Bloomberg Line Corp. posted a profit in its first earnings report since ushering in the year’s biggest technology debut, as monthly active users rose just 4 percent to 220 million. Japan’s largest mobile messaging service announced 2.56 billion yen ($24.3 million) of net income in the six months through June, from a loss of 5.3 billion yen a year …

  Bloomberg Bank of China Ltd. is heading down the old Silk Road marketing new goods: Debut bonds from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan. In its biggest-ever foray outside Asia, the state-controlled lender is said to have landed three mandates to co-manage emerging-market Eurobonds, including the Saudi government’s international sale. China’s fourth-largest lender is one of nine underwriters hired by the …

  Bloomberg Tata Group, the coffee-to-cars conglomerate, said revenue slipped 4.6 percent for the year ended in March, hurt by global political uncertainty, a commodity price crash and volatility in currencies. Revenue at India’s biggest business house dropped to about $103 billion from $108 billion the previous year, according to a statement. The company draws 69 percent of its revenues …

  Bloomberg China’s Fosun on Saturday signed an agreement to acquire Brazil-based investment management firm Rio Bravo, according to a statement, just a day after the Chinese conglomerate announced another massive overseas deal. Fosun, which has interests ranging from property to mining, said it will buy the controlling share of privately-owned Rio Bravo Investimentos, but did not give a value …

  Bloomberg Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said efforts to revamp its research operations will cost 75 billion yen ($725 million) as it seeks to build a new pipeline of drugs and considers closing some R&D operations in the U.K. The Japanese company’s R&D activities will be concentrated in Japan and in the U.S., it said in a statement Friday. The number …

  Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s largest private sector lender by assets, posted a 25 percent drop in first-quarter profit as provisions for bad debt rose. Net income fell to 22.3 billion rupees ($333 million), or 3.83 rupees a share, in the three months ended June 30, from 29.8 billion rupees, or 5.09 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based lender …

  Beijing / AFP Dozens of civilians left the besieged and battered opposition-held east of Syria’s Aleppo city on Saturday through a “humanitarian corridor” to the government-held west, state media reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that “a number” of civilians had crossed into government territory. The crossings were the first major movement of people from …

  Lahore / AFP A man killed his two sisters on the eve of their weddings in Pakistan’s central Punjab province, police said on Saturday, in the latest case of so-called “honour” killings in the country. Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, aged 22 and 28, were shot dead by 35-year-old brother Nasir Hussain on Friday as they prepared to marry men they …

  Tokyo / AFP Beijing said it has detained and questioned a Japanese national working on cultural exchange projects for allegedly “endangering China’s national security”, Japanese newspapers reported on Saturday. The man, who has been missing since mid-July, was identified by the Nikkei business daily as the Japanese head of an organisation working to improve ties between the two rivals. China …

  Ankara / AFP Turkey was on Saturday holding 17 journalists on charges of “terror group” membership as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Western critics to “mind your own business” over a relentless crackdown following a failed coup. But in a goodwill gesture two weeks after the July 15 coup bid, Erdogan also announced he was withdrawing thousands of lawsuits against …