Bloomberg China Evergrande Group’s debt-fueled expansion spree shows no signs of slowing down. Even as soaring interest payments and marketing costs ate into first-half profit, a top executive at the Chinese developer said late Tuesday that the company wants to acquire brokerage and trust companies as well as smaller rivals — deals that would add to about $6 billion ...

  Bloomberg Billionaire Guo Guangchang called China’s peer-to-peer lending industry “basically a scam,” arguing that players in the multi-billion dollar sector, troubled by collapses and frauds, lack the ability to price risk. Guo was responding to a question at a post-earnings briefing by his conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. in Hong Kong about any P2P investments by the firm. Chief Financial ...

  Beirut / AFP Top IS group strategist Abu Mohamed Al Adnani has been killed in Syria, the group said, robbing the extremists of their propaganda chief and a key architect of attacks in the West. The United States said coalition forces had targeted Adnani, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, in an air strike in Aleppo ...

  Tehran / AFP Key Damascus supporter Tehran urged Ankara on Wednesday to quickly wrap up its week-old military intervention in Syria, saying it was an “unacceptable” violation of Syrian sovereignty. Turkey’s cross-border offensive, which it says is aimed against US-backed Kurdish militia as well as the IS extremist group, marks the first major ground intervention by a foreign power carried ...

  Astana / AFP Kazakhstan said on Wednesday it had arrested 21 members of radical groups plotting terror attacks in public places, after two deadly attacks that fuelled fears of rising extremism. The security service of mainly Muslim Kazakhstan said in a statement that it had arrested 21 people from three groups after detaining them in two western regions bordering Russia. ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey on Wednesday denied agreeing to a US-brokered truce with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, saying it would not compromise with a “terrorist” group a week into an unprecedented cross-border offensive. Washington said on Tuesday the two sides—both US allies—had agreed to a cessation of hostilities between their forces in Syria after deadly clashes at the ...

  New Delhi / AFP The United States is united with its allies in upholding freedom of navigation rights in the South China Sea following a tribunal’s decision on the contested waters, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. Speaking on a visit to New Delhi, Kerry called on China and the Philippines to abide by the arbitration tribunal’s ...

  Tripoli / AFP Thousands of migrants are “racing against the clock” to make the perilous crossing from Libya to Europe before summer ends, with authorities in the conflict-torn country at a loss to stem the flow. Abdel Hamid Al Souei of Libya’s Red Crescent said improved weather triggered this week’s mass outflow that has seen more than 10,000 migrants rescued ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. is developing new features for the iPad to cater to professional users, along with new Mac laptops and desktops, according to people familiar with the matter. Upcoming software upgrades for the iPad include wider operating-system support for Apple’s stylus accessory, while hardware performance improvements are also in development, according to the people. The refreshed Mac hardware ...

  Bloomberg Alphabet Inc. will tie up with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. on its Android Pay platform, a person with knowledge of the matter said, the latest move by a technology giant to tap Japan’s rapidly growing digital payments market. Starting as early as Japan’s autumn, users of certain Android-based mobile phones will be able to use MUFG’s debit ...