Bloomberg Typhoon Megi lashed Taiwan with wind and rain on Tuesday, bringing 20-foot-high waves and knocking pedestrians off their feet in Taipei. More than 280,000 households lost electricity, state-owned utility Taiwan Power said on its website. About 5,000 people were evacuated, according to the island’s National Fire Agency. The capital city of Taipei shut markets, schools and offices, along ...

  Bloomberg Indian power producer Lanco Infratech Ltd. expects to start the process to sell its assets in six months to raise an estimated 70 billion rupees ($1 billion) to repay debt. “For now we are focused on completing the projects, because that will bring us value when we sell them,” T. Adi Babu, Lanco’s chief operating officer for finance, ...

  Hanoi / AFP Hundreds of fishermen in central Vietnam have filed lawsuits demanding more compensation from a Taiwanese firm accused of dumping toxic waste in the ocean that killed tonnes of fish, activists said on Tuesday. The mass fish deaths in April ravaged livelihoods in communities along the central coast, where fishing is the main source of income. In ...

  Sydney / AFP Australia watered down plans for a “backpacker tax” on foreigners on working holidays on Tuesday, after an outcry from farmers and tourism operators. Canberra had been under increasing pressure to shelve the tax — 32.5 cents for every dollar earned — amid fears it would deter tourists from choosing the country as a destination. Some 600,000 ...

  Riyadh / AFP Thousands of Saudis have signed a petition urging an end to the guardianship system giving men control over the work, study, marriage and travel of female relatives, activists said on Tuesday. The petition calls for the kingdom’s women to be treated “as a full citizen, and decide an age where she will be an adult and ...

  Baghdad/ AFP Bombings targeting shopping areas in Shiite districts of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 50, security and medical officials said. The IS extremist group claimed an attack in the Baghdad Jadida neighbourhood in the east of the city, saying it was carried out by a man wearing an explosive ...

  Libreville / AFP Ali Bongo was sworn back in as Gabon’s president on Tuesday, calling for unity after a disputed election win that sparked deadly unrest and revealed deep divisions in the oil-rich country. The 57-year-old used the ceremony to appeal for unity after the deadly violence that followed the announcement of his victory last month. He pledged to ...

  Kunduz / AFP Two Afghan soldiers with suspected Taliban links killed at least 12 of their comrades as they slept in the volatile northern province of Kunduz, officials said on Tuesday in the latest so-called “insider attack”. The incident occurred just after midnight on the outskirts of Kunduz city, which was briefly captured by the Taliban last year in ...

  Damascus / AFP Syrian government troops on Tuesday took control of a central rebel-held district in Aleppo city, where the army is pressing an operation to retake opposition territory, a military source said. “The army retook control of all of the Farafira district northwest of the Aleppo citadel after neutralising many terrorists. Units are now demining the area,” the ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey has dismissed 87 staff from its spy agency over alleged links to the failed July 15 coup, state media said on Tuesday, in the first purge of one of the country’s most powerful institutions. The National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) has suspended 141 personnel in an internal probe over links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who ...