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To: Broken_Clock who wrote (14843)	7/23/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116762

Maybe the thinking that O..must prove everybody wrong or maybe he said something tough that did not come-out yet on a wire... In a blow to the International Monetary Fund, the US Congress yesterday delayed a vote on the expansion of the fund's capital base, despite strenuous objections from the Clinton Administration and powerful business lobby groups. afr.com.au afr.com.au

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (14843)	7/23/1998 9:54:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116762

Maybe this..but who knows.. "Global financial markets, unnerved by reports of central banks preparing for massive intervention in currency markets if the yen cam under attack, were on red alert for the choice of a new leader to bring the world's second-largest economy out of its worst recession since World War Two." Japan LDP leaders call for calm in PM race 08:47 p.m Jul 23, 1998 Eastern By Brian Williams TOKYO, July 24 (Reuters) - Japan's governing party selects a new prime minister on Friday, ending a bitterly divisive contest expected to choose the establishment candidate, Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi. Hours before the start of the 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) vote by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's 367 parliamentarians and a party official from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, LDP leaders were as worried about splits in the party as about making the right choice. ''This is a race to choose the Father of the nation, and that's Obuchi. It's not a race to choose a grandpa or a big brother,'' LDP policy chief Taku Yamasaki told Obuchi supporters. Global financial markets, unnerved by reports of central banks preparing for massive intervention in currency markets if the yen cam under attack, were on red alert for the choice of a new leader to bring the world's second-largest economy out of its worst recession since World War Two. ''What else do you trade off of (today)?'' asked Mike Ryan, an analyst at PaineWebber Inc in New York. In a dramatic prelude on Thursday night to the vote, police arrested a man with a knife outside LDP headquarters, where lights burned late as Obuchi and his two rivals, veteran politician Seiroku Kajiyama, 72, and Health Minister Koizumi negotiated to the last minute for support. The 36-year old man, affiliated with a right-wing group and angry at the long-ruling LDP's loss of popularity as Japan's economy has slumped, shouted that a ''slouch'' LDP was making the communists popular. LDP leaders worked tirelessly to calm nerves frayed by a swirl of reports that young reformers in the party were considering leaving it if the staid Obuchi won. The political turmoil came as a warning by rating agency Moody's of a downgrade of Japan's sovereign debt highlighted the pressure on the next government to act quickly to rescue the slumping economy. Kyodo news agency has reported that Obuchi, 61, has ''close to 200 delegates,'' just shy of the 208 needed to get a majority and win in the first round of voting for a new LDP president. The LDP's majority in the decisive Lower House guarantees that the LDP leader becomes Japan's 54th prime minister. The winner replaces Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who is resigning over the party's disastrous showing in July 12 elections for the Upper House of parliament. The three candidates, appearing together on television, demurred from saying how many votes they believed they had secured so far. ''It's a corporate secret,'' Kajiyama said. But they acknowledged the possibility that pre-election tallies could mislead, since the ballot will be anonymous. ''There is that possibility (that those who promised a vote would actually vote for another candidate), but I believe those who gave me their support will (vote for me),'' Obuchi said. Koizumi said he hoped that Moody's would change its outlook on the perilous state of Japan's economy if a new prime minister ''with vision'' was installed. An official at another rating agency, Fitch IBCA, told Reuters in London after a trip to Tokyo that ''a sovereign debt downgrade remains a possibility'' for his firm as well. Reports said as many as 20 young LDP members from such urban centres as Tokyo -- where the LDP failed to win a single seat in the Upper House elections -- were ready to vote against Obuchi when parliament convenes at the end of the month to formally install the new premier. With that many defections, the LDP would lose its 13-vote majority in the lower chamber, leaving the party vulnerable to a no-confidence vote that could force general elections. But the reputed ringleaders of the ''Stop Obuchi'' campaign said they did not plan to leave the party even if Obuchi, who heads the LDP's largest faction, wins. The young, urban lawmakers are said to fear that voters in a Lower House election would see Obuchi as a business-as-usual extension of the Hashimoto administration and vote them out. MPs Taro Kono, who supports Kajiyama, and Nobuteru Ishihara, a Koizumi backer, both told Reuters they will not leave the party regardless of the election result. The two were among a group of at least 36 young MPs who issued a statement calling on LDP members to make their choice of ''their own will'' rather than by factional loyalties. ((Tokyo newsroom +81-3 3432-8022 tokyo.newsroom+reuters.com))