Japan: GDP shrinks 12.1 percent in fourth quarter

Japan’s economy shrank more than 12 percent last quarter, the government said on Thursday, in another sign of how severely the global economic downturn has affected the world’s second-largest economy. “It has been a core belief of ours that every nation must not only live by, but help shape global rules that will determine whether people enjoy the right to live freely and participate to the fullest in their societies,” she said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, adding the United States itself “must continually strive to live up to our own ideals.” Both of them discussed China’s human rights record and situation in Tibet on the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s national uprising

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Tamil rebels ready for cease-fire

Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka were ready to accept international calls for a cease-fire but won’t lay down their weapons without a political solution in the quarter-century-long civil war, according to a letter released by the group. But no cease-fire offer is being offered as government troops press their offensive against Tamil forces and their remaining strongholds in northern Sri Lanka.

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