Japanese leader Abe heads toward another term

TOKYO — Japan’s ruling coalition appeared headed to an impressive win in national elections on Sunday, in what would represent an endorsement for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nearly five-year leadership.

A victory would boost Abe’s chances of winning another three-year term next September as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party..

Japanese media projected shortly after polls closed that Abe’s LDP and its junior partner Komeito might even retain their two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament.

In unofficial results in the early hours of Monday, the ruling coalition had won 312 seats in the 465seat lower house, exceeding a two-thirds majority at 310. Abe’s ruling coalition already has a twothirds majority in the less powerful upper house.

The head of the World Health Organization revoked his appointment of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a “goodwill ambassador” on Sunday after the choice drew widespread outrage. Zimbabwe’s government said it respected the turnabout and that the agency “benefited tremendously” from the attention. Police in Switzerland say a teenager apparently attacked and wounded several people with an ax. The 17-year-old boy, a Latvian national, was arrested. Police said the assaults took place Sunday at a gas station and at a second location. A statement issued by the state force didn’t specify how many people were hurt.