The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.----------Japan ruling party vows to boost nation's defense in election pledgesTOKYO - Japan's ruling party pledged Thursday ahead of a House of Councillors election to "fundamentally" reinforce the country's defense capability and increase spending on it in the next five years, as Russia's war on Ukraine has raised calls for a more robust posture.The Liberal Democratic Party has in mind a target of roughly doubling the country's defense spending to 2 percent or more of gross domestic product, in line with the North A…READ FULL ARTICLE