameron Douglas, 31, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ronald Ellis in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to distribute crystal meth and cocaine and to heroin possession. Douglas was arrested on July 28 at the trendy Gansevoort Hotel in Manhattan... [more]
Toppled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya emerged from months holed up in a Brazilian embassy compound and flew into exile on Wednesday, ending a months-long political crisis as a new elected president took office. Zelaya, ousted in a coup last June, boarded a plane that took off for the Dominican Republic shortly after opposition leader Porfirio Lobo, elected in November, was sworn in as president. Thousands of supporters at the airport... [more]
A search team has located the black boxes from an Ethiopian aircraft that crashed off the Lebanese coast with 90 people on board. “The boxes were found 10km west of the airport, 1,300m below the surface of the sea,” a military spokesman said. “We have not yet reached them, however.” Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, bound for Addis Ababa, crashed into the Mediterranean in the early hours of Monday. The plane plunged... [more]
Fears of poor attendances at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have been allayed after Fifa announced two thirds of match tickets have already been sold. Two million tickets have now gone, with several matches already oversubscribed. The sales, announced by Fifa after the third of five phases of ticketing, reflect a surge of interest from South African residents, easing concerns about apathy in the host nation. Of the 1.2 million applications... [more]
Peru used helicopters to airlift foreign tourists trapped by rain and mudslides that killed seven people in and around its famed Machu Picchu ruins, but frustrations grew among the more than 2,500 still stranded. The operation, which began Monday, by late Tuesday had rescued 125 of the foreigners, most of whom were waiting by a helipad near the ruins themselves, emergency services said. But another 1,900 were stranded in nearby Aguas Calientes... [more]
Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife Denise Richards has opened up about her former husband’s abusive nature, reluctantly telling talk show host Oprah Winfrey that the bad boy was occasionally a bad man during their marriage. The former Bond girl agreed to appear on Winfrey’s show on Tuesday to discuss Sheen’s Christmas Day arrest in Colorado – after police were called to his family retreat to investigate a fight between... [more]
Ray Winstone says Mel Gibson’s break from acting has probably provided him with “the greatest education”. Both actors hit Hollywood for the premiere of their new thriller Edge Of Darkness, which is Mel’s first time acting in front of the cameras for over seven years. Speaking at the premiere, Ray said Mel hadn’t shown any signs of nerves when they first started filming. “If he was, he didn’t show... [more]
