■ Japan
Abe's rating drops further
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's approval rating has fallen to a new low as voters expressed concern over a scandal beleaguering one of his Cabinet ministers, the Nikkei Shimbun said yesterday. The business daily said 43 percent of respondents expressed support for Abe, down from 49 percent in a similar poll conducted last month. Abe's disapproval rate rose to 45 percent from 41 percent, marking the first time since he took office last September that the figure has exceeded his approval rating, the paper said. Voter concern over a scandal involving huge, unexplained expenses for a rent-free office linked to Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka appeared to have been a main factor behind the plunge in support, the paper said. The Nikkei contacted 901 people nationwide by telephone for its poll last Friday to Sunday.
■ Japan
Gold heist nets US$1.7m
Three masked men dragged a hefty block of gold bullion weighing about 100kg from a museum in central Japan, police said on Sunday. The block of gold, estimated at about ?200 million (US$1.7 million) was placed in a safe and exhibited with the safe's door open so that visitors to the museum could touch it, owner of the gold, Hisao Nakahagi, 59, said. "The gold was exhibited on the second floor, which was monitored by a security camera from the first floor," he said. "An employee on the first floor heard a noise from upstairs and rushed up there," he said. The men pushed the employee aside, dragged the gold in a bag downstairs, and drove away with a fourth accomplice, he said.
■ China
Ship collision kills eight
Eight bodies were recovered after two cargo ships collided in the East China Sea, state media reported yesterday. Twelve sailors were rescued while another nine were still missing from the weekend collision, which sank one of the ships, the Xinhua news agency said. The collision occurred off Zhejiang Province between a cargo ship from China and a Hong Kong-registered vessel. The Hong Kong ship, with 29 crew aboard, sank immediately.
■ China
Pyramid scam uncovered
Police in Beijing have arrested 14 people accused of cheating victims of a total of 1.6 billion yuan (US$200 million) in a pyramid scheme, the Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The suspects, who work for a wood company, are accused of cheating victims by promising high returns on sales of woodland, it said. The report gave no details of how the scam worked. Police also seized cars, real estate and some of the revenues from the pyramid scheme, Xinhua said. People convicted of running pyramid schemes can face prison terms of at least five years and be forced to repay up to five times the profits of the illegal business, it said.
■ Sri Lanka
Four rebels gunned down
Government commandos gunned down four Tamil Tiger rebels in the eastern part of the nation yesterday, the military said, in the latest violence to hit the country's volatile east. The elite Special Task Force soldiers were on foot patrol when they came across a group of guerrillas. "There was a confrontation and four terrorists are confirmed killed," military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasing said. Weapons were recovered from fleeing rebels, he said. The Tigers are fighting to create a separate homeland in the north and northeast for minority ethnic Tamils.
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