Washington  - An

Switzerland - In his address to the  World Economic Forum Saturday, Japan's Taro Aso said his country was ready to provide 17 billion dollars in development assistance to Asian countries.

"It is Asia that holds the greatest potential anywhere in the world," said the prime minister, noting that 40 per cent of world's population resides there and the region has an economic growth rate of about 4 per cent.

Sapporo, Japan - Gregor Schlierenzauer was a familiar winner when he led a podium sweep on another glorious day for Austria in World Cup ski-jumping on Saturday.

Schlierenzauer won for the fourth time in a row as Austria has now won all 10 competitions held this year. His win ahead of Thomas Morgenstern and Wolfgang Loitzl was their first sweep of the season after one-two finishes in the previous three events.

The World Cup leader Schlierenzauer, 19, soared 133 and 120.5 metres as he claimed his eighth win of the season and 19th overall with 253.3 points on the 2007 world championship hill.

Sapporo, Japan - Gregor Schlierenzauer was a familiar winner when he led a podium sweep on another glorious day for Austria in World Cup ski-jumping on Saturday.

Schlierenzauer won for the fourth time in a row as Austria has now won all 10 competitions held this year. His win ahead of Thomas Morgenstern and Wolfgang Loitzl was their first sweep of the season after one-two finishes in the previous three events.

The World Cup leader Schlierenzauer, 19, soared 133 and 120.5 metres as he claimed his eighth win of the season and 19th overall with 253.3 points on the 2007 world championship hill.

Tokyo - Fujitsu Ltd on Friday reversed its forecast for a profit for the current fiscal year and said it expected to suffer a 20-billion-yen (222.21-million-dollar) net loss because of dwindling demand and a strong yen.

In October, the Japanese electronics company had forecast a net profit of 60 billion yen for the year that ends March 31.

It also cut operating profit to 50 billion yen from an earlier projection of 150 billion yen and sales to 4.7 trillion yen from 5.05 trillion yen.

Tokyo - Hitachi Ltd said Friday that it expected a record loss of 700 billion yen (7.78 billion dollars) for the current fiscal year on sluggish demand for semiconductors, car devices and digital products and announced thousands of job cuts.

The Japanese electronics company had previously forecast profit of 15 billion yen for the year that ends March 31.

Hitachi also cut its sales projection by 8.1 per cent to 10.02 trillion yen for the year while it said it expected operating profit of 40 billion yen, which was also revised downward from 410 billion yen.