UPI NewsTrack Business

Asian stocks rise on Japanese spending

TOKYO, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Asian stocks rose Monday on news that Japan's capital spending jumped 10.7 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed up 221.88 points or 2 percent at 11,244.37, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng rose 156.24 points or 1.2 percent to 13,104.34.

Canon, Honda and Toyota benefited from the robust 10.7 percent corporate-investment data, which eased concerns that the country's economic recovery might be stalling.

Tsuyoshi Segawa, equity strategist at Shinko Securities, said European investors were avid buyers in Tokyo, betting that Monday's numbers, a big part of growth figures, will lead to the Japanese government's upward revision of second-quarter gross-domestic-product figures.

Last month, the government reported April-June growth at 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, and a 1.7 percent annualized rate of growth.

The U.S. dollar fell to 110.10 from Friday's 110.60.

India, Pakistan gas connection

NEW DELHI, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- New Delhi and Islamabad met Monday on a variety of issues including a proposed pipeline to transfer gas from Iran to India through Pakistan.

On the agenda at a meeting between Indian Oil Minister Mani Aiyar and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri was the $3.5 billion pipeline proposal, the Statesman reported.

Negotiations on the 1,000-mile pipeline began in 1994, but no headway was made due to tensions between Pakistan and India and the project's massive cost.

For Iran, which holds the world's largest gas reserves after Russia, the Indian market is as important as the European market, which it hopes to serve one day through a pipeline across Turkey.

Vocational education getting neglected

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Advocates of vocational education in the United States are feeling short-changed in the recent push to boost children's academic performance.

The number and quality of vocational programs for high school students has been declining even as the nation seeks to upgrade college preparatory programs, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

"Clearly, there are a set of academic skills everyone needs to be successful in our society," said James Stone, director for the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. "But does every child need to study trigonometry?"

That's a view echoed by vocational education teachers.

"The problem is that many people look at college as the goal," said Robert McCarroll, a California teacher who runs one of the state's relatively few programs that blends academics with traditional vocational training.

"College is not the goal. It is only one means to an end, and the end is these kids' careers. We are trying to shove a lot of square pegs into round holes."