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 ...
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero warned Sunday that his government will adopt more unpopular measures if needed to revive Spain’s economy and reduce the public deficit. “I know very well that the measures which I have adopted are unpopular. I am going to apply these measures and maintain them,” he said in an interview with the El Pais newspaper. “I will do it over my future political aspirations.... [more]
The dead child found near a lake in a mountainous area of Spain has been identified as a missing five-year-old German boy, a government official confirmed in Berlin on Saturday. The boy’s father travelled to the Cordoba region from Dortmund to identify his son, whose body will now be examined in a post-mortem to find out how he died. Local media reports suggest there is no sign of violence, and that it is expected that the boy,... [more]
At least 15 people were crushed to death on Saturday when mass panic triggered a stampede inside a tunnel at the Love Parade techno music festival in the German city of Duisburg, police said. Another 100 people were lightly injured in the incident. Nine of the dead were women and six were men, police said. Organisers said 1.4 million people had turned out for the day-long open-air festival in Duisburg, a city of 500,000 just north of Düsseldorf,... [more]
The death toll after a stampede at a German music festival has risen to 19, with a further 340 people injured. Overcrowding at the entrance tunnel to the “Love Parade” techno event has been blamed for the tragedy. At least half of the victims are believed to be young women who were trampled to death. The festival, which police said drew 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared an abrupt halt... [more]
Tropical Storm Bonnie took aim at the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, moving on a track expected to take it over the site of BP Plc’s deepwater oil spill after a soggy trek across south Florida. At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the centre of the fast-moving storm was located about 55 miles east-southeast of Naples, Florida, and it was due to head out over the Gulf sometime early Friday evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said. Oil and natural... [more]
THE world’s strongest beer can be yours for a mere £500 ($855) a bottle. The blond Belgian ale, named The End of History, is an astonishing 55 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) and is presented in a case made from stuffed animals, including stoats and squirrels. Made by BrewDog, based in Scotland, the beer is infused with fresh juniper berries and nettles from the Scottish Highlands and was developed using an extreme freezing technique. Hundreds... [more]
For the first time are more than 50 per cent of all who are arrested for criminal acts in the city of Oslo foreign citizens. More than seven out of ten prisoners in Oslo jails are not Norwegian citizens. Nine years ago a little more than 30 per cent of those arrested in Oslo were persons with foreign citizenship. - There are today around 400 prisoners in the Oslo Jail, and there are 60 nationalities represented here, says administrative... [more]
Three German teenagers have confessed to having sexually abused a number of younger children when they were on holiday together on the Dutch island of Ameland . The abusers and their victims, who are all minors, shared a dormitory at a holiday camp for two weeks in June and July. Six children from Osnabrück, aged 13, told police they were dragged from their beds at night and sexually assaulted by the teenagers. They alerted supervisors... [more]
Overweight people and others who pursue unhealthy lifestyles should have to pay more into Germany’s healthcare system to cover the extra costs they create, a conservative politician said on Thursday. Marco Wanderwitz, a federal MP from the state of Saxony and head of the conservative Christian Democrats’ group of young parliamentarians, said the health costs created by fat people should not forever be borne by the rest of... [more]
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]
