Tokyo urges Japan, China to avoid tit-for-tat claims

TOKYO: Japan and China should focus on the big picture and avoid tit-for-tat recriminations, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said on Friday, as public protests and sharp comments by senior officials suggested mounting tensions between Asia’s two biggest economies.

Messages on the Chinese Internet in recent days have called for protests in Chongqing, a sprawling city in China’s southwest, and a smaller city, Deyang, also in the southwest, after thousands of protesters marched last week in both countries.

China’s distrust of Japan resurfaced on Thursday when Beijing refused to say whether the leaders of the two countries would meet at a regional summit this month and accused Tokyo’s foreign minister of rekindling ill-will.

“Neither side should be nitpicking over particular comments and then overreacting,” Yoshito Sengoku, the de facto No. 2 in Japan’s cabinet,

Imam may shift planned mosque near Ground Zero

Amid the widespread opposition against the planned mosque near Ground Zero in the US, the cleric leading the effort to build an Islamic centre here may consider shifting its location from the controversial spot.
Our advisers have been looking at every option including that, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted as saying by the New York Post, when asked whether he would shift the mosque. The embattled Imam also pointed that a future solution needed to be agreed to by all parties embroiled in this debate.
The way we confront our problems in the United States…is watched all over the world, Rauf said. I need a space where the voice of the moderates can be heard. We need a platform where the voice of modern Muslims can be amplified…This is an opportunity that we must capitalize on, he added. Rauf made these remarks today — two days after thousands of people gathered for pro and anti-mosque rallies near Ground Zero on the ninth anniversary of September 11 terror attacks at the World Trade Centre in New York.

The Growing Climate Gate Scandal

TrendPK.com The Growing Climate Gate Scandal:Widening concern about the state of climate science after thousands of internal e-mails and computer files were posted on the Internet could jeopardize any agreement at this week’s summit in Copenhagen. Although a sweeping international deal already appeared unlikely, agreement on even less ambitious measures will be complicated

TrendPK.com The Growing Climate Gate Scandal:Widening concern about the state of climate science after thousands of internal e-mails and computer files were posted on the Internet could jeopardize any agreement at this week’s summit in Copenhagen.
Although a sweeping international deal already appeared unlikely, agreement on even less ambitious measures will be complicated [...]