World briefs

JAPAN’s Meteorological Agency says the earthquake that struck yesterday off Fukushima was an aftershock of the massive 2011 quake. Northeastern Japan was jolted by a magnitude-7.4 earthquake. “But nothing fell from the shelves.” More on p12

HONG KONG Police launched yesterday a citywide hunt for a gang of robbers after they escaped with 81 gold bars worth about HKD22.68 million “in a 20-second daylight hold-up yesterday,” SCMP reported. Another 177 gold bars worth about 50 million were left at the crime scene in Fanling. The robbers struck on a street when a man was unloading bags of gold bars from a delivery van onto a trolley. It’s the biggest bullion heist in five years.

HONG KONG The Walt Disney Co. and Hong Kong are launching a USD1.4 billion expansion of the southern Chinese city’s Disneyland resort that includes the company’s first themed areas based on the movie “Frozen” and Marvel superhero characters.

CHINA A top executive at German automaker Daimler’s China operation is fired after being accused of yelling insults about Chinese people and using pepper spray in a dispute over a parking spot. 

VIETNAM’s government says the legislature has endorsed its decision to scrap plans to build the country’s first two nuclear power plants. The announcement of the endorsement said cheaper renewable energy and power imports were available and that investment should be made in more urgent infrastructure needs.

NORTH KOREA Hundreds of capitalistic markets, each with thousands of stalls, form the glue that holds North Korea’s socialist planned economy together, say defectors who sold medicinal herbs, skinny jeans, TV sets, foreign drama CDs and other goods there to make a living. “If North Korea shuts down the markets, it will collapse.” 

NEPAL A year and a half after a colossal earthquake destroyed hundreds of treasured historic sites across this mountain nation, Nepal celebrates the restoration of the first major one to be rebuilt — an iconic Buddhist monument topped in gold that towers above Kathmandu.

ASIA-TRUMP President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership but other Pacific Rim leaders are vowing to push market-opening efforts they say are vital for growth. The possible decline of the 12-nation TPP could give a boost to alternative initiatives including one promoted by China in which the United States is not taking part. 

IRELAND Government statisticians say Ireland’s unemployment rate has fallen to an eight-year low of 7.5 percent, a level last seen before a banking crisis wrecked the property-driven Celtic Tiger economy. The Central Statistics Office says joblessness fell to 7.5 percent in October from 7.7 percent the previous month as the number of people with jobs also rose 2.9 percent to an eight-year high topping 2 million.