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 ...
Google said that a deeper look at trouble with results at its Chinese-language search engine indicated the cause was “The Great Firewall of China” erected by censors there. The US Internet giant had initially thought that recent changes to its search software had misled China censors into thinking queries were for Radio Free Asia. Google backed off that conclusion after it realized that it had upgraded its search parameters... [more]
Vandals in Germany have sabotaged a Google ”Street View” car, police said Tuesday, an apparent act of protest against the navigation servicethat is controversial in the country amid privacy concerns. A Google employee left his specially-modified black Opel with eight mounted cameras parked overnight in the northern city of Oldenburg, but returned to find the tyres let down and the camera cables slashed, police told the... [more]
Google co-founder Sergey Brin urged the US administration to make the censorship row between China and the Internet giant a “high priority”, in an interview published on Wednesday. Brin said human rights issues should be given “equal time” with trade concerns in comments published by British newspaper The Guardian. China has attacked Google for stopping censorship of its Chinese-language search engine but... [more]
China’s government reacted testily Tuesday to Google Inc.’s decision to stop censoring its China-based search engine, calling the move “totally wrong” and accusing the company of violating promises. More than two months after it threatened to shut down Google.cn if it had to continue policing the site, Google made the shift early TuesdayBeijing time. Visitors to Google.cn are automatically redirected to the Chinese-language... [more]
Google’s China domain, Google.cn, now redirects to Google.com.hk. The new site reads, “Welcome to the new home of Google China search.” The switch means Google is no longer censoring search results for its Chinese visitors. Whether Chinese Internet can actually access Google.com.hk is another matter. It may be blocked by the Chinese government. The move follows months of negotiations and threats between Google (GOOG) and... [more]
A campaign to make Topeka a test site for a new, ultrafast Internet service is gathering speed. Google Inc. announced plans Feb. 10 to build and test new high-speed broadband networks in one or more places around the country. The company says the system of fiber-optic cables would deliver Internet connections 100 times faster than most systems now available. Over the past week, Topeka city officials have announced they’re completing... [more]
Google on Saturday quickly activated an online “person finder” tool to allow relatives and friends to find loved ones following the huge earthquake in Chile. The “Person Finder: Chile Earthquake” from the California-based Internet giant is located at Chilepersonfinder.appspot.com and offers users the choice of using it in English and Spanish. It asks users “What is your situation?” and gives them the choice... [more]
Googles much-hyped Nexus One smartphone is set for UK launch in April, according to a new report in The Daily Telegraph, with the web giant no doubt hoping the device will make a bigger splash than it did on its US launch. At present UK consumers can purchase an unlocked version of the phone from Googles website, although Google has been in discussions with network operator Vodafone for some time now about providing the device on contract... [more]
China has rejected a news report that US investigators traced hacking attacks against Google to two Chinese schools and said suggestions the government might be involved are irresponsible. A foreign ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said Chinese law prohibits hacking and the government will take steps to stop it. At a regular news briefing, Ma Zhaoxu rejected a report by The New York Times last week that investigators traced hacking attacks... [more]
Germany’s federal data protection commissioner Peter Schaar on Tuesday called for a review of internet search engine company Google’s market dominance. The US company isn’t far from being a monopoly, Schaar said. “A company increasingly controls the virtual world. We’ve never seen such a thing in the real world,” he said, calling on politicians to “limit and control the power.” Schaar also referred to an Economy Ministry... [more]
