PRESIDENT BUSH WELCOMES PRIME MINISTER JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Just as President George W. Bush entered his last 100 days in office, his most consistent and trenchant economic critic, Paul Krugman, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.

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

TOKYO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Friday chose to stay away from Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, honoring both Japan's war dead and war criminals.

TOKYO, July 29 (UPI) -- Japanese air support members will end their mission in Iraq at the end of the year because of parliamentary opposition to the conflict there.

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, June 26 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy has a vision to protect France from nuclear ballistic missile attack, and he is determined to implement it.

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.