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 ...
France and Spain successfully raised funds at lower rates on the markets despite a raft of eurozone credit downgrades, while Greece got the prospect of more rescue loans from the IMF. In their first bond auctions since Standard & Poor’s downgraded their credit ratings last week, both Paris and Madrid demonstrated they can still borrow at affordable rates. Despite S&P having dropped Spain’s rating two notches from AA-... [more]
A four-hour crisis jobs summit chaired by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ended with a series of measures as well as plenty of criticism. The summit, held as France’s unemployment remains stubbornly at twelve-year highs, brought together union leaders, business representatives and ministers. “The gravity of the crisis obliges us to make decisions,” Sarkozy told them, according to a text provided by his office. A... [more]
Anne Sinclair, the wife of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been speaking about the ordeal the couple faced when he was arrested on sexual assault charges as well as her new journalistic venture. In an interview with Elle magazine, which will appear on Thursday, Sinclair confirmed that she will be the editorial director of the Huffington Post when it launches its French version later in January. Sinclair is well-known in France... [more]
Spend some time in restaurants in France and you may notice a curious thing. French children are unlikely to be squealing about what’s on their plate or struggling to get out of their chairs. Indeed, they seem strangely happy to sit calmly at the table and even eat their greens while their parents enjoy a relaxed lunch. What causes this cultural peculiarity? Matthew Warren spoke to the author of a new book that may have the answers. Paris-based... [more]
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]
Three days after winning a Golden Globe for his performance in silent film The Artist, Jean Dujardin has been named Man of the Year by French GQ magazine. The magazine will give its annual awards in a ceremony at Paris’ Ritz hotel on Wednesday evening. “Jean Dujardin is an actor who makes bold choices,” said the magazine. Other winners of the awards include controversial left-wing politicians Arnaud Montebourg who is named... [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]
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]
European leaders promised on Saturday to speed up plans to strengthen spending rules and get a permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, a day after U.S. agency S&P cut the ratings of several euro zone countries’ creditworthiness. In a conference call with reporters and analysts after downgrading nine of the euro zone’s 17 countries, Standard & Poor’s said it saw continued risks from the debt crisis... [more]
Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro- zone countries, stripping France andAustria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area. “Today’s rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policymakers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully... [more]
