New Japan, Russia talks

The Japanese foreign minister, Yohei Kono, has gone to Moscow to prepare for the summit later this month between the two countries. Mr Kono will be seeing President Vladimir Putin, and the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, BBC reports. Mr Putin and the Japanese prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, are due to meet in Brunei on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Co-operation summit. The two countries never signed a peace treaty at the end of the Second World War 1945; they've agreed to try to conclude one before the end of the year, but remain divided by their dispute over the sovereignty of islands Kuriles north of Japan.