PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times, Wall St Journal Asia editions

SINGAPORE, April 10 (Reuters) - The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal carried the following stories in their Asia print and/or Web site editions on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

FINANCIAL TIMES (www.ft.com)

-- South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak, strengthened his prospects for pushing through business-friendly economic measures when his conservative party won a majority of seats in a parliamentary election.

-- The Japanese government accused the opposition Democratic Party of Japan of abusing its power after it vetoed Hiroshi Watanabe for a senior position at the Bank of Japan on the grounds that he was formerly a vice-minister of finance.

-- Chocolate bar maker Mars is appealing to Indonesia's supreme court to overturn two lower court verdicts in which the company was fined $6.4 million for breaching its distributor's contract.

-- Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, the start-up Asian carrier that sought to bring the low-cost airline business model into the long-haul sector, was forced to halt all operations as it collapsed into financial liquidation.

WALL STREET JOURNAL (www.wsj.com)

-- Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to join rivals in entering an emerging market for low-priced notebook computers, said Compal Electronics Inc (2324.TW: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a Taiwan-based company that assembles laptops for other companies. Compal said Dell would launch a new low-cost product as early as June.

-- Masaaki Shirakawa, Japan's newly elected central-bank governor, said the rise in energy and raw-material prices is causing Japan's economy to lose momentum. But he gave few indications on what action he may take, including a possible rate cut.

-- Japan's three biggest steelmakers, Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), JFE Holdings Inc's (5411.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) JFE Steel unit and Sumitomo Metal Industries (5405.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), agreed to accept Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd's (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) offer to supply coking coal at $300 a tonne for fiscal 2008, up from $98 a tonne.