JAPAN VOTES IN POLL LIKELY TO EJECT RULING PARTY
TOKYO: Voters in Japan went to the polls on Sunday, in an election likely to return conservatives to power at a time of growing tension with China and as the nation seeks to arrest economic decline.

Media surveys showed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on course for a convincing victory in the lower-house election, with the Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda set to be ousted in the race for the premiership. Some opinion polls even show the conservative LDP, with its coalition partner, achieving the two-thirds majority in the 480-seat chamber needed to override decisions by the upper house, in which no single party has a majority.

N. KOREA MARKS FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF LATE RULER’S DEATH
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un led thousands of officials on Sunday in a memorial ceremony for his late father and ex-ruler Kim Jong-Il, days after a successful long-range rocket launch. The ceremony followed a mass rally two days earlier hailing the launch of the three-stage rocket, a move which was condemned by the United Nations Security Council and seen by many countries as a disguised ballistic missile test. Kim Jong-Il, who ruled the communist state for 17 years, died of a heart attack last December 17. His youngest son Jong-Un immediately took over, the second dynastic succession by the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the isolated country for more than six decades with an iron fist and a pervasive personality cult.

MANDELA RECOVERING AFTER GALLSTONE SURGERY
PRETORIA: South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela underwent a successful procedure to remove gallstones, a week after he was admitted to hospital for a lung infection, the office of the president said. The 94-year-old was being treated at a private hospital in the capital Pretoria. Initial tests revealed that he was suffering from a recurring lung infection. The former president underwent a procedure via endoscopy to have the gallstones removed. He was previously hospitalized for an acute respiratory infection in January 2011, when he was kept for two nights before being released for home-based care and intense medical monitoring. Mandela has a long history of lung problems, dating back decades to when he contracted tuberculosis in prison.

BODY OF ROYAL HOAX NURSE TO REACH INDIA
MANGALORE: The body of an Indian-born nurse who was found hanged after taking a hoax call to the hospital treating Prince William’s wife was due to arrive in Mangalore on Sunday, following a memorial mass in London Jacintha Saldanha, 46, apparently committed suicide after answering the prank telephone call from two Australian radio DJs to the hospital where Catherine was admitted during the early stages of her pregnancy. Mangalore is where Saldanha’s mother lives along with another daughter and a son.

RUSSIA FREES PROTESTERS AFTER ANTI-PUTIN RALLY
MOSCOW: Russian police said on Sunday that they had released some 40 people detained during a banned protest against Vladimir Putin, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Braving freezing cold and the threat of heavy fines, hundreds of people defied the authorities on Saturday to gather at Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, the seat of the FSB security services, to mark one year since the start of unprecedented anti-Putin protests triggered by fraud-tainted parliamentary polls last December. The opposition had originally planned a march through the city center, but for the first time since the start of the anti-Putin protests, organizers were unable to get permission from city authorities. AFP