Panasonic and smaller Japanese rival Sanyo said Friday they are starting talks on a buyout deal that would create one of the world's largest electronics companies as soon as year-end.

Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo and Sanyo President Seiichiro Sano shook hands at a news conference in Osaka, monitored by satellite TV in Tokyo, underlining their willingness to negotiate Panasonic's acquisition of Sanyo.

Brazilian Stenio Sameshima came to Japan last year with plans to make a bundle of money at the country's humming auto factories. Instead, he's spending a lot of time in line at employment agencies.

The 28-year-old is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of foreigners who are among the first laborers in Japan to lose their jobs as the global financial crisis eats into demand for cars, trucks and motorcycles, government officials say.

Japan's defence minister said today he will sack the air force chief of staff for saying that Japan was ensnared into World War Two by the United States and was not an aggressor in the conflict in Asia.

Japan stocks plunged, sending the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to the brink of 1982 levels, as Sony Corp. cut its forecast, Toyota Motor Corp.'s car sales fell for the first time in seven years, and the yen reached a 13-year high.

When the credit conflagration morphed into a full-fledged panic in financial markets this month, the major stock market that plunged the most was Japan's -- one of the countries least affected by the crisis.

Japanese stocks slumped Friday as panic-stricken investors dumped shares across the board after Wall Street stocks suffered deep losses overnight.

The Prime Minister of Thailand was forced to scale a fence and flee in a police helicopter yesterday as thousands of protesters barricaded parliament in the latest twist in the country's seething political turmoil.

Bangkok was braced for another night of unrest tonight despite the declaration of a state of emergency after one man was shot dead and scores were injured in street battles between supporters and opponents of the Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej.

To add to the crisis, a government commission ruled that Mr Samak’s People Power Party should be dissolved because of election fraud perpetrated last year by one of its leaders. If the order is upheld it could lead to a general election, Thailand’s fourth in four years, and further exacerbate the acute atmosphere of confrontation.

Nippon Steel Corp, JFE Holdings Inc unit JFE Steel Corp and other major Japanese steelmakers plan to jointly acquire overseas mining rights for iron ore in an attempt to minimize the impact of surging mineral prices, the Nikkei reported at the weekend, without citing sources.

The resurrection of a Marxist tome many had long consigned to the dustbin of Japan’s poverty-stricken past is seen as evidence of growing discontent in the world’s second-largest economy, which has shed many employee protections in a decade of profound restructuring. More than one-third of Japan’s workforce is part-time and millions more, especially the young, are learning how to live on shrinking wages and diminished expectations.