Shanghai - Andy Murray rolled into the semi-finals in his debut week at the Masters Cup, defeating Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2 in a Red group showdown on Wednesday.

The Scot polished his record to a perfect 2-0 as he beat the last player to enter the eight-man field. Simon gained a place at the last minute when Rafael Nadal pulled out with a knee injury which will require a month or more to fully heal.

Roger Federer was fighting to stay in the chase later as the Swiss holder faced Radek Stepanek after losing an opening match to a Simon comeback effort on Monday.

Singapore - In the wake of the world-wide financial crisis consumer confidence has turned pessimistic across the Asia Pacific region, according to a survey released Wednesday by MasterCard.

From India to China, and Japan to New Zealand the urban middle class were more pessimistic for the first half of 2009 than six months ago, according to the latest bi-annual Consumer Confidence survey by MasterCard Worldwide released in Singapore.

MasterCard found that only Vietnam, China, India and Singapore of the 14 markets surveyed are optimistic about the first half of next year.

Singapore - The Singapore government will not bail out a multi-billion-dollar casino project by financially troubled Las Vegas Sands, the Channel News Asia (CNA) reported Wednesday.

But the government is considering reviewing the timeline of the Marina Bay Integrated Resort project, which is scheduled to be completed next year, reported CNA, citing Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran.

Nevertheless, Iswaran has not ruled out involvement in the project by government-linked companies, saying these were commercial entities and it depended on their business sense.

Bangkok - Shi Han Min, who led the Beijing's effort to clean up its air for the 2008 Olympic Games, on Wednesday won the first Kong Ha Award for excellence in air quality management.

The award, which included a 10,000-dollar purse, was granted to Shi at the Better Air Quality 2008 workshop in Bangkok, which has drawn 900 delegates from the region.

Shi, director of Beijing's Environment Protection Bureau, was credited for introducing many initiatives to clean up the Chinese capital's notorious air pollution for the Olympics which were later institutionalized and replicated in other Chinese cities.

China has rejected India’s assertion that Arunachal Pradesh was its integral part. Rather Beijing said that  McMahon Line is “illegal” and the status of the border state was “never officially demarcated”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday that New Delhi had not taken into account “historical facts”. “We deeply regret the Indian side’s remarks that take no regard of the historical facts,” Qin said.

“China and India have never officially settled demarcation of borders, and China’s stance on the eastern section of China-India borders is consistent and clear-cut,” Qin said at a regular bi-weekly news briefing.

Beijing - Christmas is normally a happy time for the millions of workers at vast factory complexes in China's southern manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong province.

The workers can relax in the knowledge that the export orders they have just completed will bring them relative prosperity, at least for a few months.

But this year, Christmas will instead be an anxious time for many Guangdong workers as they seek new jobs before they use up their dwindling savings.