Tokyo / AFP Troubled conglomerate Toshiba announced it had booked a $2.3 billion write-down of its US nuclear unit Westinghouse but said the sale of its medical devices business would reduce its forecast net loss for the year ended March. A once proud pillar of corporate Japan, the company has been besieged by problems, most notably a profit-padding scandal …

  Shanghai / AP The financial services affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba raised $4.5 billion in funding, it said, calling it the largest single private placement by an Internet company. The move values Ant Financial Services Group at roughly $60 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the situation. Previous media reports had said the company …

  Ratnapura / AFP From the Queen of Sheba to Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge, Sri Lanka’s sapphires have adorned royalty through the ages, but a flood of cheap imitations is threatening the island’s reputation for the precious stones. Ceylon sapphires, known after the island’s colonial-era name, enjoyed a huge boost five years ago when it was revealed that one formed …