TOKYO, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says he will not run for parliament in the next election.

WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to reverse more than 40 years of French skepticism and suspicion of U.S. defense policies and develop a more ambitious and comprehensive BMD system than any major European nation has ever dreamed of: The odds against him appear daunting, but he has a lot going for him too.

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda belied his mild-manner low-key image Friday when he OK'd a new measure that would transform Japan's decades-old policy supporting the demilitarization of space.

LONDON, May 5 (UPI) -- The victory of Boris Johnson in London's mayoral election represents the emergence of a new generation of politicians into the struggle for power. The baby boomers are starting the long, sad slide into senescence. The generation X-ers are on the march.

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- The latest Patriot missile purchases and upgrade deals by Taiwan and South Korea point to a widespread expectation of growing tensions and expectations of eventual war on Asia's Pacific Rim.

UPI Almanac for Friday, April 25, 2008.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Japan is stepping up its defenses against cruise missiles, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- One would expect South Korea to be a "hare" on ballistic missile defense, given the scale of the immediate threat it faces from North Korea, right across the Demilitarized Zone, the most heavily and densely armed border in the world. However, Seoul ended 2007 with significant long-term BMD programs in place, but projecting an extremely relaxed "tortoise" timetable for them. The reasons for this at-first surprising complacency are deeply rooted in South Korea's politics, history and geographical circumstances.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The dramatic progress posted by nations such as the United States, Russia, Israel, Japan, India and even Iran in ballistic missile defense was balanced by the complacency for loss of political will on the issue in many other countries. For every "hare" nation on BMD in 2007, there was also a "tortoise."