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 ...
President Nicolas Sarkozy is gathering union and business leaders together on Wednesday for a crisis summit on the country’s unemployment situation. Recent figures showed unemployment at a 12-year-high and close to the 10 percent mark. The government’s main measure of unemployment now stands at 2.85 million people. A broader measure, which includes part-time job seekers, puts the total at over 4 million. The government has already... [more]
The Social Democrats remain opposed to having Sweden join the eurozone stability pact, while the Centre Party said on Wednesday it supported the deal “with conditions”. “We said no in December to the negotiated proposal because we believed it represented a backdoor to joining the eurozone. When we studied the document, it confirmed our impression. This isn’t a solution to Europe’s problems,” Social Democrat... [more]
China said Tuesday it believes Europe can overcome its economic difficulties, after Standard & Poor’s cut the sovereign debt ratings of nine eurozone countries and the region’s bailout fund. The wave of downgrades, including that of France’s triple-A status, underscored European leaders’ inability to come up with a solid plan to tackle their two-year-old debt crisis. Beijing’s comments come as official... [more]
Greece goes head to head with its creditors on Wednesday in a renewed attempt to break a deadlock in negotiations to slash the country’s debt and stave off default. International private sector creditors represented by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) were set to meet the government in the afternoon. Talks broke down on Friday over the interest rate Greece will offer on new bonds and a plan to enforce investor losses. Ratcheting... [more]
The Netherlands’ two biggest mortgage providers have come up with their own plans to phase out mortgage tax relief, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday, quoting banking sources. The paper says both ING and Rabobank have drawn up their own plans to gradually cut back on the tax break and handed them over to the banking association NVB. NVB chairman Boele Staal said on Monday the organisation wants to talk about ‘necessary reforms’... [more]
December, the export of goods amounted to NOK 81.2 billion, while the imports came to about NOK 40 billion. The trade surplus for the month was thus NOK 41.2 billion. Neither the exports nor the trade surplus have been this large since 2008, Statistics Norway reports. However, if oil and gas exports were excluded, the trade balance for 2011 would have been NOK 132 billion in the negative. The trade surplus for December was 10.8 per cent... [more]
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is concerned that higher costs and a shortage of drilling platforms will delay development and exploration of new resources on the Norwegian Shelf. Oil companies are expected to present between 15 and 20 plans for development of oil and gas finds over the next two years. The growth in investments is expected to be 40 percent higher in 2012 than in 2010. Up until now, Bente Nyland, Oil Director,... [more]
France is to issue long-term bonds on Thursday in the first test of its market credibility in the wake of Standard & Poor’s decision to strip the country of its cherished triple-A rating. The sale, an attempt to raise between €7.5 billion and €9.5 billion (between $9.5 billion and $12 billion), will be watched keenly to see whether France will pay higher yields or whether the markets will shrug off the downgrade as they did... [more]
Striking Greek workers brought the Athens metro to a standstill on Tuesday and kept ferries docked to protest against austerity as the country’s lenders visited Athens to try to avert a disorderly debt default. EU, IMF and ECB officials start combing through Athens’ books on Tuesday as part of efforts to put together a 130-billion-euro rescue package that Greece needs to stay afloat when a major bond redemption comes due... [more]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is shrugging off France’s downgrade in his first public comments to directly address the loss last week of its top credit rating. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s debt over concerns on its economy and Europe’s ability to get a handle on its debt woes. Sarkozy told reporters Monday that the country needed to greet the ratings with “calm” and said that... [more]
