Japan Pol: Japan's former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda is set to become the country's next prime minister after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party overwhelmingly chose him to be its new leader.
Fukuda won 330 of the 527 valid votes in today's (Sunday's) party election. His rival - conservative former Foreign Minister Taro Aso - won 197 votes.
Fukuda says he wants to revive the ruling party and win back the public's trust.
The LDP lost control of the upper house of parliament in a recent national election that reflected the public's frustration with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government's corruption scandals. Mr. Abe resigned September 12th, after just less than a year in office.
New LDP leader Fukuda will become Japan's next prime minister, because the party has a majority in the powerful lower house of parliament.
Japan – Fukuda Newsmaker: Yasuo Fukuda, the new leader of Japan's ruling party and the country's next prime minster, is no stranger to Japanese politics.
The 71-year-old got his government start in the late 1970's as political secretary to his father, former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda.
Yasuo Fukuda served as chief cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, earning a reputation as a bridge builder between government bureaucracies.
He says he wants to continue building bridges as prime minister - this time, with Japan's neighbors, China and South Korea.
Japan's relations with the two countries had suffered under the leadership of former Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi's annual visits to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine angered China and South Korea, which say the shrine glorifies Japan's wartime past.
Yasuo Fukuda says that as prime minister, he will not visit Yasukuni.
Witnesses in Burma say 20-thousand people led by Buddhist monks are rallying in Rangoon against the military government in the largest show of defiance in 20 years.
Witnesses say about 10-thousand people joined as many monks as they marched today (Sunday) from Burma's most revered shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda, to downtown Rangoon.
For the first time, nuns also joined the procession - the monks' sixth consecutive day of anti-government marches.
The monks had earlier warned the public against joining them, but they have since called on civilians to support their pro-democracy movement.
The non-violent protest gained strength Saturday when hundreds of monks visited the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Witnesses say soldiers unexpectedly allowed the monks to pass a blockade and hold a short prayer vigil in front of Aung San Suu Kyi's house.
Chile – Peru: Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has arrived in Lima, Peru, to face charges of corruption and human rights abuse.
The plane carrying the 69-year-old former president arrived at a Lima air force base late Saturday, where a group of supporters waited to greet him. His daughter Keiko, a Peruvian lawmaker, has been calling on his supporters to rally around him.
Mr. Fujimori is accused of corruption and sanctioning the killing of 25 people by paramilitary squads during his decade-long presidency. He denies the charges.
Mr. Fujimori has not been back to Peru since he resigned the presidency in 2000. He spent five years in exile in Japan, his ancestral homeland, before flying to Chile in 2005 to stage a political comeback. He was arrested soon after his arrival. Friday, Chile's Supreme Court ruled that he must be sent back to Peru to face seven of the 13 charges against him.
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