HANOI / AP A court in central Vietnam rejected lawsuits from hundreds of fishermen seeking compensation from a Taiwanese steel company for losses caused by its release of toxic chemicals that killed a large number of fish and caused one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. Catholic priest Dang Huu Nam, who helped the fishermen file the lawsuits at …

  Singapore / AFP Beleaguered Asian commodities trader Noble Group said on Monday it has agreed to sell its North American energy business to US power generator Calpine Corp for a total $1.05 billion. The Singapore-listed firm said the sale brings it closer to completing an initiative to raise $2.0 billion in capital as it strengthens its finances to turn …

  Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka aims to make a record $3.5 billion from tourism this year on the back of its improved rights record under a new government after years of ethnic war, its tourism minister said on Monday. Tourism on the Indian Ocean island suffered heavily during a decades-long civil war that ended in 2009, but has been …