Bloomberg Singapore home sales rose 35 percent in July as new projects were launched. Developers sold 1,108 units last month, compared with 820 in June, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority data. A total of 692 new units were offered, up from 159 in June, the data showed. Singapore’s leaders, determined to keep a lid on home prices in the city-state, …

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in has signaled his country will no longer stay quiet as tensions escalate between the US and North Korea. In a forceful speech on Tuesday, Moon asserted the right to veto any military action against Kim Jong Un’s regime, saying that decision should be made by “ourselves and not by anyone else.” He vowed to …

ERBIL / Reuters Iraqi forces are carrying out air strikes on Tal Afar, a town held by IS west of Mosul, in preparation for a ground assault, an Iraqi military spokesman said on Tuesday. IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate effectively collapsed last month, when US-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants’ capital in northern Iraq, after a nine-month campaign. …