Tokyo - Japanese electronics company Toshiba Corp on Thursday announced its US unit Westinghouse Electric Co would acquire a 52-per-cent stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries (NFI) to increase competitiveness in bidding for construction of nuclear power plants.

Westinghouse plans to buy a 26-per-cent stake each from Furukawa Electric Co and Sumitomo Electric Industries, which together own Nuclear Fuel Industries, for about
10 billion yen (103 million dollars) in May, Toshiba said.

Tokyo - Japan's industrial output in March marked the first growth in six months, thanks to increased production in the high-tech and machinery sectors, the government said Thursday.

The March output rose 1.6 per cent in seasonally-adjusted terms, following a 9.4-per-cent drop in February and a record 10.2-per-cent fall in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report.

Tokyo - Japan will set up fever clinics across the nation to treat patients with swine flu if the disease reaches Japan, a ministry official said Thursday.

The government's plan to designate some medical facilities as fever clinics was intended to prevent in-hospital spread of flu infections, according to the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry.

Tokyo - Japanese smokers bent on

Tokyo - Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 4 per cent Thursday on March industrial output data and optimism over a possible US economic recovery.

The Nikkei index surged 339.87 points, or 4 per cent, to close morning trading at 8,833.64, and the broader Topix index of all first-section issues also rose 29.05 points, or 3.6 per cent, to 841.04.

Investors returned from a national holiday Thursday to buy a wide range of issues after the nation's industrial production data for March came out stronger than expected.