1.   He assumed his new job as vice minister yesterday.

2.   Observers say the anti-government sentiment is now hurting Torrijos, who served for four years under the current administration as vice minister of government and justice.

3.   Park was previously vice minister for health and social affairs and president of the state-run Korea Gas Corp.

4.   Takemura said Tadashi Ogawa, head of the National Tax Administration Agency, will succeed Shinozawa as vice minister.

5.   The move follows a series of ongoing scandals involving central government bureaucrats, including Nobuharu Okamitsu, the disgraced former vice minister of the Health and Welfare Ministry.

6.   The unofficial emissaries met in Pyongyang with Kang Suk Joo, first vice minister of foreign affairs and a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

7.   Upon graduation, he worked in factories as a party official, rising to become vice minister and then minister of the electronics industry.

8.   Yanai was called to account for many of the problems, which occurred while he was vice minister.

9.   A day before his promotion to vice finance minister for international affairs, Haruhiko Kuroda played down government efforts to prop up the dollar against the yen.

10.   But most provinces have yet to put the mine-closure plan into action, the newspaper said, citing an economic and trade vice minister, Shi Wanpeng.