Japan and Russia want to end World War II

Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first top-level Russo-Japanese summit in almost a decade.The two wrestled for hours with the problem that has stymied Russian and Japanese leaders for almost 70 years: how to find a mutually acceptable and hopefully profitable way to finally end World War II.

"The leaders of both countries agreed that the situation where, 67 years after the conclusion of [World War II], we have still been unable to conclude a bilateral peace treaty, looks abnormal," said a joint statement at the meeting's end Monday.

"We have ordered our foreign ministries to intensify contacts with an aim to developing a mutually acceptable plan. This will prioritize two parallel processes: discussion of the main subjects of the peace agreement and, simultaneously, ways to actively promote improvements across the full range of Russian-Japanese relations," it said.

Many new circumstances are driving Moscow and Tokyo to take a fresh look at one another, despite the debate that has raged since the end of World War II about the rightful ownership of the Kuril Islands, which Russia has occupied since the end of the war but Japan still claims. The dispute is the major reason the two nations never signed a peace treaty. 

Still, since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan's reliance on Russian energy supplies, particularly liquified natural gas, has grown significantly.

As Russia's geopolitical focus pivots eastward, Moscow is also eager for outside investment and expertise to develop its vast, resource-rich but largely unpopulated Siberian and far eastern regions. Japan is a logical go-to place for the capital and technology that Russia needs.

Japan might also be keen to distract Russia from its burgeoning partnership with China, with which Tokyo has increasingly tense relations, and introduce a bit more balance in fast-changing Asia Pacific.

Mr. Abe brought with him a delegation of 120 Japanese business leaders, some of whom told journalists they are eager to see a "road map" prepared for intensive Russo-Japanese cooperation in resources, energy, infrastructure, and even hi-tech industries. In a brief statement following the talks, the Kremlin announced that the two leaders had signed a series of modest agreements aimed at promoting cultural interchange, strengthening inter-governmental cooperation, and improving financial arrangements for Russian infrastructure projects.

But there is one big obstacle that continues to stand in the way of any true breakthrough: the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands. These four small specks of land off Japan's northern tip were occupied by Soviet forces in the waning days of World War II, and resolving their status looks as unsolvable as ever. Without a deal over them, no formal peace treaty seems even remotely possible.

"There is a mutual wish to find a solution to the Kuril issue," says Anatoly Koshkin, an expert with the official Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.

"Japan is really interested at this stage to inject some dynamism into its relations with Russia. It has complicated problems all around, including territorial disputes with China and South Korea, so a political breakthrough with Russia would be welcome," he says, adding that, "Japan is interested, especially since Fukushima, in Russian coal and energy supplies. Russia already provides 9 percent of Japan's gas, but this looks set to rise. In July Japan will have elections to the upper house of parliament, and it would be good for Abe if he could demonstrate a success in foreign policy."

"But with all that said, I really don't see any solution to the Kuril problem just now. I don't expect Russia to change its position" and agree to give the islands back to Japan, he says.

The four islands – Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan, and Habomai – which Russia calls the "southern Kurils," and Japan refers to as its "northern territories," have been the subject of futile negotiations for decades. The outlines of a compromise have been apparent since 1956, when reformist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev offered to return the two southernmost islands, Shikotan and Habomai, and Japan agreed that its claim to the other two was "weak."

But the deal was never finalized, some say because the United States blocked it by warning Japan that this would create a legal precedent for the US to keep Okinawa.

Russia's official attitude has see-sawed ever since. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's insisted in the 1970s that "there is no such territorial dispute" over the Kurils, even as the last Soviet president,Mikhail Gorbachev, admitted in 1990 that "the problem exists."

The pro-Western Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, in a typical flamboyant gesture, pledged to resolve the issue by the end of his second term in 2000. He never did.

Since then, especially under Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the dispute has become seriously inflamed, with nationalists on both sides using it to stir up passions in the absence of any diplomatic dialogue whatsoever. As recently as last February, the Japanese armed forces scrambled fighter planes to intercept an alleged incursion by Russian jets into Japanese airspace near the Kurils.

But Putin intrigued many observers recently by saying the dispute could be settled with "hiki-wake," a judo term that means "a draw." Experts say that probably means the Kremlin is leaning toward the old 1956 formula, which would involve giving two of the islands back to Japan.

"This issue has been talked to death by experts. Literally dozens of different plans have been floated over the years," says Sergei Strokan, a foreign affairs columnist with the Moscow daily Kommersant.

"The problem has never been a shortage of ideas. It's always been about a lack of political will to deal with it. Experts discuss, leaders act.... But we would need to see some strong reasons for Russian leaders to move dramatically on this. Japan could show us how it might be instrumental in helping to develop Siberia and the far east of Russia," he adds.

"But right now all eyes in Moscow are focused on China. The Chinese lobby is very strong, and those who think Japan might be our best choice of partner are marginalized. Abe's visit was positive, and good for both countries, but it doesn't look like it was a game-changer." 

Syria says prime minister survives Damascus bomb attack

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy inDamascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital.

The explosion shook the Mezze neighborhood shortly after 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), sending a plume of thick black smoke into the sky, Internet footage posted by opposition activists showed.

The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources across Syria, said one person accompanying the prime minister had been killed. State television reported casualties, but gave no details.

"The terrorist explosion in al-Mezze was an attempt to target the convoy of the prime minister. Doctor Wael al-Halki is well and not hurt at all," state television said.

Syria's Al-Ikhbariya television later broadcast footage of Halki, who looked and sounded composed and unruffled, chairing an economic committee at the prime ministry.

Mezze is part of a shrinking "Square of Security" in central Damascus, where many government and military institutions are based and where senior Syrian officials live.

Sheltered for nearly two years from the bloodshed and destruction ravaging much of the rest of Syria, it has been slowly sucked into violence as rebel forces based to the east of the capital launch mortar attacks and carry out bombings in the once-insulated city center.

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

Assad has lost control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, faces a growing challenge in the southern province of Deraa, and is battling rebels in many cities.

But his forces have been waging powerful ground offensives, backed by artillery and air strikes, against rebel-held territory around the capital and near the central city of Homs which links Damascus to the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.

Most rebel fighters are from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority.

On Sunday, activists said rebels were battling troops near a complex linked to Syria's alleged chemical weapons program - the Scientific Studies and Research Centre on the foothills of Qasioun Mountain in the northern Barzeh district of Damascus.

The United States said last week Assad's forces had probably used chemical arms in the conflict and congressional pressure has mounted on President Barack Obama to do more to help the rebels. But Obama has made clear he is in no rush to intervene on the basis of evidence he said was still preliminary.

The United Nations says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war. Five million people have fled their homes, including 1.4 million refugees in nearby countries, and war losses are estimated at many tens of billions of dollars.

The Beirut-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia estimates that 400,000 houses have been completely destroyed, 300,000 partially destroyed and a further half million suffered some kind of structural damage.

Russia caught bomb suspect on wiretap

 Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.

In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspectTamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.

As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.

Two years later, authorities say Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout and Dzhohkar is under arrest.

In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.

Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the attack.

In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.

The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.

In a second call, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva spoke with a man in the Caucasus region of Russia who was under FBI investigation. Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.

There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States, officials said.

It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.

The FSB said Sunday that it would not comment.

Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.

"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy said. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.

But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school.

After receiving the narrow tip from Russia in March 2011, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Tamerlan and his mother. But the scope was extremely limited under the FBI's internal procedures.

After a few months, they found no evidence Tamerlan or his mother were involved in terrorism.

The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011.

In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back.

At that time, however, the CIA asked that Tamerlan's and his mother's name be entered into a massive U.S. terrorism database.

The CIA declined to comment Saturday.

Authorities have said they've seen no connection between the brothers and a foreign terrorist group. Dzhohkar told FBI interrogators that he and his brother were angry over wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of Muslim civilians there.

Family members have said Tamerlan was religiously apathetic until 2008 or 2009, when he met a conservative Muslim convert known only to the family as Misha. Misha, they said, steered Tamerlan toward a stricter version of Islam.

Two U.S. officials say investigators believe they have identified Misha. While it was not clear whether the FBI had spoken to him, the officials said they have not found a connection between Misha and the Boston attack or terrorism in general.

Obama administration to list 18 alleged human rights abusers

The Obama administration soon will send Congress a list of 18 alleged abusers of human rights in Russia, a congressional source said, in a move that could cause more friction in the U.S. relationship with Moscow.

-->

The list includes 16 people directly related to the case of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in his jail cell in 2009, as well as two others, said the source said, who asked not to be named. The people named on the list will be subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the United States under a law passed by Congress last year.

China asks North Korea to ensure safety of its nationals

-->

 China deplored rising tension on theKorean peninsula on Sunday but said its embassy was operating normally in the North Korean capital and it asked authorities there to ensure its diplomats and other citizens were kept safe.

North Korea, angry about new U.N. sanctions imposed for its thirdnuclear weapon test in February, has made increasingly strident warnings of an imminent war with South Korea and the United States.

The United States, keen to avoid action that could provoke the North, on Saturday postponed a long-scheduled missile test in California.

The North told diplomats on Friday to consider leaving Pyongyang because of the tension, but diplomatic missions appeared to view the appeal as more rhetoric and staff have stayed put.

South Korea said it was ready to counter any move, including a missile launch, that the North's unpredictable leaders might make.

China is reclusive North Korea's sole major diplomatic and financial backer, but its official statements have reflected an increasing impatience with the action of North Korean authorities under 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un.

"At present, tensions on the Korean peninsula are rising unceasingly, and China expresses grave concern about this," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

China, it said, had asked North Korea "to earnestly ensure the safety of Chinese diplomats in North Korea, in accordance with the Vienna Convention and international laws and norms".

The ministry said China's embassy was "understood" to be operating normally in Pyongyang. China would "protect the legal rights and safety of Chinese citizens and Chinese-invested organizations in North Korea". It did not elaborate.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing a forum on the southern island of Hainan, appeared to refer to the tension when he said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".

Stability in Asia, he said, "now faces new challenges, as hot spot issues keep emerging and both traditional and non-traditional security threats exist".

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told the same forum that avoiding conflict on the Korean peninsula was vital.

"There, any aggression is a threat to the interests of every country in the region," she said.

"I do welcome the growing co-operation of all regional governments to prevent conflict on the Korean peninsula and to counter North Korean aggression ... Asia must be a region of sustainable security in which habits of co-operation are the norm."

In Washington, a defense official said a test of the Minuteman III intercontinental missile, scheduled to take place at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, would be postponed.

"This is the logical, prudent and responsible course of action to take," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said the test had been unconnected to "anything related to North Korea" and added that another test launch could be expected next month. The United States remained fully prepared to respond to any North Korean threat, the official said.

MISSILE LAUNCH "COULD OCCUR"

The South Korean president's office said the country had a "firm military readiness" for any eventuality. It described as "planned behavior" the North's call for South Korean workers to leave the Kaesong joint industrial park, just inside North Korea, and for diplomats to evacuate Pyongyang by April 10.

"Ahead of that time, a situation like a North Korean missile launch could occur," Kim Haing, a spokeswoman for the presidential Blue House, quoted the chief of the National Security office as saying.

"As of now, there are no signs of all-out war, but if a local conflict breaks out, North Korea should be aware that it will pay the price."

Kim Jong-un is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.

North Korean anger over the sanctions following its nuclear weapon test has been compounded by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on March 1.

The North has always condemned the exercises but it has been especially vitriolic this year as the United States dispatched B-2 bombers from their home bases to stage mock runs.

North Korean television provided little evidence of tension on Sunday, with newscasts showing old footage of Kim visiting military units. Nor was there any tension in Seoul, with residents strolling in the city centre on a chilly spring day.

South Korean media said on Friday the North had moved two medium-range missiles to the country's east coast, but there has been no confirmation of such a move. That prompted the White House to say that Washington would "not be surprised" if the North staged another missile test.

North Korea has not shut down a symbol of cooperation with the South, the Kaesong industrial zone. But last week, it prevented South Koreans from entering the complex and 94 returned home on Saturday, the Unification Ministry said, leaving a further 518 there.