TOKYO / AP Japan’s exports fell for a sixth straight month in March, sapped by weak shipments of machinery and chemicals, though a sharper decline in imports helped push the trade surplus to its highest level in more than five years. Customs data reported on Wednesday showed exports fell 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 6.46 trillion yen …

  Islamabad / Bloomberg Pakistan is vowing to get tough on tax evaders who have so far shunned an amnesty program set to finally expire on April 30 after four deadline extensions. Less than 0.3 percent of Pakistan’s 3 million goods traders have participated in the programme, well below the 17 percent forecast by the government when it began in …

  New Delhi / AFP About 330 million people are suffering from drought in India, the government has said, as the country reels from severe water shortages and desperately poor farmers suffer crop losses. One of the government’s most senior lawyers PS Narasimha told the Supreme Court that a quarter of the country’s population, spread across 10 states, have been …