Oil firm 'settles' toxic waste case

Oil-trading company Trafigura has said it has reached a settlement with 31,000 people in Ivory Coast who claimed they were made ill by toxic waste dumped around the capital, Abidjan.

Under the deal, which sees Trafigura pay the claimants nearly $50m, the alleged victims have accepted that there was no link between the deaths, injuries or miscarriages suffered and exposure to the waste, the company said.

In a joint statement issued late on Saturday, Trafigura and Leigh Day and Co, a British law firm representing the plaintiffs, said more than 20 independent experts had examined the case.

"These independent experts are unable to identify a link between exposure to the chemicals released from the slops and deaths, miscarriages, still births, birth defects, loss of visual acuity or other serious and chronic injuries," it said.

"Leigh Day and Co, in the light of the expert evidence, now acknowledge that the slops could at worst have caused a range of short-term, low-level flu like symptoms and anxiety."

'Not fair'

Leigh Day and Co has not independently commented on the settlement, which would amount to a $1,700 payout for each claimant.

But the Ivorian National Federation of Victims of Toxic Waste, which says it represents nearly all the victims, told the Reuters news agency that Trafigura was trying to push through a deal to avert a court ca

"Trafigura wants to excuse itself morally but it is not fair," Denis Pipira Yao, the group's president, was quoted as saying.

"The waste was toxic and lethal. Trafigura is proposing 750,000 CFA francs ($1,683) for each victim," he said.

"As people are poor in Africa, Trafigura is using money to get away with it. We are not at all happy with this way of doing business and we will work with our lawyers to make it clear."

In August 2006, Probo Koala, a ship chartered by Trafigura, dumped caustic soda and petroleum residues on city waste tips in Abidjan after first having attempted to offload the cargo in Amsterdam.

At least 17 people were reported to have died and more than 100,000 sought medical help after the illegal dumping took place, according to the Ivory Coast government.

Trafigura has repeatedly denied any connection between the victims' problems and the waste.

'Vindication'

Eric de Turckheim, the company director, said on Sunday that the settlement, which was signed the previous evening, "completely vindicates Trafigura".

"Over the past three years, the company has been the target of numerous attacks which have wrongly asserted that Trafigura's actions led to deaths and serious injuries," he said.

"These accusations have now been found to be baseless."

However, Transfigura did acknowledge that "the slops had a deeply unpleasant smell and their illegal dumping ... caused distress to the local population".

Mark Taylor, an Oslo-based international law expert, said that the outcome was expected, despite coming just weeks before the dispute was due to go to court in London on October 6.

"It is a settlement that was probably in the making for some time," he told Al Jazeera from Oslo, the Norwegian capital.

"It is quite common in these kinds of lawsuits for there to be negotiations before the court case and for the plaintiffs, in this case the people in Cote d'Ivoire [Ivory Coast], to agree with the defendants ... that will agree to drop the charges in exchange for compensation.

"With these kinds of settlements the plaintiffs, the people from Cote d'Ivoire and their lawyers based in London, are very often required to say nothing on the terms of the agreement.

"It may be that this is the last we hear about this case."

However, Taylor said that there were other cases proceeding in other jurisdictions, both in The Netherlands, where Trafigura has a presence, and in Norway, where a similar case but not involving Probo Koala is planned.

"It remains unclear what role the people of the Cote d'Ivorie, the 31,000 plaintiffs in this case, will have in those other cases," he said.

Trafigura had previously agreed to a $198m out-of-court settlement with the Ivory Coast government in 2007, which exempted it from legal proceedings in the West African country.

The US president has denies Russia missile role

barack obama has denied that objections from Russia influenced his decision to abandon the previous administration's plans to site a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

Barack Obama said in an interview aired on American television station CBS on Sunday that it would be a "bonus" if the decision to scrap the plan eased co-operation with Russia.

"The Russians don't make determinations about what our defence posture is. We have made a decision about what will be best to protect the American people as well as our troops in Europe and our allies," Obama said on the show "Face the Nation".

The previous US administration under George Bush, Obama's predecessor, had planned the missile shield in Europe as the first line of defence against any attack from Iran.

Russia had condemned the project as a threat to its security despite years of US assurances to the contrary.

"If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid and are now willing to work more effectively with us to deal with threats like ballistic missiles from Iran or nuclear development in Iran, you know, then that's a bonus."

Obama on Thursday announced that the US was scrapping plans to place the missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Alternative plan

The Bush administration had pushed hard for the shield, arguing that Iran was developing long-range missiles alongside its controversial nuclear programme.

Obama said that instead of a shield, there will be a different missile-defence plan relying on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air.

His announcement raised questions of whether the decision was done in part to appease Russia and win its help in other areas, mainly in confronting the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, on Friday praised Obama's decision as "brave."

"Russia had always been paranoid about this, but [former president] George Bush was right, this wasn't a threat to them," Obama said.

Barack Obama to host Netanyahu-Abbas talks

The speeker of White House has announced that the US president will host three-way talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday.

Barack Obama is due to meet Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, separately before the three go into a joint session, the White House said.

The meeting is expected to take place in New York before a session of the United Nations General Assembly, the White House said, "to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed".

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, welcomed Obama's personal involvement in the peace process, but indicated low Palestinian expectations for a positive outcome.

"At this point, I think President Obama must convey to the world that one side is undermining efforts to resolve the peace process," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

"This meeting is not about resuming negotiations. I don't think we will come out of this meeting with Netanyahu agreeing to resume negotiations or stop settlement expansion."

'Comprehensive peace'

Talks have been stalled since Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip last December and Abbas has repeatedly said that they will not restart until Israel commits to a complete freeze of settlement building in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East, wrapped up a mission to the Middle East on Friday having failed to secure the concessions necessary for the peace process to resume.

He said that the three-way meeting planned for Tuesday showed Obama's "deep commitment to comprehensive peace".

Al Jazeera's John Terrett, reporting from Washington DC, said: "The general assumption was that George Mitchell was flying back to Washington a failure.

"After half a dozen trips to the Middle East he had failed to secure a trilateral meeting at the UN General Assembly next week.

"I suspect the Americans would have preferred to keep the drama going right the way through the opening stages of the General Assembly and out late as Wednesday or Thursday."

Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to commit to either a permanent stop to settlement expansion, as demanded by the Palestinians, or the year-long halt that Washington was believed to be calling for.

Instead he has suggested that Israel could be prepared to stop building new settlements for six months while negotiations resume.

'Commitments and agreements'

Maen Areikat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) mission to the US, said that no conditions had been attached to Tuesday's planned talks.

"We haven't laid down any conditions. We have been asking all along for all parties to meet their obligations," he told Al Jazeera from Washington DC.

"We Palestinians feel that we have met a lot of our obligations under previous commitments and agreements and phase one of the road map [for peace].

"Israel so far has failed to meet any of their obligations."

Areikat said that the efforts of the Obama administration were encouraging but "we will have to see what kind of discussions we will have on Tuesday".

But Akiva Eldar, the chief political columnist for Israel's Haaretz newspaper, said that it was Abbas that would be under pressure going into the meeting.

"He can't afford to go home empty handed again, and what I mean by empty handed is without a full commitment from the Israelis to stop all the operations in the settlements," he said.

"[Netanyahu] can come out of the meeting with President Obama and can say something such as 'we have agreed on some formula that will allow the settlers, especially those in Jerusalem, to maintain a normal life'."

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements on land occupied by Israel following the 1967 war, land that the Palestinians see as vital to any future independent state.

'Unrealistic demand'

Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser currently with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, told Al Jazeera that the Palestinians' demand for a total end to all settlement building was ultimately impossible.

"The demand that there be a total and complete Israeli freeze not only in the West Bank as a whole, but including Jerusalem, was an unrealistic demand," he said.

"No Israeli prime minister could have agreed to that."

Meanwhile, Ismail Haniya, the deposed Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, condemned Abbas's decision to meet Netanyahu.

Speaking at prayers in Gaza for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Haniya said "it does not obligate the Palestinian people to anything".

"No one is authorised, not the PLO nor anyone else, to sign any agreement that violates the rights of the nation and the rights of the Palestinian people."

Israel plans new settlements

Benyamin netanyahu theIsrael's prime minister is set to approve plans to build hundreds of new homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, before considering US demands for a construction freeze.

Aides to Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the prime minister would consider a settlement freeze, but first planned to authorise the new building work.

The comments, quoted in Israeli media, are the first time an aide has said in the name of the prime minister's office that a freeze could be imminent.

The US said it regretted plans to approve additional settlement construction, saying continued settlement acitvity was incosistent with Israel's commitment under the roadmap.

"As the President [Obama] has said before, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," a statement from the White House press office said.

"We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate."

The plans for new settlements are also likely to anger Palestinians, who have said they will not resume peace talks unless Israel suspends construction on lands they want for a future state.

Settlement dispute

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, criticised the Israeli move, saying "the only thing suspended by this announcement will be the peace process".

The row over settlements also puts Israel at odds with the US administration which, under Barack Obama, the US president, has been pushing for a settlement freeze.

Erekat said Israel had already responded "with total defiance" to US calls for a settlement freeze.

"The real Israeli official answer is being conducted on the ground by continuing the building of housing units and settlements."

But Danny Danon, a Likud legislator, said that Netanyahu can expect a fight over any decision to halt or slow settlement building.

"Most members of the Likud, most members of the coalition, don't think that what he's about to do is the right step," he told Israel Radio.

Government opposition

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said that Netanyahu was "being pulled in two directions" over the settlements issue.

"On the one hand, you have the Americans, Palestinians and the international community for that matter who are calling for a permanent freeze," she said.

"On the other hand, you have Netanyahu's own government really digging their heels in, some of whom are even threatening open rebellion if he stops construction."

Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted an unnamed aide as saying that as well as sanctioning new settlement construction ahead of a freeze, Netanyahu also intended to sanction the continuation of work on 2,500 housing units already under way.

In exchange for a suspension, Netanyahu would require the Arab world to take steps toward normalising relations with Israel, the aide said.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future state, along with East Jerusalem and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The number of Israeli settlers has steadily increased for decades and today about 300,000 Israelis live among about 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank.

England fall short against Aussies

It has only been two weeks since Australia lost the Ashes, but the Aussies made sure they made up for any lost ground by beating England by four runs in the first of their seven one-day internationals at the Oval in London.

England's spinners did well to restrict Australia to 260-5 but the tourists got an even firmer grip on the English run rate until a late flourish dragged the home side to 256-8.

England was jeered by the crowd for their slow scoring before a seventh-wicket blitz of 46 from 33 balls from Luke Wright and Adil Rashid made the score competitive.

Mitchell Johnson took three wickets in a 13-ball spell that cost just five runs to finish with 3-24.

Slow pitch

The target had looked attainable on a slow pitch but England quickly fell behind Australia's scoring rate as none of the top-order batsmen could build a game-changing score.

Only Wright, with 38 from 27 balls, Rashid and No 10 batsman Ryan Sidebottom seemed to fully get to grips with the conditions and situation.

In a sign of the difficulty facing batsmen on both sides, the only six of the match came from Wright in the 41st over of England's innings.

Ravi Bopara was the home team's leading scorer with a sluggardly 49 off 88 balls but his miserable summer, which included just 105 runs in seven Ashes innings and omission from England's series-deciding victory, continued with a stumping off the bowling of Nathan Hauritz.

England had lost captain Andrew Strauss (12), only playing because of the injury sustained in training by Joe Denly, and dawdled to 83-1 when Johnson at point plucked a reverse sweep by Matthew Prior out of the air to get rid of the No 3 for 28.

Paul Collingwood survived a run out chance off the first ball he faced in a mix up with Owais Shah, who scored 40 off 48 deliveries before the need to hurry meant he trod on his wicket trying to work a delivery by Johnson down the leg side.

With Bopara already out, Collingwood, seemingly reacting to jeers at the turgid scoring from the crowd, lashed out at Johnson to be dismissed for 23 from 39 balls thanks to Shane Watson's two-handed catch above his head.

Stuart Broad managed two from five balls before becoming Johnson's third victim, but with Rashid alongside him, Wright started hitting out to finally give an agitated crowd a few cheers.

Wright was run out off a no ball and Sidebottom's subsequent seven-ball 13 was in vain.

Rashid ended with 31 from 23 deliveries and also showed promise with the ball in his first ODI against a Test nation.

His figures of 10-0-37-0 helped limit the Australians, alongside Graeme Swann and Collingwood - who took two wickets.

Lucrative partnership

Cameron White and Watson shared an 82-run second-wicket partnership to lay the foundations for a total that hinged on Callum Ferguson's highest ODI score of 71.

Collingwood got rid of Watson for 46 and the second of two run outs accounted for White on 53 to leave Australia at 111-3, with Michael Clarke and Ferguson going on to build sizable totals - but not at speed.

Australia scored more than six runs per over from the eighth to the 18th overs, but then stayed at about half that rate until Rashid completed his overs in the 34th. The wrist-spinner was unlucky to have a leg-before-wicket shout against Clarke turned down.

Australia took the final powerplay in the 43rd over and Collingwood immediately removed Clarke for 45 to a catch by Shah before Michael Hussey was clean bowled for 20 in the 48th after charging down the wicket at Sidebottom.

James Hopes was the unbeaten batsman alongside Ferguson, chipping in with a useful late cameo of 18 from 11 balls.

The teams next head from south to north London for Sunday's second match at Lord's.

Renault facing FIA charges

Renault will face charges of fixing last year's Singapore Grand Prix by staging a crash that helped Spaniard Fernando Alonso win, Formula One's governing body announced.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement that Renault representatives had been summoned to an extraordinary meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 21, just before this year's Singapore race.

The charges levelled at Renault are that "the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso".

If found guilty the team could be kicked out of the championship they won in 2005 and 2006.

Ecclestone warning

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has already warned the allegations could prompt Renault to walk away from the sport.

Renault, whose team boss Flavio Briatore co-owns English football club Queen's Park Rangers with Ecclestone, have made no comment on the allegations.

The team were accused of breaching article 151c of the international sporting code, which covers "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally".

McLaren were fined a record $100 million and stripped of all their constructors' points for breaching the code in 2007 in a spying controversy involving Ferrari data.

Renault and Piquet, whose father and namesake was a triple world champion, parted in August and Brazilian television reported allegations about the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend.

Double world champion Alonso won the sport's first night race, his first victory in more than a year and from 15th place on the starting grid, after Brazilian Piquet crashed and brought out the safety car.

Alonso had just refuelled at that point, a lucky break for the Spaniard who was able to come through and lead to the finish.

Controversial

Ecclestone told the Times newspaper on Tuesday there was a danger of Renault following Honda and BMW out of the sport.

"All I know is Flavio is insisting he knows nothing about it," Ecclestone said, adding the Italian was "well and truly upset".

Renault replaced Piquet Jr in August after he failed to score a point in 10 races, a parting that triggered an angry reaction from the driver who accused Briatore of being his "executioner".

"If it's just young Piquet saying this because he wants to say it, that's one thing. If, on the other hand, there's some reality to it, then it's all different," said Ecclestone.

"It will be difficult to prove. If there is something on the radio that said, 'Er, Nelson, you'd better crash now,' then what the hell can they (Renault) do? It depends exactly what comes out of the investigation."

North Korea 'at final uranium stage'

N Korea is in the final stages of enriching uranium, the country's state media has said, a process that could give it a second way to make nuclear bombs.

According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean officials have informed the UN Security Council that the process of enrichment was entering "the completion phase".

The senior US envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said the enrichment claim was "of concern".

"I think for all of us, it reconfirms the necessity to maintain a coordinated position on the need for complete, verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Bosworth said.

The country has already tested two plutonium-based nuclear weapons and has long been suspected of running a parallel effort to develop uranium-based weapons.

Reaction to sanctions

KCNA said the North's decision to push ahead with its nuclear programs was a reaction to Security Council's moves to tighten sanctions against the country following its second test of a nuclear weapon in May.

The report called the resolution a "wanton violation" of North Korea's sovereignty and dignity.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the report quoted a letter to the head of the Security Council as saying.

"If some permanent members of the [council] wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue."

The letter pointedly blamed the Security Council's decision to impose sanctions following its April rocket launch, while taking no action following one by South Korea last month.

"Had the UNSC, from the very beginning, not made an issue of the DPRK's (North Korea's) peaceful satellite launch in the same way as it kept silent over the satellite launch conducted by South Korea on August 25, 2009, it would not have compelled the DPRK to take strong counteraction such as its 2nd nuclear test," the letter said.

Agreements scrapped

The US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have been negotiating with North Korea for years in an effort to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions.

However, North Korea walked away from the talks earlier this year, saying the so-called six-party process was dead and announcing that it was scrapping all previous agreements.

North Korea has said it needs nuclear weapons as a security guarantee against what it sees as the "hostile policies" of the US, which has 28,500 troops based in South Korea.

Balbina Hwang, a former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, told Al Jazeera that North Korea's announcement was "reiterating the same message they have been sending since January, which is that they are not interested in six-party talks".

She said the North had decided the talks were not working for them, because it was going to force them to "a very critical step – namely were they going to give up their nuclear weapons or not?"

"What they're doing is telling the UN that sanctions will not work, that they will continue with weapons development of weapons of international rules, and instead that they'd rather deal bilaterally with South Korea, the US and China – because that's their best way of keeping the regime going and also being able continue with their nuclear weapons."

'Provocative'

South Korea's foreign ministry has expressed regret over the North's announcement, urging Pyongyang to return to the stalled disarmament talks.

"The North's move to continue provocative steps... can never be tolerated. We will deal with North Korea's threats and provocative acts in a stern and consistent manner," the ministry said in a statement.

Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer, reporting from the United Nations, said the North Korean statement will likely be seen as a defiant move, especially given that the US has just taken on the rotating presidency of the Security Council.

The US has said it will make non-proliferation the top priority of its time in the presidency.

Our correspondent says the North Korean announcement will also likely be seized upon by critics of the Obama administration to say policy that the White House's policy of engagement with North Korea and other so-called rogue regimes is a failure.

The UK prioritises Afghan self-security

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has said that UK forces will not leave Afghanistan until Kabul can take care of its own security.

Brown, talking at a news conference in the British capital on Friday, said that the military's objective was Afghan "responsibility and autonomy for their own affairs".

"We will have succeeded when our troops are coming home because the Afghans are doing the job themselves," he said.

"To reach that point, we must focus on building up the Afghan army and police ... it is security that comes first as in any counter-insurgency campaign."

Brown said that the UK's strategy in the southern Helmand province was short-term securitisation, mid-term "Afghanisation" of their work and longer-term development.

He said that the strategy for the 9,000 UK troops was targeting urban and rural areas, many heavily populated.

"This is a strategy radically different from all previous foreign interventions in Afghanistan, which lacked the support of the population, which stayed in the cities and ignored the country and did not seek to empower Afghans themselves in maintaining security."

'Continued threat'

Brown also asserted that forces in Afghanistan, which al-Qaeda sees as strategically important in establishing a pan-Islamic caliphate, and Pakistan continued to pose the biggest threat to UK national security.

"The main element of the threat to the UK continues to emanate from al-Qaeda and [groups in] Pakistan."

"[Therefore,] a safer Afghanistan means a safer Britain. It is on this basis that I made clear in the spring ... that preventing terrorism coming to the streets of Britain, America and other countries, depends on strengthening the authorities in both Pakistan and Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and the Pakistan and Afghan Taliban."

He said that missions this year had brought successes in central and southern Helmand, in the south of the country. However, he added that other nations in Nato needed to ask whether they were doing enough to help in Afghanistan.

On last month's Afghan elections, Brown said that turnout was not as high as hoped and accusations of voting irregularities needed to be independently investigated.

"But the very fact of the first elections run by Afghans themselves is an important step forward for the people of Afghanistan. And we should remember that the Taliban vowed to destroy this election and they failed."

Political initiative

Chrispian Cuss, former British military spokesman in Iraq, told Al Jazeera that Brown had defined success as when the Afghans are capable of looking after their own security.

"There was nothing about democratic process, nothing about economic reconstruction ... So you want to ask him was that why we went there in the first place?

"But, for the first time, you heard the British government state why we are there. And it was about the threat from al-Qaeda, Islamic extremism and the threat it poses to the British streets."

Cuss also said that Brown again did not give a timeframe for the mission, which the UK public would want to know, and whether the US had asked for more British troops in Afghanistan in recent meetings, which is suspected.

"Brown has been shown to be doing very badly in the polls over his handling of the war in Afghanistan and he's really trying to make a great effort to regain the political initiative.

"The problem is this is a very, very complicated operation. It is tied in not only with Afghanistan's future, but also Pakistan's and the region as a whole.

"He's going to have tremendous difficulty over the next few months selling this to the British public."

Anthony Howard, a political commentator, said: "I think that people just don't accept that a safer Afghanistan makes a safer Britain. That may have washed at the very beginning, but now the body bags are coming back ... people are saying that it just isn't working.

"They see that maybe that we're engaged in an act of provocation in Afghanistan. Far from making terrorism less likely, it might make it more likely, because they are enraged by what is happening in Afghanistan."

Brown's comments came a day after an aide to the defence minister resigned, citing problems with the handling of the war in Afghanistan.

British troop numbers in Afghanistan are currently at their highest level - 9,150 - since the military entered the country in 2001 with the US to remove the Taliban from power.

The G20 split on bank crisis solution

Divisions are growing among Group of 20 nations on how to recover from the global economic crisis, as finance ministers meet in London, Britain's capital.

While several European countries want a global agreement to curb bankers' bonuses, which many have blamed for the crisis, the initiative has not received strong support from the US or the UK.

The finance ministers of Sweden, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands called on Friday for bonuses guaranteed for more than a year
to be banned.

"Bonuses should be paid out over a number of years and should mirror the individual's and the bank's actual performance over time," they said in a joint opinion piece in Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper.

But both the UK and the US have rejected calls to impose a worldwide uniform cap on bonuses, a move pushed by France.

Economic recovery

Britain has said it wants to peg bonuses to long-term performance to discourage unnecessary risk-taking, while the US is pushing for tough new international standards for bank capital and liquidity.

Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, has played down the talks to be held on Friday and Saturday as a "stock-taking meeting, not a new-initiatives meeting" on the road to the leaders' summit in Pittsburgh in the US later this month.

But Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, said that she and other members of the group would be pressing the US to join the European-led move on bonuses.

"It has to be an international agreement, and we need to use our strength, our conviction with our colleagues to really set up this platform," she said on Thursday.

Gabriel Stein, an economist specialising in the eurozone and a director at Lombard Street Research in London, told Al Jazeera that concentrating on bank bonuses is not the only solution.

"You can and you should say that bonuses should be related to performance, but you can't get away from the fact that pay levels vary from country to country.

"Ultimately, and if you look solely at the bonus side of banks turnover and profits, it is probably quite limited so the effect would not be very substantial," he said.

'Double dip' risk

The finance ministers and central bank officials from rich and developing countries are meeting amid mounting signs of an economic recovery.

Japan, Germany, France and Australia all recorded growth in the second quarter while Britain is widely expected to do so in the third quarter.

They are expected to agree on an ongoing commitment to boosting the economy, but there is friction over when exactly to scale back stimulus efforts.

There are fears that curbing government spending too soon could result in a "double dip" recession.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that stimulus measures should been withdrawn only when economic recovery has taken hold, and unemployment is set to decline.

"I am concerned about the social and economic costs of high unemployment, which will persist even as financial markets and output stabilises," he said on Friday.

The meeting in London follows April's G20 summit in the same city, where leaders promised to pass "tough new principles on pay and compensation".

The Palestinians protest land seizure

Palestinian villagers protest land seizure
Hundreds of Palestinian villagers have made a short but symbolic march to the separation wall that Israel has built on their land, a non-violent protests that they regularly undertake.
Equally, the protesters, marching from the village of Bilin, are regularly met with a violent response from the Israeli army.

"The village of Bilin is literally on the frontline of Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land and the construction of its separation barrier," Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from the village, said.

"Later today the villagers of Bilin will protest the fact that not only they, but also five neighbouring villages, have lost their land which has been seized to build an Israeli settlement.

"This huge settlement will result in 40,000 Jewish settlers living on occupied land here in the West Bank and as Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu is planning to give the go ahead for even more of these settlement homes to be built," she said.

Netanyahu is set to approve plans to build hundreds of new homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, before considering US demands for a construction freeze.

Pakistan 'modified US missiles'

The US has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying US-made missiles to expand its ability to hit land-based targets, according to a report in the New York Times.

Citing senior US administration and congressional officials, the newspaper said on Sunday that the charge came in late June through an unpublicised diplomatic protest to Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister.

The accusation, made amid growing concerns about Pakistan's increasingly rapid conventional and nuclear weapons development, triggered a new round of US-Pakistani tensions, the report says.

"The focus of our concern is that this is a potential unauthorised modification of a maritime anti-ship defensive capability to an offensive land-attack missile," a senior administration official told the paper.

"When we have concerns, we act aggressively."

A senior Pakistani official called the accusation "incorrect", saying that the missile tested was developed by Pakistan, just as it had modified North Korean designs to build a range of land-based missiles that could strike India, according to the newspaper.

Suspicious missile test

US intelligence agencies allegedly detected of a suspicious missile test on April 23, which was never announced by the Pakistanis and which appeared to give it a new offensive weapon.

US military and intelligence officials suspect Pakistan of modifying the Harpoon sold to them in the 1980s during the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon, which would violate the Arms Control Export Act.

Pakistan denied the charge and said it had developed the missile, the New York Times said.

The missiles would bolster Pakistan's ability to threaten India, stoking fears of heating up the two nations' arms race.

The charges come as the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, is seeking congressional approval for $7.5bn in aid for Pakistan over the next five years.

South American News Americas Summit criticises US-Colombia deal

Latin American leaders have issued a statement warning "foreign military forces" not to threaten the sovereignty of any of the region's nations.

The declaration, which was signed by all 12 leaders of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), came after a lengthy debate on Friday on plans to increase the presence of US troops at bases in Colombia.

The statement "reaffimed that the presence of foreign military forces must not ... menace the sovereignty and integrity of a South American country and in consequence regional peace and stability".

It deliberately avoided specific mention of the US military in order to allow all the leaders, including Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president, to sign the text.

Regional fears

The extraordinary meeting the Argentine mountain resort of Bariloche was called after Venezuela, along with Bolivia and Ecuador, complained that the US military could use seven bases in Colombia as launch points to overthrow their governments.

"The US global strategy for domination explains the installation of these bases in Colombia," Chavez said, holding up a document he said set out the US air force strategy to achieve that aim.

An attempt by Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, to get other leaders to sign a declaration rejecting the US deal with Colombia was rejected.

"As long as there are uniformed foreigners in a South American country, it's difficult for us to think there can be peace," he had told the summit.

Colombia has insisted that the US troops are vital to tackle drug trafficking in the region and pose no threat to its neighbours.

Uribe told the summit on Friday that he would "not cede one millimetre of sovereignty" under the deal.

"We are not talking about a political game, we are talking about a threat that has spilled blood in Colombian society."

US expansion

But Eva Golinger, a consultant to the Venezuelan government, told Al Jazeera that the US military deployment was not necessary.

"It has been made clear in other US documents this year, particularly one on irregular warfare, about the need not to have permanent troops stationed in any one country but to have this type of mobility which allows for effective non-conventional military operations - so that's the fear," she said.

"The fear comes in the form of territorial occupation of US military forces or an access to the entire infrastrucure of Colombia for an alleged war against drugs and that doesn't pan out."

Under the plan, about 300 US troops are already stationed in the country, but the new agreement allows the expansion of the force to 800 US soldiers and 600 civilian officials.

Many Latin American nations are wary of US intervention in the region, recalling Washington's backing of right-wing military governments in the past.

Brazil, Chile and Argentina have demanded binding guarantees be made that the US military assets and personnel in Colombia not be used for any other purpose other than their stated mission of fighting drug-traffickers and Colombian rebels.

Gabon votes for new president

Voters in Gabon are going to the polls in elections expected to bring Ali Bongo, the son of the late president, to power.

At least 19 candidates are still in the running to replace Omar Bongo after Sunday's vote, but the fractured opposition is thought to have handed his son the advantage.

Polls opened at 7am local time (06:00 GMT) and will close at 6pm.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow, reporting from the capital, Libreville, said: "Eager voters have been gathering outside the polling stations in most parts of the country since the early morning hours."

"People have been gathering here in Libreville since 4am ... it is the first time most of them have been voting and Omar Bongo, who ruled this country for 41 years, will not be on the ballot."

In several districts in the capital voting was delayed for up to two hours as people waited for the polls to open.

Family legacy

During the campaign, Ali Bongo has pledged change in the impoverished West African nation, while also defending the legacy of his father, who had been widely accused of corruption.

"It's not contradictory - not at all," he said as he attended his final campaign rally on Saturday.

"How could I not be confident?" Bongo asked, pointing at the thousands of supporters chanting his name.

Gabon is sub-Saharan Africa's fourth biggest oil producer, the world's third biggest provider of manganese and Africa's second biggest wood exporter, but an estimated 60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Bongo and the other frontrunners - Andre Mba Obame, Casimir Oye Mba and Pierre Mamboundou - have all promised a fairer distribution of the country's natural resources.

A total of 23 politicians were originally in the race, but on Friday representatives of five candidates, including Jean Eyeghe Ndong, a former prime minister, Paul Mba Abessole, a former opposition leader, decided to stand down in favour of Obame, a former interior minister.

But the announcement also caused a row with four other contenders, including Oye Mba, a former oil minister, denying claims that they had joined the other candidates in pulling out of the race.

Many candidates have questioned the electoral roll, saying that the official figure of 813,164 eligible voters in a country of 1.5 million was too high.

'Open election'

However, Adama Gaye, an Africa analyst based in Senegal, said that the election was likely to be the most open in Gabon's history.

"President Bongo was not just Africa's longest-serving president, but also the world's longest-serving president," he told Al Jazeera.

"Because of his really high stature and financial muscle the elections were usually a foregone conclusion and there was also support from the French authorities to ensure he won."

More than 300 observers have been accredited for the vote, including representatives from the African Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and a global grouping of francophone countries.

There are also fears that lingering anger over the huge personal fortune accumulated by Omar Bongo will prompt unrest if Ali Bongo wins.

'Worrying signals'

Al Jazeera's Adow said that the opposition candidates had warned that they would "not take an Ali Bongo victory lying down".

"Despite all the security in the capital, many people have been leaving the city and heading to their rural homes," he said.

A group of leading intellectuals in Gabon on Saturday urged all sides not to resort to violence after the election, pointing to "numerous worrying signals" and warning of "confrontations" in the wake of the vote.

Before the polls opened, Bongo issued a warning to any potential protesters.

"It is clear that we cannot accept disorder... We shall use all the institutions that the law authorises us to use - the street belongs to no one," he told Radio France International.

The 3,000 polling stations across the country have been placed under heavy security and voters have been told to return to their homes after voting.

NIPON PM 'to quit over poll defeat'

Taro Aso, Japan's prime minister, has said he will step down in the wake of his party's apparent defeat in the country's elections.

Aso said on Sunday that he had to "take the responsibility" following what exit polls showed was a landslide victory for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) over his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

"I would like to listen to the people's criticisms and we will have to rebuild our party all over again," Aso, the party's fourth leader in four years, said.

Exit polls have forecast a huge loss for Aso's LDP, which is expected to win only about 100 seats in the lower house of parliament, down from 300.

The DPJ is expected to win between 398 and 329 seats in the 480-member lower house of parliament.

'Revolutionary change'

"The people are angry with politics now and the ruling coalition," Yukio Hatoyama, the DPJ leader, said.

"We felt a great sense of people wanting change for their livelihoods and we fought this election for a change in government."

Hatoyama, who stands to be Japan's next prime minister, said that he planned to form a coalition with some of Japan's smaller parties - the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party.

The opposition already controls the less powerful upper house of parliament following elections in 2007, but its election win is historic as the LDP has ruled for all but 10 months since it was founded in 1955.

Earlier Hiroyuki Hosoda, the LDP secretary-general, said that he and other officials in the former ruling party planned to step down from their posts over their party's apparent defeated.

The LDP's defeat is being seen as a demand for change by voters disappointed with the LDP's performance and worried about a record jobless rate and a rapidly ageing society that is inflating social security costs.

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao, reporting from Tokyo, said: "Many people would say this has been a long time coming and the LDP should have seen the need for change."

Challenges ahead

In the build up to the elections, Yukio Hatoyama, the DPJ leader, promised voters "revolutionary change", pledging to focus spending on social-welfare, including cash handouts for job seekers in training and families with children.

The DPJ has also vowed to cut wasteful spending and reduce the power of Japan's bureaucrats.

But the Democrats will face an uphill struggle.

Economic experts have suggested that their spending plans could inflate Japan's massive public debt and push up government bond yields.

The ruling party's loss will end a three-way partnership between the LDP, big business and bureaucrats that turned Japan into an economic juggernaut in the aftermath of the Second World War.

That strategy foundered when Japan's "bubble" economy burst in the late 1980s and growth has stagnated since.

"This is about the end of the post-war political system in Japan," Gerry Curtis, a Japanese expert at Columbia University, said.

"It marks the end of one long era, and the beginning of another one about which there is a lot of uncertainty."

Ehud Olmert charged with graft

The Israeli authorities have charged Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, with corruption.

The indictments include illegal acceptance of funds from an American supporter and double-billing for foreign trips, the attorney-general's office said on Sunday.

"The attorney-general ... has decided to press charges against former prime minister Ehud Olmert," a statement from the office of Menahem Mazuz said.

"The charge sheet was presented today in Jerusalem district court."

Olmert is the first ex-Israeli prime minister to be indicted.

Shula Zaken, Olmert's personal secretary, was also charged.

The allegations initially occurred during Olmert's premiership, and forced him to step down.

He is suspected of committing the crimes while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and afterwards when a cabinet minister, before he became prime minister in 2006.

Scores die in Kuwait wedding fire

At least 41 people, all women and children, have died after a fire broke out in a tent being used at a wedding in Kuwait City.
At least 50 other people are believed to have been injured in Saturday's incident in Jahra, west of the Kuwaiti capital, Saad al-Enezi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kuwait, said.
"Many of them are in a very, very serious condition," al-Enezi said.
"The rescue operation has finished now - everyone is either in hospital or the morgue
StampedeIt
is thought that the death toll will rise due to a stampede as relatives and onlookers flooded the scene during the fire, which took less than two minutes to engulf the tent
Al-Enezi said that candles may have ignited the tent, leading to the country's biggest such disaster in 40 years.
The authorities said they were investigating the cause of the blaze.
"The tent, in an enclosed surrounding, did not have any emergency exit and it was made from a very flammable material - cotton," al-Enezi said.
Fire officials told Al Jazeera that the tent had probably not been constructed to correct safety standards.
In Kuwait, wedding celebrations are held separately for men and women, with children attending the women's party.

Binyamin Netanyahu defies US on settlements

The Israeli prime minister had defied US demands to suspend a settlement construction project in East Jerusalem, sparking what Washington calls "intense" negotiations between the allies.
Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not take orders on where Jews can live and reiterated the claim that a united Jerusalem is Israel's capital, which most of the world does not recognise.
"We cannot accept the fact that Jews wouldn't be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu declared, calling Israeli sovereignty over the entire city "indisputable".
Israeli officials said on Sunday that Michael Oren, the country's ambassador to Washington, had been summoned to the US state department and told that a project in the disputed section of the city should be abandoned.
According to the Israeli Army Radio, the US demanded that planning approval for the project, which is being developed by an American millionaire, be revoked.
Netanyahu's response places renewed focus on the strained ties between the allies over the settlements issue.

'Intense negotiations'
Speaking on a visit to India on Sunday, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said Washington was trying to reach an agreement with Israel on settlements.
"The negotiations are intense. They are ongoing," she said.

Granted by the Jerusalem municipality earlier this month, the planning approval for the controversial project allows the construction of 20 apartments plus a three-level underground parking lot that will replace the Shepherd hotel.
The old hotel lies in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where settlement building is illegal under international law.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said: "If the Israeli prime minister continues with settlement activities, he will undermine the efforts to revive the peace process."
Most international powers consider Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Settlements have emerged as a major sticking point in relations between Israel and the administration of Barack Obama, the US president.
'Head-on collision'
Although Netanyahu recently yielded to US pressure to conditionally endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has consistently resisted US demands for a total freeze on settlement expansion.

Akiva Eldar, the chief political columnist for Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said the dispute was an example of how settlement building had become a publicly acknowledged obstacle to the peace process.
"I think the high profile that both Israel and the United States, as well as the Arab countries and particularly the Palestinians, have put on the settlements is offering a good potential for a head-on collision," he said.
"According to the official Israeli position, it's not illegal and even the United States, for many years, and even now, is not making a point of the legal issues, they're just saying it's not helpful ... but no country, not even the United States, has recognised [Israel's] annexation of East Jerusalem."
Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared the whole city its capital after the 1967 Middle East war.
Ziad al-Hammouri, the director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights that provides legal assistance to Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera "what's happening in Jerusalem today ... is illegal".
"East Jerusalem is a part of the occupied territories which has to be given back and form part of a Palestinian state.

Pair convicted over Bosnia killings

A UN war crimes court has sentenced two Bosnian Serb cousins to life and 30 years in jail respectively for burning scores of Muslims to death during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Milan and Sredoje Lukic were accused of locking up the victims in two houses in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad and setting them alight, in a trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Milan Lukic was sentenced to life at the court in the Netherlands for killing at least 119 Bosnian Muslims in the two separate incidents which took place in June 1992.
His cousin Sredoje received 30 years for aiding and abetting in one of the incidents.
'Inhumanity'
Prosecutors had accused the pair of taking part in "one of the most notorious campaigns of ethnic cleansing" as members of a paramilitary group in Visegrad.
Patrick Robinson, the presiding judge in the case, said the atrocities exemplified "the worst acts of inhumanity that one person may inflict on others".
"At the close of the 20th century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality," the judge said.Milan Lukic, who Robinson said was the ringleader, shook his head in reaction to the verdict.
The court furthermore found Milan Lukic guilty of having been among a group who led seven Bosnian Muslim men to a river in June 1992, lined them up along its bank and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing five.
A few days later, he was among another group who killed seven Muslim factory workers next to the same river in a similar manner.
He was also convicted of killing a woman who he shot at point blank range.
"He was laughing, then he turned her body over with his foot and shot her in the back," said Robinson.
Both men were convicted of having beaten Bosnian Muslim detainees "with extraordinary brutality".
Prosecutor 'satisfied'

A spokeswoman for ICTY prosecutor Serge Brammertz said he was "satisfied" with the decision.
"It reflects the gravity of crimes committed and the responsibility of the accused," Olga Kavran said.
After seven years on the run, Milan Lukic was arrested in Argentina in August 2005. His cousin Sredoje surrendered to the Bosnian Serb authorities the following month.
The cousins' defence lawyers had argued the pair should be acquitted for lack of evidence, citing inconsistencies in survivor accounts.
The trial started in July last year.

Spain's foreign minister in historic Gibraltar trip

Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain's foreign minister, has visited Gibraltar, the disputed British colony, becoming the first member of the Spanish government to make the trip in 300 years.
Moratinos who met David Miliband, his UK counterpart, and Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's chief minister, said that while Spain did not renounce its territorial claim to the rocky outcrop, the way forward was through co-operation.
Spain ceded Gibraltar, which has a population of 30,000 people, to Britain in 1713, but has since called for the territory to be returned.
The conservative Popular Party, Spain's main opposition, has criticised Moratino's decision to visit the territory, describing it as a "terrible mistake".
The party said Moratino's visit effectively treats the territory as a sovereign nation.Leire Pajin, a spokeswoman for Spain's ruling Socialist Party, said the "issue of sovereignty is not at stake", adding the visit was to help improve the life of Spaniards living in Gibraltar.
The foreign ministers agreed to expand communications links between Spain and thecolony, including a new ferry route between Gibraltar and Algeciras and a hotline between the two cities to discuss bilateral issues directly.
Around 12,000 people cross over from Spain daily to work in the territory, and many others visit for tourism.
Gibraltar is a haven for shipping and offshore banking because of favourable tax laws.
In 2002, its inhabitants overwhelmingly rejected an Anglo-Spanish proposal for co-sovereignty in a referendum.

An accord between India and the United States around the arms

An accord between India and the United States has been reached in New Delhi aimed at clearing the way for the sale of US-made weapons to India.
The pact, known as an end-use monitoring agreement, was signed by Hillary Clinton on Monday during her first trip to India as the US secretary of state.
"We have agreed on the end-use monitoring arrangement which would refer to ... Indian procurement of US defence technology and equipment," S M Krishna, the Indian external affairs minister, told a joint news conference with Clinton.
The agreement, required under US law for arms sales, allows Washington to verify that India is using weapons for their stated purpose.
The deal is also designed to ensure that New Delhi is not passing weapons technology from the US on to other nations.
US defence contractors, such as Lockheed Martin Corporation and Boeing Company, are competing to win orders from New Delhi to build 126 fighter aircraft.
Nuclear reactors
Clinton said that India had also approved two sites on its territory for the construction of US nuclear reactors.

"I am also pleased that Prime Minister [Manmohan] Singh told me that sites for two nuclear parks for US companies have been approved by the government," she said.
US officials estimate that the nuclear sites would represent up to $10bn in business for US nuclear-reactor builders such as General Electric Company and Westinghouse Electric Company, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp.
Marie Lall, a specialist in South Asia affairs at Chatham House in London, said that the deal would go some way to easing the US trade deficit with India. "You have to be aware that the balance of trade deficit of the United States is $13bn ... Obviously, signing a deal of $10bn will go a long way to balance out that trade deficit for the United States," she told Al Jazeera.
Climate disagreement
Clinton is in India for three days for talks on climate change, security and nuclear power.
But while Washington and New Delhi have reached an agreement on weapons sales, the US government appears to have failed to convince India on the need to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions.
During a meeting with Clinton on Sunday, Jairam Ramesh, India's junior environment minister, refused to agree to limit the country's carbon output.
Developing nations should not be forced to sign up to legally binding targets on reducing carbon emissions, Ramesh said.
India is "simply in no position" to cut its levels of harmful emissions, he said.
The refusal comes five months before a UN climate conference in Copenhagen, where it is hoped that more than 190 nations will set targets for emission cuts up to 2020.
Clinton 'confident'
Despite the differences over the environmental targets, Clinton said she was optimistic that a compromise could be found.

"I am very confident ... that the United States and India can devise a plan that will dramatically change the way we produce, consume and conserve energy," she said.
Bharat Desai, an expert on international environmental law at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Al Jazeera that developing countries will not [for the time being] take up legally binding commitments.
"But India is taking responsibility, it has various energy efficiency programmes ... we have already passed a law on climate change," he said.
"The developed countries need to take the lead so the developing ones feel comfortable [to follow]."
India is one of several developing nations who argue that their industrial ouput - and hence their economies - will be harmed should they be forced to commit to cuts in carbon emissions.

Japan's prime minister has formally dissolved the lower house of parliament

The prime ministre of japan has formally dissolved the lower house of parliament and called a general election on August 30, saying he plans to "start afresh" following a string of defeats for his party and plunging popularity ratings.
Announcing the move on Tuesday, Taro Aso vowed to restore voters' faith in his fractious ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) despite opinion polls indicating it is headed for a heavy defeat.
Aso's move came soon after his cabinet backed his proposal to call a national vote.
A string of defeats in local elections and the planned national poll has sparked chaos in the LDP, with critics trying to oust him from the party leadership ahead of the August vote.
Party heavyweights have blocked moves to oust him but agreed that Aso would appear before LDP legislators in meeting on Tuesday.
That gathering was closed to media in what many interpreted was a sign the party feared exposing its deep divisions.
Speaking after the meeting, Aso apologised for his failings and admitted that the party's internal chaos had contributed to recent local election losses.
"I am firmly resolved that we will sincerely accept the people's feelings, will and criticism and start afresh," he said, vowing to stay in his post until the economy recovered.
Closing ranks

The LDP has ruled Japan almost without interruption for the past five decades.
Yoichi Masuzoem Japan's health minister, said all cabinet members, including Kaoru Yosano, the finance minister who some had earlier speculated might refuse to back Aso's election plan, backed him on Tuesday.
LDP legislators have stifled their criticism of Aso - at least for now - as they gear up for election battle.
"At this point we have no choice but to be united before the election," Hiroshige Seko, an upper house legislator, told reporters.
But Aso still faces an uphill task in trying to keep his job and his party in power.
The premier survived a no-confidence motion in parliament last week due to the LDP's dominance in the current house, but the latest newspaper polls indicate that dominance is about to end.
A poll published in the Mainichi newspaper puts the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ahead of the LDP by a two-to-one margin.
Fifty-six per cent of voters indicated they would choose the DPJ and 23 per cent said they would vote LDP, according to the poll. Another poll by Asahi newspaper showed similar results, with 49 per cent of respondents supporting the Democrats, and only 22 per cent behind Aso's party.
Yukio Hatoyama, the Democratic party leader, told party members on Tuesday to face the election with "a sense of historic mission".
"This is a major, revolutionary election to allow politicians to take the lead in Japanese government," he said.

Protesting workers have used high-powered catapults to fire at police

South Korean riot police backed up by armour and helicopters, have clashed with hundreds of sacked auto workers who have been holed up in a car factory outside of Seoul for almost two months.
Several of the protesters used high-powered slingshots to fire nuts and bolts at police from factory rooftops as they tried to storm the Ssangyong motors car plant on Tuesday.
Some 3,000 riot police have been deployed to the plant at Pyeongtaek, about 70km south of Seoul, in an effort to clear up to 600 sacked workers who have occupied the factory's paint shop.
Ssangyong is South Korea's fifth-largest automaker and the occupation which began in late May has paralysed production at the plant.
Police first entered the factory on Monday after the company cut off water and gas supplies to the plant in an effort to force the workers to leave.
As they did so, protesters tried to block their path by setting light to vehicles and tyres while pelting police with shrapnel from catapults.
Job cuts

The workers began their occupation on May 21 in protest at job cuts designed as part of a restructuring plan to save the troubled carmaker.
Ssangyong, which is majority-owned by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., has been in court-approved bankruptcy protection since February.
South Korean media reports have said the paint shop, where most of the protesters are holed-up, contains flammable materials that could potentially ignite amid a major clash.
As part of its restructuring plan, Ssangyong aims to shed 36 per cent of its workforce or about 2,646 jobs.
According to the company some 1,670 have left the company voluntarily, but nearly 1,000 opposed the move and some were later fired.
Ssangyong mostly manufactures light SUVs and a luxury sedan – sales of which have plummeted in the global economic downturn.
The company sold 13,020 vehicles during the first six months of the year, down 73.9 percent from the same period in 2008, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Government officials have warned that unless the occupation of the factory ends and production resumes, any hope of saving the company will evaporate

Chinese authorities arrests 'concern' Australia

Australia's trade minister has expressed concern over the detention of a Rio Tinto mining company employee accused of stealing state secrets from China.
Simon Crean met Chinese officials in Shanghai on Saturday, nearly a week after Chinese authorities detained four employees of the Anglo-Australian mining giant, including an Australian citizen.
Authorities have accused the Australian executive, Stern Hu, and three of his Chinese colleagues of stealing state secrets during negotiations over iron-ore prices.
Crean, who is in China as part of a trade mission, said he pressed Chinese officials for more details on the detentions, but he said he does not expect the case to affect bilateral trade ties.
"We've stressed the importance of getting further and better details," he said.
"We have no information as to what the investigation does involve. We're going on the basis of press reports. The government here is not able to inform us anymore.
'Different' rules
"We respect the Chinese legal system and the processes that need to be gone through, but we've indicated that this too is an important issue back home in Australia."
Crean said Australia is also pushing for the presence of legal representation for Hu as well.
"We have a different set of rules back home for the treatment of individuals than is the case here. ... We have to respect their system and work within it."

Chinese media on Friday said, citing a statement from the country's internal security agency, that the four Rio workers obtained confidential information including summaries of meetings by Chinese negotiators in the talks on annual iron ore supply contracts.
"This seriously damaged China's economic security and interests," the state-run China Securities Journal said, echoing a foreign ministry official statement a day earlier.
On Thursday Qin Gang, China's foreign ministry spokesman, said that Chinese authorities had "a vast amount of irrefutable evidence" which showed the four "stole Chinese state secrets for overseas, gravely harming China's economic interests and economic security".
Rio Tinto, based in London and Australia, is the world's third-largest mining company and the lead negotiator for global iron-ore suppliers in price talks with Chinese steel mills.
Threat to relations
The case threatens to cast a shadow over Australia's trading relations with China, one of Canberra's most important trading partners.
Australian opposition politicians have criticised the country's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, for not doing enough to intervene in the case.
But on Friday Rudd defended his actions, saying the issue required a careful approach so as not to trigger a trade crisis, accusing some politicians of "grandstanding" over the case for domestic political reasons.
"The business of dealing with difficult, complex diplomatic questions, particularly when human lives are concerned, requires sensitivity and proper handling," Rudd told Australia's ABC radio from Italy, where he was attending the G8 summit.
Iron ore price negotiations have already run past their original June 30 deadline and last month Rio Tinto ditched a planned $19.5bn investment by state-owned Chinese metals firm Chinalco.
The latter case has sparked speculation in Australia that the arrests may be in reprisal for the collapsed Chinalco deal

General Motors emerges from bankruptcy

General Motors has emerged from bankruptcy - just 40 days after the US vehicle manufacturer signed a government-backed rescue deal, the company has announced.The main assets of the troubled giant, which was once the world's largest corporation, have been transferred to a new company which will be 61 per cent owned by the government.
"Today marks a new beginning for General Motors," Fritz Henderson, the chief executive of GM, said on Friday."One that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers.
"We recognise that we've been given a rare second chance at GM, and we are very grateful for that. And we appreciate the fact that we now have the tools to get the job done."
Jobs slashed

GM has slashed its work force, closed 40 per cent of its dealerships and shed a number of brands including Saab, Saturn, Opel and Hummer.It will cut 6,000 jobs by October in a move that will reduce its white-collar work force by 20 per cent and a 35 per cent reduction in executive posts is also planned.The US government has provided about $50bn in financing for the company and spearheaded the restructuring plan. Canada, which provided more than $9bn in loans, also has a stake in the new GM along with a United Auto Workers union retiree healthcare trust fund.
The new firm has also been freed of $173bn of liabilities it had when it entered bankruptcy protection on June 1.
Creditors holding about 54 per cent of GM bonds agreed to a plan that would swap $27bn dollars in debt for a 10 per cent stake and warrants allowing them to buy an additional 15 per cent stake.

Google and Windows rival

Google Inc has announced that it will launch an operating system for personal computers, in a direct challenge to the dominance of Micrsoft's Windows platform.
The Google Chrome Operating System will be loaded onto consumer netbooks (small, low-cost laptop computers) in the second half of 2010, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Google, which offers email, web, news and map services, said it will work with several computer manufacturers in delivering the operating system to consumers.
The plan by Google to launch a direct rival to Windows, which is installed in 90 per cent of the world’s PC, is its biggest challenge to Microsoft yet.
"It's been part of their culture to go after and remove Microsoft as a major holder of technology, and this is part of their strategy to do it," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, said.
"This could be very disruptive. If they can execute [their plan], Microsoft is vulnerable to an attack like this, and they know it," he said.
A spokesman for Microsoft had no immediate comment on Google's announcement.
Manufacturers courted
Google will need to form partnerships with PC manufacturers, which currently offer Windows on most of their product lines, in order for the operating system to succeed.
"We are looking into it," Marlene Somsak, a spokeswoman for HP, a PC maker, said.
"We want to understand all the different operating systems available to customers, and will assess the impact of Chrome on the computer and communications industry."
Google launched an internet browser in late 2008 in a challenge to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, but it has failed to make a big impact.
The browser held only a 1.2 per cent share in February, according to Net Applications, a market research firm. Explorer is the leading browser, with a 70 per cent market share.
The new Google operating system is based on Linux code, which allows
third-party developers to build applications compatible with the system

may grant Zelaya amnesty

Honduras' military-backed interim leader has reiterated that ousted president Manuel Zelaya will never be allowed to return to power.
But, Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday, Zelaya could be granted amnesty if he were to return home quietly to face justice.
"If he comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem [with granting him amnesty]," Micheletti told the Reuters news agency in Tegucigalpa.
The interim government blocked an attempt by Zelaya to return to Honduras last week, triggering clashes between the military and Zelaya supporters that resulted in the death of a teenage boy.
Curfew lifted
Its apparent change of tack to allow Zelaya to return if he does so "peacefully", comes on the same day that it lifted a curfew that had been in place since the coup two weeks ago.

Micheletti's interim government said it was lifting the curfew as it had succeeded in restoring calm and reducing crime.
For his part, Zelaya told Caracas-based Telesur television on Sunday that he intended to return "at any time, on any day, anywhere".
Micheletti, installed by congress just hours after the June 28 military coup that forced Zelaya into exile, repeated his position that Zelaya would not be reinstated as president "under any conditions".
The military-backed interim government has continued to defy international condemnation of last month's coup and calls from theOrganisation of American States, the US and the UN General Assembly for Zelaya to be reinstated.
The country's congress and supreme court ordered the army to remove Zelaya last month, arguing he had violated the country's constitution by attempting to lift presidential term limits.
Zelaya, who has been travelling in the Americas to shore up his support, also ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president.

Chavez blamed

Micheletti blamed Chavez for the political crisis in his country on Sunday.
"Chavez is the great damage that democracy in Honduras has suffered. We hold him responsible for any incident or any invasion that might come against Honduras from any country," he said.
In a sign of the tensions with Caracas, Honduran police on Saturday night detained for several hours members of television crews of the Venezuelan state channel VTV and Telesur, which have extensively covered pro-Zelaya protests.
Speaking in Caracas, Chavez condemned the detention.
Micheletti's interim government held talks with Zelaya's representatives last week with Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president, mediating.
The talks ended in a stalemate but Arias has suggested a follow-up round of talks in about a week's time, with Zelaya proposing that it be held in Honduras.