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Tokyo's triumphant bid for 2020 games a chance for Japan to revive sagging economy, spirits
• TOKYO (AP) -- A half-century after the 1964 Tokyo games heralded Japan's reemergence from destruction and defeat in World War II, the city's triumphant bid to host the 2020 games is giving this aging nation a chance to revive both its sagging spirits and its stagnating economy.
• "In most competitions, if you don't win a gold medal, you can also win maybe a bronze one," Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose told reporters in Buenos Aires after the International Olympic Committee chose his city to host the 2020 summer games. "In this battle, there was only the gold."
• Hundreds of Japanese athletes and officials gathered downtown for the early morning announcement shouted "Banzai!" jumping up and down and hugging in unusually demonstrative reactions to the announcement the International Olympic Committee had opted for Tokyo's guarantees of safety and stability, despite the festering nuclear crisis in its northeast.
• Japan's capital defeated Istanbul in the final round of voting at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires, after Madrid was eliminated in the first round.
• The decision suggests IOC members were convinced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reassurances that radiation leaks from the nuclear plant wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster pose no threat to Tokyo or the games.
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Job market's vital signs: Unemployment is down, but many US employers remain reluctant to hire
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just how sturdy is the U.S. job market?
• That's the key question the Federal Reserve will face when it decides later this month whether to reduce its economic stimulus.
• The answer depends on where you look.
• The economy has added jobs for 35 straight months. Unemployment has (Continued on page 28)
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