World RoundUp May 27

• Source: The Global Times
• [09:34 May 27 2009]
• Comments

'Japan must cut emissions'

Japan's environment minister said yesterday that the world's second-largest economy should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 15 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Tetsuo Saito said Japan could meet the target through greater solar power development, cleaner cars and ecologically friendly homes.

He said Japan could aim for a 25 percent cut if it factored in carbon trading, forest absorption of carbon dioxide and its contributions to developing countries.

Israel to make concessions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to tear down settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in return for US backing on its stance on Iran, local media reported yesterday.

Netanyahu told his right-wing Likud faction Monday that Israel would have to dismantle what it considers illegal outposts, as demanded by Washington, since the issue of Iran was more important, newspaper reports said.

“I identify the danger and that's why I am willing to take unpopular steps such as evacuating outposts. The Iranian threat is above everything,” the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Japan rejects Chinese appeals

Japan's top court yesterday rejected two appeals for compensation for Chinese people killed or injured by chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese soldiers at the end of World War II.
 
A total of 22 Chinese plaintiffs had filed appeals with the Supreme Court in two separate suits seeking damages from the Japanese government for their sufferings caused by the poisonous gas munitions left behind by the Imperial Japanese Army in China.

But the top court ruled against the Chinese victims of chemical weapons and their family members, denying the responsibilities of the Japanese government, Kyodo News reported.

US envoy to Sudan visits China

The US special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration had met his Chinese counterpart Liu Guijin in Beijing, as well as Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi, to discuss the Darfur region and a peace agreement between the African country's north and south, according to China's foreign ministry.

“During these meetings, they exchanged views on the Darfur issue and the implementation of the north-south peace agreement,” said Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, at a regular press conference yesterday.

Gration, a retired air force general, left China early Tuesday, the US embassy in Beijing said – the first leg of a tour that will also take him to Qatar, Britain and France, according to US officials.

Agencies