TMCnet News
Kyodo news summary -2-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 11_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Prodi declares victory, but ruling bloc questions result ROME - Italy's center-left opposition coalition, led by Romano Prodi, declared victory Tuesday in the general election, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right ruling bloc has questioned the results. Prodi, a former prime minister, told opposition supporters in a Rome square that it won the election. ---------- Japan to pay part of moving Marines to Guam along with loans to U.S. TOKYO - The Japanese government has decided to bear the cost of moving U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by not only extending loans to the United States but also tapping its state coffers, government sources said Tuesday. But the government will decide on the amount of its cost-sharing after carefully examining results of working-level talks Thursday and Friday in Tokyo between the countries' defense and foreign affairs officials, the sources said. ---------- 106 senior defense officials got 'amakudari' jobs in 2005 TOKYO - A total of 106 former senior defense officials landed private sector jobs within two years of retiring in 2005, according to an annual Defense Agency tally released Tuesday. Forty percent of them got posts in the top 20 companies with Defense Agency contracts through the so-called "amakudari" practice. It involves retired senior officials of a government organ landing jobs with companies the government entity oversees or is closely related to. ---------- Campaign for lower house by-election begins in Chiba CHIBA, Japan - The campaign for a House of Representatives by-election began Tuesday in Chiba Prefecture with 4 candidates running for the seat. The Democratic Party of Japan fielded Kazumi Ota, 26, former Chiba prefectural assembly member, and Ken Saito, 53, is running on the Liberal Democratic Party ticket with the support of the New Komeito party. Saito, 53, is a former Saitama prefectural deputy governor. |