Beijing / AFP China’s consumer inflation jumped to 2.3 percent in February, its highest in nearly two years, official data showed on Thursday, in a positive sign for demand in the world’s second-largest economy. Food prices surged during the annual Lunar New Year holiday, with vegetable prices jumping 30.6 percent year-on. The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) released ...

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 ...