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 ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has turned down Israel’s bid to buy a sixth naval submarine, two warships and torpedoes from it at deep German discounts, the U.S. journal Defence News reported. The decision was conveyed to an Israeli Defence delegation in Berlin on July 7, effectively ending a year of negotiations that Israel had hoped would yield German subsidies of up to one-third on the total price of $1.6 billion (1.0... [more]
Chinese authorities have closed several beaches and an island resort near the major port of Dalian as they try to clean up an oil spill that has affected crude shipments, state media said Wednesday. Tourists were barred from Bangchui island and city beaches amid ongoing efforts to clean up the slick that stretches over at least 183 square kilometres (70 square miles) of ocean, the China Daily newspaper said. More than 23 tonnes of oil-eating... [more]
U.S. President Barack Obama’s defence chief began a visit to South Korea on Monday aiming to show strong support for its military ally locked in a bitter feud with North Korea over a deadly torpedo attack. Defence Secretary Robert Gates will be joined later in the week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a high-profile meeting in Seoul to respond to the North and to discuss ways to deter it from any future attack. But the unprecedented... [more]
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday that a slowdown in second quarter growth to 10.3 percent was in line with expectations, but warned of economic difficulties ahead. Wen made the remarks during a weekend tour of north China’s Shaanxi province where he said the slow pace of the global economic recovery posed dangers to his nation, according to a report on his government’s website. “So far this year, our nation’s... [more]
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he wanted progress in indirect peace talks with Israel before any move to face-to-face talks, which the United States wants the two sides to begin. U.S. President Barack Obama urged the two sides this week to resume direct talks by September. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Obama in Washington on Tuesday, says he wants to negotiate directly with Abbas. But Abbas faces... [more]
The Obama administration declined to label China a currency manipulator in a long-delayed report on Thursday, spurring fresh calls from U.S. lawmakers for tough new steps to pressure Beijing. Some lawmakers claim a misalignment in China’s yuan currency distorts trade and steals U.S. jobs. The U.S. Treasury’s semiannual currency report, which originally was due on April 15, said China’s yuan remains undervalued but noted... [more]
Google has confirmed it will stop automatically directing users of its China search site to its Hong Kong site after Beijing said the company would lose its mainland internet licence if the tactic continued. Google shut down its China-based search engine on March 22 to avoid co-operating with the communist government’s internet filtering and has rerouted users to its unfiltered site in Hong Kong. But Google said regulators told the... [more]
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologised to the residents of Okinawa on Wednesday for the concentration of U.S. military bases on the island, in an effort to soothe local anger that contributed to his predecessor’s fall. Kan took over earlier this month from Yukio Hatoyama, who quit after sparking public outrage for breaking a promise to move a U.S. airbase off the southern island, reluctant host to about half the 49,000 U.S. military... [more]
Israel launched a military spy satellite late on Tuesday which Israeli media reports said would help it monitor Iran’s nuclear programme. The Ofek 9, which the Defence Ministry said was launched from the Palmachim air force base south of Tel Aviv, will join three other Israeli spy satellites already in space. Israeli media reports said the satellite’s high resolution cameras would enable Israel to keep a closer eye on arch-foe Iran.... [more]
President Barack Obama has said he has yet to decide whether to fire the top US general in Afghanistan, who showed “poor judgment” in a magazine article mocking top administration officials. General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and architect of Obama’s war strategy, was summoned to Washington to explain his “enormous mistake” directly to the President on Wednesday, the White... [more]
