Japanese planning chief in line for premiership

Yasuhiro Nakasone has emerged as the unanimous favorite to become Japan's new leader in elections this week, which political analysts say will probably not cause any dramatic shift in policy. All public opinion polls on the leadership battle have predicted that Mr. Nakasone, director general of the Administrative Planning Agency, will win the election.

In a separate report, about 2,500 people demonstrated peacefully against US plans to deploy 48 multimission F-16 jet fighters in the northern Japanese city of Misawa.