The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Obama plans election-night rally in Chicago convention centre
- Japan ministers visit shrine for war dead
- Mexico seeks allies in trade dispute with China
| Obama plans election-night rally in Chicago convention centre Posted: 17 Oct 2012 07:01 PM PDT CLEVELAND (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama plans to usher in what he hopes will be a second four-year term in the White House at an election-night rally at a huge convention centre near downtown Chicago, a campaign official said on Wednesday.
The event will likely draw thousands of supporters to the McCormick Place convention centre in Chicago, Obama's hometown and the site of his re-election campaign headquarters. Supporters are expected to watch the voting results come in and then hear a speech by the incumbent Democrat who faces Republican Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive, in the November 6 general election. More than 200,000 revellers flooded Chicago's Grant Park after Obama beat John McCain in 2008 to become the first black U.S. president. McCormick Place attracts close to 3 million visitors each year and has assembly seating for 18,000 people, according to its website. The campaign official declined to discuss why the event would not be held in Grant Park. The official, who declined to speak on the record, said plans for the rally were still being worked out and declined to say how many people the campaign expects to attend. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Japan ministers visit shrine for war dead Posted: 17 Oct 2012 06:11 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's land minister and postal minister visited a controversial shrine for war dead on Thursday in a move which could further strain relations between neighbouring China and Korea, already tense over territorial disputes. The two ministers' pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many in the region as a symbol of Japan's war-time militarism, came a day after Japan's main opposition party leader and possible next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, visited there.
Land minister Yuichiro Hata and postal minister Mikio Shimoji were among a group of nonpartisan lawmakers visiting the shrine during its autumn festival. Fourteen Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured at the shrine along with other war dead. Hata told reporters his visit was "private". "I visited as a secretary general of the People's New Party. It won't be a big diplomatic problem," Kyodo quoted Shimoji as saying. Sino-Japanese relations have soured sharply in the past month when a row over disputed islands led to violent anti-Japanese protests across China and badly hurt trade. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Mexico seeks allies in trade dispute with China Posted: 17 Oct 2012 06:06 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico is hoping to recruit allies in a trade dispute in which it accuses China of breaking international rules by giving tax breaks and subsidies to its textile businesses, a top Mexican trade official said on Wednesday. Mexico argues that Beijing subsidizes Chinese companies in its textiles and clothing sector by exempting them from income taxes, value-added taxes and municipal taxes. "It's possible that at any time during the next 30 days, or 60 days, other countries could join us," Francisco de Rosenzweig, Mexico's undersecretary for foreign trade, told Reuters in an interview. Additional allies in the dispute would bring more pressure to bear on China. De Rosenzweig said Mexico was in consultations with various countries, but he declined to name them. Mexico formally requested consultations with China on Monday in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Asian giant has 60 days to resolve the matter by explaining its actions or changing its behaviour. Without a deal, Mexico could ask the WTO to rule on the dispute, its fourth WTO complaint against China. De Rosenzweig pointed to the massive textile trade deficit that Mexico, Latin America's second largest economy, faces with China. He said Chinese textile exports to Mexico last year totalled $1.07 billion (663.4 million pounds) while Mexico's exports to China were worth just $88 million. All told, Mexico imported more than $52 billion worth of Chinese goods last year and exported only about $6 billion of its own products to China, its third-biggest single export market. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera and David Alire Garcia; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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