ABU DHABI / WAM ADNOC Distribution on Tuesday launched the pilot phase of its smart self-refueling service (ADNOC SMART) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which will run until October 1 and cover four service stations on Abu Dhabi Island. ADNOC SMART also enables registered customers to benefit from a variety of innovative payment methods. The pilot phase of ADNOC …

Tokyo / Bloomberg The world’s biggest pension fund posted its best quarterly gain in a year as a rebound in stocks helped add $42 billion to the value of Japanese asset manager’s investments. The 139.8 trillion yen ($1.2 trillion) Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) delivered a 3.6 percent return in the three months ended December as its holdings rose by …

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s biggest gold market was shuttered on Tuesday as jewellers in the country’s commercial capital began an indefinite strike to try to reverse a plan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce an excise tax. Jewellers in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar have stopped work and want the proposal for a 1 percent levy announced in Monday’s annual …

Tokyo / Bloomberg Sharp Corp. is facing a potential cash crunch at the end of this month as talks drag on with Foxconn Technology Group for a rescue deal that would inject billions of dollars in new capital into the struggling Japanese electronics maker. Sharp has 510 billion yen ($4.5 billion) in credit lines and loans that are set to …

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 …

Bloomberg The US State Department released the final batch of e-mails Hillary Clinton kept on a private server while secretary of state, ending months of piecemeal disclosure that has frustrated the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign and subjected it to criticism from both sides of the aisle. The department published about 3,800 pages of messages from the @clintonemail.com server on Monday. …

Washington / AP A generation gap among black voters could be critical for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday when Democrats vote in 11 states. Older black voters, a reliable primary voting bloc, are coalescing around Clinton. Millennial black voters — young adults energized by groups like Black Lives Matter — appear torn between the former secretary of …

Bloomberg Ten weeks after a general election produced an unprecedented deadlock in parliament, efforts to form a government in Spain are entering a critical phase. Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will start the countdown to a fresh ballot when he asks lawmakers to let him lead the next government in a vote on Wednesday. The legislature will then have another two …