GENEVA / AP More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other problems, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The UN health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with …

  Hong Kong / AFP The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday that growth across the region was holding stable despite global headwinds, with resilience in China and India keeping it on track. GDP for developing Asia is predicted to grow 5.7 percent in 2016 and 2017, according to the bank’s latest report — down slightly from 5.9 percent …

  Bloomberg Profits of China’s industrial corporations jumped the most in three years, adding to evidence of continued stabilization in manufacturing and boosting prospects for their ability to repay debt. Industrial profits rose 19.5 percent in August from a year earlier to 534.8 billion yuan ($80.2 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. That completes August data that showed …

  Singapore / AFP Singapore must take more aggressive action against complex cross-border money-laundering including prosecuting individuals and seizing illicit proceeds, a global financial crimes watchdog said on Tuesday. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said in a review the city-state has made significant improvements in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework since the last assessment in 2008. …

  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 …