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Seoul / AFP South Korean firms which once operated factories in a now-shuttered joint economic zone in North Korea pleaded on Monday for urgent help from Seoul, saying they had lost more than $663 million. The South on February 10 announced the pullout from the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex in protest at North Korea’s latest nuclear and long-range missile tests. ...

BEIJING / AP China’s premier told visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Monday his government is pressing ahead with painful reforms to shrink bloated coal and steel industries that are a drag on its slowing economy and ruled out devaluing its currency as a short-cut to boosting exports. Premier Li Keqiang’s comments to Lew on Monday were in line ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India will make a one-time offer to Vodafone Group Plc and Cairn Energy Plc to settle long-running disputes with the country’s tax authorities. “I propose a one-time scheme of dispute resolution for them,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament on Monday. “They can settle the case by paying only the tax arrears, in which case ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma and Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will bolster the company’s share buyback as they agreed to spend $500 million of their own money purchasing stock in a vote of confidence for the e-commerce operator. The billionaire co-founder and his lieutenant will bankroll the purchase of shares currently trading at $66.91, Alibaba ...

Tokyo / AFP Nissan shares soared on Monday as investors cheered the automaker’s plans for a share buyback, after the bloodbath on equity markets at the start of the year hammered its stock. Japan’s number two automaker said after the Tokyo market closed on Friday that it would purchase up to 400 billion yen ($3.5 billion) worth of its own ...

LONDON / Bloomberg Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is urging all of Britain to vote to stay in the European Union in June’s referendum as proponents of quitting the bloc argue that the U.K. would be better off economically if it breaks away. Sturgeon made her case in a speech Monday morning in London. The Scottish National Party leader told ...

London / Bloomberg The U.K. risks a decade of uncertainty if voters choose to leave the European Union in an in-out referendum in June, according to a government report released Monday. The U.K.’s trading arrangements with the EU are unlikely to be completed within the two-year negotiating process stipulated by the Treaty of the European Union, and its commerce with ...

Bloomberg Britain’s departure from the European Union may free up officials in Brussels to tighten air- pollution regulations everywhere in the region — including in the U.K. because of a twist in the free-trade laws likely to remain in force. The U.K. has worked to limit EU curbs on vehicle exhaust fumes in the form of nitrogen dioxide, saying it’s ...

Stockholm / Bloomberg Sweden’s economy expanded faster than estimated in the fourth quarter after the central bank unleashed record stimulus to defend the credibility of its inflation target. The economy surged 1.3 percent from the third quarter, Statistics Sweden said in a statement. Growth was seen at 0.7 percent in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. It expanded an annual 4.5 ...

WARSAW / Bloomberg Poland’s largest mobile phone operator agreed to buy another company controlled by billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak to gain access to high-speed mobile Internet network services and fend off competition from the units of Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom AG. Cyfrowy Polsat SA, Poland’s largest private television broadcaster and owner of mobile company Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. , will ...