New Delhi / AFP India’s finance minister vowed on Thursday to recover more than $1 billion from heavily indebted Vijay Mallya, as a political row erupted over the flamboyant businessman’s surprise departure from the country. Arun Jaitley told parliament that Mallya’s grounded Kingfisher Airlines owed a group of mostly state-run banks some 90 billion rupees ($1.34 billion) in unpaid loans. ...

Tokyo / AFP Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday said Japan “cannot do without” nuclear power, speaking on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the devastating Fukushima disaster. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast sparked a massive tsunami that swept ashore leaving about 18,500 people dead or missing. The wall of water ...

DHAKA / AFP The Bangladesh central bank says it is working to recover some $100 million allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Authorities have given few details about how the money disappeared. But Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith says authorities are considering suing the U.S. bank over the money’s apparent transfer ...