Seoul / AFP South Korean firms which once operated factories in a now-shuttered joint economic zone in North Korea pleaded on Monday for urgent help from Seoul, saying they had lost more than $663 million. The South on February 10 announced the pullout from the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex in protest at North Korea’s latest nuclear and long-range missile tests. …

BEIJING / AP China’s premier told visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Monday his government is pressing ahead with painful reforms to shrink bloated coal and steel industries that are a drag on its slowing economy and ruled out devaluing its currency as a short-cut to boosting exports. Premier Li Keqiang’s comments to Lew on Monday were in line …

New Delhi / Bloomberg India will make a one-time offer to Vodafone Group Plc and Cairn Energy Plc to settle long-running disputes with the country’s tax authorities. “I propose a one-time scheme of dispute resolution for them,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament on Monday. “They can settle the case by paying only the tax arrears, in which case …