Seoul / AFP Booming sales of home appliances and televisions helped South Korea’s LG Electronics report a surge in first-quarter profits on Thursday, despite a continued slump in smartphone sales. Net income for January to March amounted to 198 billion won ($173.9 million), up 415 percent from a year ago, the Seoul-based company said in a statement. The tech ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China’s biggest bank ICBC on Thursday announced mounting problem loans, after International Monetary Fund staff argued that the world’s second-biggest economy needs a more “comprehensive” plan to tackle bad debts The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), believed to be the world’s largest bank by assets, said its non-performing loan ratio rose to 1.66 percent ...

  Tokyo / AFP All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced robust annual profits on Thursday, thanks to healthy demand on China and other international routes as well as falling fuel costs. Japan’s top carriers benefitted from a record number of foreigners visiting Japan with mainland Chinese being among the most conspicuous as they flock to Japan for shopping ...