Japan's premier-in-waiting Shinzo Abe came out fighting Monday after his sweeping election victory, saying there can be no compromise on the sovereignty of islands at the centre of a dispute with China.China reacted with alarm to Abe's victory, after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party crushed opponents in national polls and he immediately restated Tokyo's claims."The Senkaku islands are Japan's inherent territory," Abe told a press conference, referring to an archipelago Beijing calls the

Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro has been nominated for a seat in the country's parliament, authorities said Sunday.The afternoon TV news announced “the leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz heads the list of 25 candidates to the Cuban parliament from the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, approved by the delegates of this state body.”Castro was also named as a delegate in 2008, when he officially retired as president. It's unclear whether he has played an active role in legislative du

President Barack Obama, speaking alone on a spare stage for a nation in sorrow, declared Sunday that he will use “whatever power” he has to prevent shootings like the Connecticut school massacre.“What choice do we have?” Obama said at an evening vigil in the shattered community of Newtown, Connecticut. “Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year a

Four policemen were shot dead in Libya's troubled eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday when gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades on a security compound there, according to the Interior Ministry. Police spokesman Ezzedine al-Fazani said that the attack was linked to the recent detention of a man allegedly involved in last month's assassination of the head of one of the city's security agencies, National Security chief Col. Farag el-Dersi. The unknown assailants attacked the security compound, in

The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage shot his mother four times in the head before going to an elementary school and gunning down 26 people, authorities said Sunday as details emerged suggesting that Adam Lanza planned an even more gruesome massacre but was stopped short.Lanza blasted his way into the building and used a high-powered rifle to kill 20 children and six adults, including the principal and school psychologist who tried to stop him, authorities said. The unthinkable bloodsh

Democratic lawmakers and an independent senator said Sunday that military-style assault weapons should be banned and that a national commission should be established to examine mass shootings in the United States.The proposals were among the first to come from Congress in the wake of Friday's school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Gun rights activists remained largely quiet on the issue, all but one declining to appear on the Sunday talk shows. Meanwhile, Democrats vowed action and said it was

KABUL (AFP) ― France flew its last combat troops out of Afghanistan on Saturday, two years before allied nations in the 100,000-strong NATO mission led by the United States are due to recall their fighting forces.Around 200 soldiers of the 25th Belfort infantry regiment, responsible for overseeing the hastened French exit from the 11-year war, took off around 2:30 p.m., an airport official said. They are expected to return to France on Dec. 18 following a three-day decompression stay on the Medi

CARACAS (AFP) ― Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba after a new round of cancer surgery, is sound of mind and his physical health is improving, his science and technology minister said Saturday.Chavez, 58, “is mentally fully fit” and his health “is improving” after his surgery Tuesday in Cuba following a recurrence of cancer, said Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza said from Havana by phone.His health is in a “process of progressive stabilization,” added Arreaza, who also