Tokyo - Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) selects a new leader on Monday as the world's second largest economy copes with the turmoil of the global financial crisis.

Taro Aso, the party's secretary general, is tipped to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in a contest with four other candidates, including the first woman to run for the post, former defence minister Yuriko Koike, 56.

The winner is assured of becoming prime minister because the LDP holds a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives, which elects the head of government.

Tokyo - The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will vote to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda as head of the party that has dominated Japan for more than 50 years, officials said Sunday.

Taro Aso, who turned 68 on Saturday, is seen as the most likely candidate to win the party vote Monday. Contenders include former defence minister Yuriko Koike, 56, who is the first female candidate to run for the LDP presidency; Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, 70; former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, 51; and former LDP policy chief Nobuteru Ishihara, 51.

The winner would be assured of becoming Japan's prime minister, because the party controls the House of Representatives in the Diet, or parliament.

Tokyo - The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will vote to replace recently resigned prime minister Yasuo Fukuda as head of the party that has dominated Japan for more than 50 years, officials said Sunday.

Taro Aso, who turned 68 on Saturday, is seen as the most likely candidate to win the party vote Monday. Contenders include former defence minister Yuriko Koike, 56, who is the first female candidate to run for the LDP presidency; Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, 70; former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, 51; and former LDP policy chief Nobuteru Ishihara, 51.

The winner would be assured of becoming Japan's prime minister, because the party controls the House of Representatives in the Diet, or parliament.

Washington, September 21 : Newly discovered tsunami deposits have suggested that the Japanese coastline was hammered by a series of massive waves thousands of years ago, a finding that adds to growing evidence that the region is regularly pounded by killer waves, and could help in planning for future inundations.

The northern Japanese island of Hokkaido is nestled up against the Kuril-Kamchatka trench, a place where the Pacific tectonic plate dives beneath the Eurasian plate, and home to terrible earthquakes in excess of magnitude 8.0.

Now, according to a report in Discovery News, Wesley Nutter and a team of researchers have estimated that nine waves, each at least 33 feet high, battered the coastline before the dawn of civilization on the island.

Tokyo  - Asian stocks bounced back Friday after a series of US government-financed bailouts of financial firms and a plan to create an entity to dispose of bad loans triggered a market surge on Wall Street.

Hong Kong shares rocketed by almost 10 per cent in one of their biggest-ever one-day rallies as buyers charged back into the market on renewed optimism.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 9.61 per cent to end the week at 19,327.73.

The index had shot up 3,000 points since midday Thursday after falling 7.38 per cent in Thursday morning trading.