Toyota is recalling 1.43 million vehicles globally for defective air bags, although it is not part of the massive recalls of Takata air bags, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. said it does not know of any fatalities or injuries related to the latest recalls.

Being recalled are the Prius hybrid, Prius plug-in and the Lexus CT200h produced between October 2008 and April 2012 — 743,000 vehicles in Japan, 495,000 in North America and 141,000 vehicles in Europe, as well as 9,000 vehicles in China and 46,000 vehicles in other regions.

A small crack in some inflators in the air bags in the driver and passenger sides may expand, causing the air bags to partially inflate.

The air bags were not made by Takata, according to Toyota.

The announcement by Toyota means that overall the total numbers of recalls because of air bag worries likely now tally more than 100 million globally. Faulty air bags are responsible for 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide. Three more deaths are under investigation in Malaysia.

 US-BASED payments app Circle has raised US$60 million from Chinese investors and launched a company in China, as it seeks to expand in the world’s second-largest economy.

The latest funding comes from existing investor and Beijing-based tech investment fund IDG Capital Partners, as well as Chinese companies including Baidu, CICC Alpha and China Everbright Ltd, Circle’s co-founder Jeremy Allaire said.

“We’re not aiming to compete with the domestic market as that would be a suicide mission given the strength of local players like Alipay and WeChat, but we can connect Chinese consumers with the eurozone and dollar markets,” Allaire said by phone.

Circle’s China unit operates as a separate locally incorporated company and has not yet launched a product, pending a deal with a local banking partner and a legal license to operate, Allaire said.

Circle allows the sending of payments to countries where it hasn’t yet launched, with the payment transferred into Bitcoin, then settled within minutes via the blockchain network that validates Bitcoin transactions. At the other end, the Bitcoin is transferred back into the currency of that particular country.

Circle’s intention in China is to connect consumers there with this new global means of making small or “social” payments to peers in other countries.

 China Eastern Airlines today released 21 kinds of red wines for passengers to taste in the air throughout this year.

The wine including Zinfandel from Napa Valley in California and Shiraz from Penfolds in Australia were picked up from 316 world’s famous red wines through polls among its passengers and 10 senior wine tasters.

The wines will be served in the first and business classes as well as economy class in some international flights, an official with the airline said.

The local carrier also released a batch of new meals to be served with the wines in the air. The airline will also cooperate with a local chain restaurant Shanghai Min to offer Shanghai-style cuisine in the cabin soon, the airline announced.

 MORE rich Chinese are expected to send their assets overseas for better investment returns as the economy continues to open up, according to a report.

It is estimated that the proportion of Chinese individual assets to be allocated overseas will increase from the current 4.8 percent to about 9.4 percent in the next five years, with the assets under management of overseas investment rising to 13 trillion yuan (US$2 trillion), according to the 2016 China Wealth Report jointly released by the Industrial Bank and The Boston Consulting Group.

The proportion of personal wealth allocated to foreign assets is lower in China than in other countries.

As the Chinese economy continues to open, however, the proportion will increase thanks to liberal regulations and growing interest in overseas investment.

The report revealed that, despite a slowing Chinese economic growth, the wealth of high-net-worth individuals with investable assets of more than 6 million yuan is rising steadily.

China’s high-net-worth families will reach 3.88 million by 2020 and their investable financial assets will then account for 51 percent of China’s individual wealth. The country’s continuous economic globalization will drive the HNWIs to shift from domestic wealth allocation to global wealth allocation.

The rise of China’s HNWIs offers great opportunities for the development of private banking businesses, the report said.

However, there is an undersupply of private banking services. China’s private banking institutions manage under 20 percent of the wealth of high net worth families, which implies huge opportunities for development, according to Chen Jinguang, vice president of the Industrial Bank.