Beijing / AFP Manufacturing activity in China shrank at its fastest rate in four years in February, government data showed Tuesday, a fresh sign of sustained weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which tracks activity in factories and workshops, fell to 49.0 last month, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. It …

Bangkok / AFP A Thai tuna processing factory has agreed to pay staff $1.3 million compensation for a litany of labour abuses, an official said on Tuesday, a rare victory for migrant workers in the kingdom’s scandal-stricken seafood industry. Hundreds of Myanmar labourers at Golden Prize Tuna Canning, a processing plant in Samut Sakhon that sells fish to markets around …

New Delhi / Bloomberg It’s not just taxpayers who will make Indian banks whole. Tax cheats are being pressed into service as well. State-run Indian lenders are gasping for breath, as the central bank forces them to recognize bad loans and make provisions. The 250 billion rupees ($3.7 billion) in fresh capital that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has pledged to …