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Tokyo / DPA Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry is set to strengthen its efforts to develop its own technology for genome editing, by allocating 8.6 billion yen (US$77 million) over five years from fiscal 2016 to 2020. The technology enables cut-and-paste work in gene modifications as desired. The government intends to efficiently mass-produce medicinal products or fragrance elements by ...

KUALA LUMPUR / AP The chief executive of Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday that the carrier recorded a profit in February, its first positive monthly result in years, and is on track to return to the black by 2018. In an interview, CEO Christoph Mueller described the airline as a “ship that has many leaks,” but said the monthly profit ...

Sydney / AFP Australia’s largest resources project will stop production for up to 60 days owing to mechanical issues, US energy giant Chevron said on Wednesday, in the latest setback to hit the US$54 billion plant. Chevron’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Australia’s northwest coast — one of the world’s biggest — started production in early March and ...

MUMBAI / Reuters Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is regaining smartphone share in India with a revamped line-up packed with special features including a safety mode for motorcyclists, as rival Apple Inc readies a renewed push into the world’s fastest-growing market. Long the leader in price-conscious India, the South Korean giant had been losing ground to local rivals such as Micromax ...

Bloomberg Poland’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a 13th month as its revamped policy council defies expectations for deeper monetary easing in the face of the longest bout of deflation in 60 years. The 10-member panel on Wednesday left the seven-day reference rate at a record-low 1.5 percent, matching the predictions of all 34 economists surveyed ...

Bloomberg Germany’s two-year note sale on Wednesday provided more evidence that an increasingly gloomy economic outlook in the euro zone keeps driving investors to buy negative-yielding securities in return for their safety — and potential capital gains. The country’s bonds, which have returned 4.4 percent percent this year, were mostly little changed as Europe’s largest economy allotted €3.24 billion of ...

Bloomberg The lira fell the most in emerging markets after Turkey’s Economy Minister became the latest official to call for interest rate cuts, stoking concern that politicians are interfering in monetary policy. Speculation that global growth is faltering also contributed to the drop. The currency lost 0.6 percent to 2.8488 per dollar, the weakest level in more than a week, ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank unveiled its new 50-franc ($52) note on Wednesday, the first in a series that features nature rather than portraits of famous men and women. The 50-franc bill, which will begin to be issued on April 12, was designed with the theme of wind and depicts a dandelion, mountains and a para-glider. Other notes in the ...

Bloomberg Doubts are mounting about the future of the U.K.’s membership in the European Union, but you wouldn’t know it from the country’s stocks. Rather than being punished for a lack of certainty, they’ve become the most expensive ever relative to others in the region. The valuation of companies in the FTSE 350 Index climbed to 15.5 times estimated earnings ...

Bloomberg US brokers managing retirement accounts must adhere to tough new standards under an Obama administration rule released on Wednesday that aims to protect millions of savers from conflicted investment advice. The Labour Department regulation, which gave the industry some concessions from an earlier proposal, puts a capstone on President Barack Obama’s efforts to rein in Wall Street and level ...