TOKYO AP A medium-sized Japanese general contractor went bankrupt Tuesday with debts totaling 406.7 billion yen dlrs 3.3 billion from failed golf course and other projects. JDC Corp. filed for protection with the Tokyo District Court Tuesday morning company spokeswoman Yumiko Fukahori said. It was the largest bankruptcy of a Japanese general contractor since Tokai Kogyo Co. went bust in July last year after amassing debts of 511 billion yen dlrs 4.2 billion according to Teikoku Data Bank a Tokyo think tank. Trading in JDC shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section was suspended Tuesday following Japanese news reports on the company's troubles the exchange said. JDC said its finances deteriorated when Japan's real-estate business took a downturn in the early 1990s. Founded in 1951 originally as a machinery leasing firm the Tokyo-based company heavily invested in golf courses and other development projects from the 1980s. The company posted 294.2 billion yen dlrs 2.41 billion in sales in the latest fiscal year ending in March down 7.2 percent from a year before. It employs 1725 workers. UR; TOKYO AP Prosecutors arrested the chairman of Fuji Heavy Industries on Tuesday on suspicion of bribing a legislator for help in obtaining a defense contract Japanese media reports said. Fuji Heavy Chairman Isamu Kawai 70 was arrested after prosecutors raided the company's headquarters to search for evidence Kyodo News reported. Kawai and other top executives allegedly asked Yojiro Nakajima who has been arrested on separate charges for help in obtaining a contract to develop an amphibious airplane for Japan's Marine Self-Defense Forces. The executives are suspected of bribing Nakajima while he was a vice defense minister. Prosecutors and company officials would not confirm the arrest. Last week prosecutors arrested Yasuyuki Kogure 64 a former Fuji Heavy executive director on charges of giving 5 million yen dlrs 41000 in kickbacks to Nakajima. Nakajima 39 a Liberal Democratic Party member of Parliament was arrested last month on charges of ordering false receipts made to account for missing party money. The arrest was unrelated to the Fuji Heavy Industries case. Fuji Heavy Industries maker of Subaru automobiles has said it donated 4 million yen dlrs 33000 to Nakajima since 1993 and bought 740000 yen dlrs 6115 worth of tickets for fund-raising parties for the lawmaker. UR; SYDNEY Australia AP Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and John Fairfax Holdings apparently raised about 60 million Australian dollars U.S. dlrs 38 million by selling shares in telephone carrier AAPT a newspaper reported Tuesday. The share followed Fairfax's sale of Australian Geographic magazine Monday to a venture capital backed management team for 47.2 million Australian dollars U.S. dlrs 29.7 million the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Stockbroker Macquarie Equities was understood to be selling about 42 million AAPT shares representing about 16 percent of the issued capital to institutional investors. AAPT's largest shareholder AAP Information Services was seen behind the sale. Its chief executive Lee Casey had no comment. UR; JAKARTA Indonesia AP Political unreast and a rising crime rate have worsened a retail slump in Indonesia according to the Indonesian Retailers' Association. The increasingly uncertain situation on Jakarta's streets has resulted in many people leaving work earlier and reduced the likelihood of night shopping once a favorite pastime among affluent Jakarta residents. ``I think some of the retailers also feel very much that their volumes will go down'' association chairman Steve Sondakh told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview released Tuesday. ``They are naturally going to shorten their operating hours'' said Sondahk who is also a direct of the Hero supermarket chain one of Indonesia's biggest retail groups. Consumer activity has already been hit by a deep recession caused by Indonesia's worst economic crisis in 30 years. Sondakh said retail sales on average have already fallen between 30 percent and 40 percent from a year ago with the electronics sector being the hardest hit. Sales there are down an estimated 60 percent. Lawlessness has been on the rise since political unrest that forced the outster of President Suharto earlier this year. Crime has gotten so bad in Jakarta that several foreign embassies are advising their citizens to avoid the city of 11 million altogether. UR; MANILA Philippines AP Stable food prices and a return to moderate weather are expected to have slightly eased inflationary pressures in the Philippines in November analysts said Tuesday. Economists said they expect inflation in November to register 10.1 percent year-on-year down from 10.2 percent in October. The data is due for release either Friday or Monday. In the nine months to October inflation averaged 9.5 percent lower than the government's 10 percent target for 1998 and within most economists' projection of a single-digit average for the year. Inflation hit double-digits in May for the first time in two years reaching 10.1 percent. Food prices which account for 55 percent of the consumer price index had been boosted by weather disturbances throughout the year. A drought attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon caused food prices to peak in June and July. The onset of rains in September improved agricultural production but a series of typhoons in October placed pressure on the food supply resulting still higher prices. With the absence of heavy rains in November and the government's continued importation of basic necessities such as unmilled rice sugar and corn consumer prices are expected to have inched lower. UR; mef-buros APW19981201.0829.txt.body.html APW19981201.0700.txt.body.html