Taipei  - Several Asian countries plan to jointly build a third Asia-Pacific undersea cable to bring faster internet service to the region, Taiwan media reported Thursday.

The countries plan to jointly invest 500 million dollars to lay the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 3 (APCN3), according to the Economic Daily News and the Commercial Times, which cited unnamed Chunghwa Telecom Co sources.

The APCN3 would link Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The main companies involved in the venture - including Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, China's China Unicom Ltd and China Telecom Corp, Singapore's Starhub Ltd and Japan's KDDI Corp - were expected to sign a contract next month.

Hong Kong  - Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man outside India, has lost more than 10 billion US dollars of his fortune in the past year, Forbes business magazine said Thursday in its list of the world's richest people.

The 80-year-old Hong Kong tycoon has seen his wealth fall from 26.5 billion US dollars to 16.2 billion US dollars this year, the magazine said.

The loss saw him drop from 11th to 16th on the list of the world's wealthiest, but he remained the richest man in Asia outside India, the annual survey concluded.

Bangkok  - Tourist arrivals to the Asia-Pacific region fell 2.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2008, with Thailand leading the plunge with a 28 per cent decline, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) revealed Wednesday.

PATA compiles travel statistics for 37 destinations in Asia, the Pacific islands and the Americas.

The association noted a "dramatic downturn" in arrivals last quarter of 2008 in Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka, reflecting "both the worsening global economic climate and regional/national issues."

New Delhi  - Tobacco will kill 6 million people annually by next year and cause an estimated 500 billion-dollar loss to the global economy, according to health conference in India Tuesday.

The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai revealed that China and India were the world's biggest tobacco users at 325 million and 241 million tobacco users respectively.

Manila  - The global financial crisis has slashed the value of financial assets worldwide by a massive 50 trillion dollars last year, a study by the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday.

Developing Asia suffered more losses than other emerging market regions at 9.6 trillion dollars, according to the study, Global Financial Turmoil and Emerging Market Economies: Major Contagion and a Shocking Loss of Wealth?

Singapore - The global economic downturn is putting the brakes on Singapore's tourism industry as visitor arrivals fell 12.9 per cent year-on-year in January to
771,000, the Singapore Tourism Board said Friday.

The average occupancy rate in Singapore's hotels was estimated at 67 per cent last month, a fall of 17.7 percentage points from January 2008.

Room revenue came to 124 million Singapore dollars (80 million US dollars), down 29.9 per cent from January last year.