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) plans to join rivals in entering an emerging market for low-priced notebook computers, said Compal Electronics Inc (2324.TW), 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), JFE Holdings Inc's (5411.T) JFE Steel unit and Sumitomo Metal Industries (5405.T), agreed to accept Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd's (BHP.AX) offer to supply coking coal at $300 a tonne for fiscal 2008, up from $98 a tonne.