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Kyodo news summary -3-(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Oct. 18 -- (Kyodo) _ ---------- KLM to inaugurate 1st Fukuoka-Europe direct flights TOKYO - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Thursday it will inaugurate three weekly direct round-trip flights linking Fukuoka and Amsterdam on April 4, making them the first direct flight linking the Fukuoka airport and a European destination. KLM is launching the service hoping to cash in on passenger demand from all seven prefectures on Japan's Kyushu Island after Kyushu Railway Co. linked Fukuoka, the northernmost of the seven, with Kagoshima, the southernmost, with a shinkansen bullet train service in March last year. ---------- Japanese bond yield up on strong U.S. data, Tokyo stock gains TOKYO - The yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond rose Thursday morning amid risk-on sentiment following yet another positive sign from the U.S. housing market and a rise in Tokyo stocks. The yield on the No. 325, 0.8 percent issue, the main yardstick of long-term interest rates, ended morning interdealer trading at 0.785 percent, up 0.020 percentage point from Wednesday's close. ---------- Marubeni cuts Toray water-purifying deal in Ukraine TOKYO - Marubeni Corp. said Thursday that it has signed a contract with a company funded by the Ukrainian government to offer Toray Industries Inc.'s groundwater-processing know-how. Toray's expertise will be used in a project led by Derzhekoinvest, a firm affiliated with the State Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine, to make potable groundwater that has been polluted by about 20 abandoned coal mines in the country's eastern province of Luhansk. ---------- BOJ to forecast FY 2014 inflation at less than 1% TOKYO - The Bank of Japan is expected to forecast that consumer prices will rise less than 1 percent year-on-year in fiscal 2014 due to a downward trend in the domestic economy affected by a slowdown in the global economy, sources close to the matter said Thursday. As the exit from deflation may be delayed, the central bank will consider further easing its monetary policy at its Policy Board meeting on Oct. 30, the sources said. ---------- NEC to provide Italy with energy storage system TOKYO - Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. said Thursday it has received an Italian order for one of the largest electricity storage systems in Europe for a pilot smart grid project. Enel Distribuzione, an affiliate of major Italian electric utility Enel SpA, will use the 2-megawatt-hour lithium-ion energy storage system for the project at the Chiaravalle power substation in Calabria to optimize electricity flow to the Italian power grid. ---------- Chief of Japanese charity for orphans honored with int'l award BRUSSELS - Yoshiomi Tamai, president and founder of Ashinaga, a Japanese charity for orphans, won this year's global fundraiser award given by the International Fundraising Congress at its meeting held Wednesday near Amsterdam. Since beginning its charitable activities in 1967, Tamai's organization has collected about 90 billion yen in donations and helped more than 90,000 orphans in and outside Japan to receive higher education. ---------- Series of quakes hit Niigata TOKYO - A series of earthquakes, the biggest of which had a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, jolted Niigata Prefecture from Wednesday through Thursday. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quakes were focused under the Chuetsu region of the prefecture facing the Sea of Japan, at a shallow depth of up to 10 kilometers. ---------- China GDP grows 7.4% in July-Sept. qtr, slowest growth in 3 yrs BEIJING - China's economy grew 7.4 percent in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, down from a 7.6 percent expansion in the previous quarter and marking the lowest rate of growth in three years, according to government data released Thursday. It marked the seventh straight quarter of deceleration in growth of China's gross domestic product, increasing uncertainty over the outlook of the world economy. (c) 2012 Kyodo News International, Inc. |