INTERNATIONAL

Daiei Buys Stake in Recruit: Daiei Inc., Japan’s top supermarket chain, said it will take about a one-third stake in Recruit Co., the information firm at the heart of an influence-peddling scandal that rocked the government in the late 1980s. Former Recruit Chairman Hiromasa Ezoe will sell most of his shares in the company to Daiei, led by Chief Executive Isao Nakauchi, a management maverick with a penchant for buyouts. News of the deal sent Daiei shares soaring. Ezoe is still on trial for his role in the scandal, which involved distribution of stock to politicians and others, who made sizable profits when the stock surged.