REUTERS BUSINESS SCHEDULE AT 0630 GMT

REUTERS BUSINESS SCHEDULE

17 December 2012

0230,0630 GMT - Umesh Desai [phone]

0830,1230 GMT - Malcolm Davidson [phone]

1530,1930 GMT - Lindsay Dunsmuir [phone]

TOP STORIES

Huge mandate for Japan's LDP may be less than meets the eye

TOKYO - Even Japan's next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, realises that his party's landslide election victory is not the sweeping mandate that it appears at first blush.(JAPAN-ELECTION/MANDATE (ANALYSIS, PIX), moved, by Linda Sieg, 950 words)

MARKETS

Nikkei hits 8 1/2 mth high on yen, Asian shares drop

TOKYO - The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's electoral triumph drives the yen to a 20-month low against the dollar that propells the Nikkei stock average to a 8-1/2-month closing high on expectations Japanese firms will have much better export earnings.(MARKETS-GLOBAL/ (WRAPUP 3, GRAPHIC), moved, by Chikako Mogi, 1,000 words)

ECONOMY

Japan's war on deflation runs into psychology of hard times

TOKYO - The war against deflation in Japan will start with a battle for the pocketbooks of recession-hardened consumers like Kumiko Kuramochi (JAPAN-ELECTION/DEFLATION (FEATURE), moved, by Stanley White, 1,050 words)

Kidnap gangs use leaked bank details to prey on Afghan tycoons

KABUL - Afghan construction magnate Haji Asadullah Ghaznawi was dragged from his office with a gun to his head and locked up in a slaughterhouse for almost three weeks (AFGHANISTAN-KIDNAPPINGS/ (FEATURE, PICTURE), moved, by Martin Petty and Mirwais Harooni, 1,200 words)

Indonesia's clogged ports strain growth prospects

JAKARTA - At Jakarta's infrastructure monitoring nerve centre, live TV cameras track traffic flows on port access roads and highways, satellite images show cloud cover, and a Twitter feed allows officials to respond in real time to any public complaints (INDONESIA-INFRASTRUCTURE/PORTS (PIX), moved, by Neil Chatterjee and Janeman Latul, 1,300 words)

Abe's challenge: Can he give Japan what money can't buy

TOKYO - Even before Japanese voters returned Shinzo Abe's party to power, he had already won over financial markets with an economic revival plan as seductively simple as economists say it is risky: print money and spend it. Lots of it (JAPAN-ELECTION/ECONOMY (PIX, GRAPHIC), moved, by Tomasz Janowski, 950 words)

COMPANIES

Foreign firms seek retail therapy in Australia

SYDNEY - The Americans are coming. And the Japanese and Europeans. Australia is being invaded by a swathe of foreign retailers, piling pressure on a local industry already battered by weak consumer spending and ruthless internet competition(AUSTRALIA-RETAIL/INVASION (TV, PIX), moved, by Jane Wardell, 1,200 words)

Australia's Fortescue may sell stake in port, rail jewel in crown

MELBOURNE - Australia's no.3 iron ore miner, Fortescue Metals Group, is in talks to sell a minority stake in its multi-billion dollar port and rail assets, which could open up export access to rival miners whose ore is stuck in the ground(FORTESCUEMETALS-INFRASTRUCTURE/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Sonali Paul, 900 words)

AIG to raise up to $6.5 bln through AIA share sale

HONG KONG - American International Group Inc may raise as much as $6.5 billion from the sale of its remaining stake in AIA Group Ltd in Asia's second-largest block sale ever, exiting a business the U.S. insurer started nearly 100 years ago (AIA-AIG/ (UPDATE 3), expect by 0700GMT/2AM ET, by Elzio Barreto, 900 words)