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 ...
Italians went to the polls to elect mayors in cities and towns across the country, with Premier Silvio Berlusconi hoping to avert defeat in his electoral stronghold of Milan. The voting Sunday and Monday is fraught with potential risks for the government’s stability and Berlusconi’s leadership. A defeat in Milan would be a heavy blow to the 74-year-old leader and would likely unleash further tensions with his government allies. The... [more]
Italians flocked to the polls on Monday in the second day of partial local elections seen as a major test of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s popularity, as he fights a slew of legal and sex trials. All eyes are on Milan, Berlusconi’s centre-right stronghold and hometown, where the incumbent, Letizia Moratti, is expected to retain her post. But she may not have enough votes to avoid a runoff later this month. Voting closed... [more]
European governments wrangled over how best to keep Greece from defaulting on its mountain of debt, with one of them acknowledging for the first time that they had discussed a restructuring — a risky move to delay or cut debt repayments. Monday’s meeting was meant to focus on getting final approval for a euro78 billion ($110 billion) bailout for Portugal, but growing concern over Greece — and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn,... [more]
More than 22 earthquakes struck Italy by noon Wednesday, as is normal for the quake-prone country. But none was the devastating temblor purportedly predicted by a now-dead scientist to strike Rome. Despite efforts by seismologists to debunk the myth of a major Roman quake on May 11, 2011 and stress that quakes can never be predicted, some Romans left town just in case, spurred by rumor-fueled fears that ignore science. Many storefronts were... [more]
Archaeologists on Wednesday began digging for the remains of a 16th-century woman believed to be the model for Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in a bid to unlock an art world mystery. The team of historians say they will try to find the remains using geo-radar equipment and then try to re-create a likeness of what the woman, Lisa Gherardini, would have looked like to compare her to the painting. “We want to find the skull and... [more]
Germany is ready to back Italy’s central bank chief Mario Draghi to take over as European Central Bank president, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. “Germany could support his candidacy for the position of ECB president,” she told Die Zeit weekly in an interview. Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has previously also suggested he would like to see Draghi as the next head of the ECB when Frenchman... [more]
Some 300,000 people turned out on Sunday for an open-air mass by Pope Benedict XVI near Venice as part of a tour in which he has stressed the importance of Catholic missionary work. The crowd, mostly from the surrounding area but also from Austria, Croatia and Slovenia, assembled in the San Giuliano park in Mestre, an industrial town on the other side of the lagoon from the famous island city of Venice. The 84-year-old pontiff on Saturday... [more]
The French and German Finance ministers have telephoned their Dutch counterpart Jan Kees de Jager to fill him in about a semi-official policy meeting to which the Netherlands had not been invited. Mr De Jager was reassured that Friday’s talks in Luxembourg about the Greek debt crisis did not lead to any decisions. “Things can only be decided in the presence of all eurozone member states,” they said, according to a Dutch... [more]
Italy on Saturday denied it had reached any agreement with Libyan rebels to supply them with arms in their battle against Muammar Gaddafi. “There has been no agreement to supply them with weapons,” a foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters. He was responding to a claim by a rebel spokesman in Benghazi who said Italy had agreed to supply the anti-Gaddafi forces with whatever weapons they needed. The foreign ministry spokesman... [more]
Pope John Paul’s coffin was exhumed Friday ahead of his beatification as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events since his funeral in 2005. The Vatican said the coffin was removed from the crypts below St Peter’s Basilica while top Vatican officials and some of the late pope’s closest aides looked on and prayed. Those present at the ceremony included Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, his... [more]
