Japan victor hails ‘revolution’

Japan’s opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama has hailed an election “revolution”, with exit polls suggesting a massive win for his party.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house, ending 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the LDP, NHK TV predicted.

Mr Hatoyama, 62, said people were “fed up” with the governing party.

Prime Minister Taro Aso said that he took responsibility for the defeat and would resign as head of the LDP.
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Excerpts from Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict XVI

(CNN) — Shortly before he died from brain cancer, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. President Obama delivered the letter to the pontiff during his visit to the Vatican in July.

The following are excerpts from the letter as read by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick at Kennedy’s private burial service Saturday in Arlington National Cemetery:

“Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand-deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Catholic faith is to me, and I am so deeply grateful to him. I hope this letter finds you in good health.

“I pray that you have all of God’s blessings as you lead our Church and inspire our world during these challenging times. I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life.
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Dalai Lama leaves for visit to Taiwan

(CNN) — The Dalai Lama left for Taiwan on Sunday for a trip that will include praying for victims of Typhoon Morakot.

The Tibetan spiritual leader boarded a plane in New Delhi, India, early Sunday morning ET.

He is expected to return to India on September 4.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said last week that he approved the Dalai Lama’s visit to the typhoon-battered island.
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China signs deal to sell iPhones

Mobile operator China Unicom has signed a deal with Apple to launch the popular iPhone into the world’s largest mobile phone market.

The phones are expected to go on sale in China later this year.

State-owned Unicom would be the first Chinese phone company to formally support the iPhone, although many unlocked iPhones are already in use.

China has more than 600 million mobile phone accounts and a deal to introduce the iPhone has been long-awaited.
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Straw ‘backed down’ over Megrahi

Justice Secretary Jack Straw dropped a demand to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from a Libyan prisoner transfer accord, the Sunday Times has reported.

Letters leaked to the paper say Mr Straw wanted to exclude Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi from the accord.

He backed down citing “overwhelming” UK interests. A major oil deal was being discussed at the time.

Mr Straw called the news “academic” – as Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds, not under the transfer accord.

And he stressed that the Scottish authorities would still have had a veto over any move to send Megrahi home under the transfer agreement.
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Fans party on Jackson’s birthday

Fans around the world have marked what would have been Michael Jackson’s 51st birthday with parties and mass dances.

In Mexico City, organisers said they had broken a record for the most people dancing to Thriller at the same time, reporting that 12,937 people turned up.

In New York, film director Spike Lee staged what he described as a “joyous, festive and celebratory” event.

Other gatherings remembered Jackson in cities including London, Paris, Moscow, Delhi, Barcelona and Bucharest.

An all-day street party near Jackson’s childhood home in Gary, Indiana, featured local performers and a candlelight vigil.
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Elderly skin ‘raises cancer risk’

Older people are more at risk of skin cancer and infection because their skin is unable to mobilise the immune system to defend itself, UK research suggests.

It contradicts previous thinking that defects in a type of immune cell called a T cell were responsible for waning immunity with age.

In fact, it is the inability of the skin to attract T cells to where they are needed that seems to be at fault.

The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
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Japan votes in landmark election

Voting is under way in Japan in a general election which looks set to bring a historic change of government.

Opinion polls predict victory for the Democratic Party of Japan after more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Japan is suffering record unemployment and its economy is struggling to emerge from a bruising recession.

Polls close at 2000 (1100 GMT) on Sunday and Japanese media will announce exit polls immediately afterwards.

By 1600, 41.8% of voters had cast their ballots, the internal affairs ministry said – slightly less than in 2005 when elections saw the charismatic Junichiro Koizumi’s LDP returned with a significant majority.
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Speak standard English to maintain competitive edge, says DPM Teo

SINGAPORE: Singapore has made a head start in business and trade in today’s globalised world because it has chosen English as its working language, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Launching this year’s Speak Good English Movement on Friday, Mr Teo said Singaporeans must continue to speak good English in order to maintain its competitive edge.

The upcoming Youth Olympic Games and other international events will bring many overseas visitors to the city-state. With English being one of the world’s most spoken languages, Singaporeans will need to express themselves clearly using standard English.
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Big is back

Corporate giants were on the defensive for decades. Now they have the advantage again

IN 1996, in one of his most celebrated phrases, Bill Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over”. He might have added that the era of big companies was over, too. The organisation that defined capitalism for much of the 20th century was then in retreat, attacked by corporate raiders, harassed by shareholders and outfoxed by entrepreneurs.

Great names such as Pan Am had disappeared. Others had survived only by dint of huge bloodletting: IBM sacked 122,000 people, a quarter of its workforce, between 1990 and 1995. Everyone agreed that the future lay with entrepreneurial start-ups such as Yahoo!—which in late 1998 had the same market capitalisation with 637 employees as Boeing with 230,000. The share of GDP produced by big industrial companies fell by half between 1974 and 1998, from 36% to 17%.
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