california, which was hit only recently by a huge wildfire. emergency teams are digging into the debris in the hope of finding survivors. airlifts have been called in to help rescue those trapped in their homes. the search for missing malaysia airlines flight mh370 resumes, a year after it was officially suspended. the plane vanished en route from kuala lumpur to beijing in 2014. and this video is trending on bbc.com. that is the hand of a marine biologist who says a humpback whale saved her from a 15—foot tiger shark during a recent research expedition in the cook islands. the first such case that we know of. thanks for watching. and the top story here in the uk: uk manufacturing output has been growing at its fastest rate for nearly a decade.

the office for national statistics said last month's growth was the seventh consecutive month of growth. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. us stocks retreat on reports that china could be losing its appetite for purchasing american debt as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate. destination cambodia, find out what storing international companies to this manufacturing hub in southeast asia. good morning, asia. hello, world. glad you could join us for this thursday edition of asia business report, i'm rico hizon. we start with wall street and the major stock

indices ending lower overnight after a choppy trading session and one of the reasons involve is asia's biggest economy, bloomberg is reporting chinese officials are thinking of slowing or possibly even halting purchases of us treasury bonds. china is the biggest foreign holder of us government debt, with $1.2 trillion in treasuries as of october, 2017. but chinese officials we re october, 2017. but chinese officials were cited as saying they would slow down the purchase because of trade tensions between the two big economies and there is further evidence of a delicate business relationship between the americans and the chinese, and these stories both concerns mark phones. apple says a chinese government owned company will take control of its icloud services in the country. vincent from the bbc news service says apple's boss tim cook had no choice but to do this if he wanted to keep this company in the

mainland. i think this is a dilemma for companies like apple. the chinese market is really attractive to all sorts of businesses across the world, but if you want to enter china there are local rules and regulations that you have to comply with and i would say tim cook was facing a really tough choice. from the chinese government and business perspective, it only makes apple and equal player in china because all businesses operating in china have to comply with chinese government role and they would argue why apple is exceptional. the government were saying i'm glad you're complying with our laws, welcome to our market, but apple, for them, they w011 market, but apple, for them, they won the market in china, but they lose the moral argument outside china. vincent ni from the bbc china news service. leading chinese and smart phone manufacturer wow leading chinese and smart phone manufacturer wow why has chosen, axing its us business presence paul frew at the last minute because of

security concerns. it wanted to sell phones through at&t in america but there was strong competition. the us move has an air of protectionism. we've seen this in the infrastructure market and now it seems to be coming to the smart phone market. the key difference here is that huawei's chipset is its own chipset and i think that's why we've seen particular emphasis on huawei and this model in the us and this at&t deal. certainly 18 lawmakers have signed a document to the fcc highlighting their concerns over this. concerns over chinese manufacturers‘ equipment has been long—running in the us, and of course we get into this tit for tat, it might be the us being protectionist over backdoors but who started that? the us. the next guest says the trend is still upwards for big deals in the region. in 2017 the various deals in

the asia—pacific added up to over 673 billion us dollars, that‘s 4.8% higher than 2016. the story is a bit different when you look at muggy coming from china. government restrictions reduced mainland outbound m& by: if you count megadeals, asia saw four major deals in 2017, one more than 2016. i spoke to stephanie hanna in hong kong and i asked her about the future for deals already on the table. i think it casts a shadow for other deals that are still waiting for approval that involves chinese buyers. were talking about deals likejen worth being sold to china ocean wide, a life insurance company, other deals being sold in the semiconductor space. it doesn‘t

bode well for those deals that are still hanging in the balance and i think it goes to show that cifius is considering access to consumer day as part of that umbrella of national security risks. later today a uk court will rule on evidence pertaining to the extradition case of the jane malcolm turnbull, the fugitive tycoon has co— ownership of formula 1 force india race team and he also owns kingfisher airlines, which has been grounded since 2012. let‘s go to mumbai. what is this case all about? well, rico, vijay mallya is a wanted man in india and ever since he left india for the uk in 2016, the indian government has really ramped up its efforts to get him extradited back to india to face trial for financial crimes. vijay

mallya‘s known for being a very fla m boya nt mallya‘s known for being a very flamboyant businessman, this business interests ranged from airlines to alcohol and he co— owned the formula 1 team. he was once dubbed the richard branson of india but this companies owe a lot of muqqy but this companies owe a lot of muggy to indian banks. the indian government is trying to get back around 1.4 $1.4 billion from his companies. he said he is subject to a witch—hunt and the extradition trial is politically motivated and he denies all the allegations. trial is politically motivated and he denies all the allegationsm seems like the indian government is singling out vijay mallya, is this true? vijay mallya owes a lot of money to indian banks, $1.4 billion is no laughing matter, but he‘s become really the face of a wider problem in india. public—sector banks, which give out around 70% of loa ns, banks, which give out around 70% of loans, more than that, in india, are struggling with non—performing

assets and that‘s really causing problems here, it‘s limiting the banks‘ ability to give credit to small businesses and it‘s affecting the banks‘ balance sheets and it‘s affecting foreign investment coming into the country and that‘s what the indian government really needs in order to boost growth. the indian economy slowed down a little bit last year and the indian government really wa nts last year and the indian government really wants to improve that. so vijay mallya has become the very public face to a really serious problem here. thank you so much for that update. many foreign companies are knocking on the doors of southeast asia and companies to do business since they are companies to do business since they a re less companies to do business since they are less expensive than its economic powerhouse to the north. a survey from the us chain of commerce in china found nearly a quarter of its members are considering moving or have already done so. of those about half are looking at other countries in asia where labour costs are lower. but do labour costs always mean more profits? tim mcdonnell has

more from phnom penh. it's more from phnom penh. it‘s exam day at this school and by cambodia‘s largest textile industry group. many manufacturers come here in search of cheap labour, especially as wages rise in china. but there‘s plenty of competition from other low—cost countries, like vietnam and bangladesh. so these classes are aimed at making sure productivity keeps pace with wages, which have been rising here. there‘s way to offset more than 100% increase over three years through productivity gains. if wages rise to a level whereby we are competitive then there is no development. there can only be growth and gain when there‘s economic development. if you are uncompetitive it means there‘s no investors or fewer investors coming to invest in cambodia, so where do you get development? wages will need to clear that speed bump and start rising if ordinary cambodians are to improve their

fortu nes cambodians are to improve their fortunes but economists say they will need better skills to do it. our productivity now has improved from day to day, but we need more skill to improve. if our government im proves we skill to improve. if our government improves we can gain manufacturing from china. but a more diverse manufacturing sector might be part of the answer to two. the overwhelming majority of manufacturing in cambodia is in the garment industry, but a new generation of companies are moving in hoping to take advantage of the country‘s low wages. this japanese company makes equipment for car factories. translation: bearings, gears shifts, we line up the parts and heat it up at a high temperature to make it more durable. the jobs area to make it more durable. the jobs are a little more skilled and the pay is a bit better. this man says there are many challenges but cambodia is cheap enough for investing here to make sense. translation: wages are increasing in

china, by manufacturing in china and in porting to japan it doesn‘t make much of a difference. because of that we‘ve moved our factory to cambodia and southeast asia —— importing. the world bank says the number of non— textile factories here is growing and they could be vital to lifting the country‘s living standards. some of those jobs lifting the country‘s living standards. some of thosejobs might come to cambodia because china‘s getting more expensive and workers there are making more money. that‘s a luxury many cambodians would like too. timothy wood donnell, bbc news, phnom penh. with that we end this addition of asia business report. —— timothy mcdonnell. don‘t forget to follow us on twitter. thanks for watching, sport today is up next. the top stories this hour: the local sheriff in santa barbara says at least 17 people have died in the floods and mudslides in southern california,

which was hit only recently by a huge wildfire, but rescuers find some survivors, including babies. the search for missing malaysia airlines flight mh370 resumes, a year after it was officially suspended. the plane vanished en route from kuala lumpur to beijing in 2014. conservation charities say they‘re overwhelmed by the number of stranded seals found along the cornish coast over the past few weeks. record numbers of sick and abandoned pups have been discovered after a series of storms and high tides. jon kay reports. on a suburban estate... ok, shall we get them out? ..a pop—up seal sanctuary. with the local rescue centres full, these orphaned pups are having to be housed in a garage near st ives. father and son david and dan are fully trained and caring for the seals 24/7. are you struggling to cope then?

we‘re at the point where we really are. i mean, this sort of speaks for itself, really, having all of these guys here. you know, the rehab centresjust don‘t have the space to handle this many pups in such a short amount of time. every day, volunteers from the group are racing to the cornish coast to rescue unprecedented numbers of sick and starving pups, orphaned and injured in winter storms. here‘s the tube, in the corner of its mouth. providing emergency food is the easy bit, finding them somewhere to recuperate is much more difficult. they‘ve had nearly 300 call—outs already this winter. i think we‘ve been out 55 times this year so far. what, since the first january? since the first january this year, we‘ve done 55 calls and we‘ve rescued 25. the situation we find ourselves in is completely shocking, beyond belief. it‘s notjust south—west england, elsewhere in the uk there have been similar increases.

don‘t be fooled by today‘s blue skies. why this winter? why‘s it so bad now? because we've had a succession of storms, over really high tides, flooded all the beaches, washed all those seal pups out without enough food inside them to survive. here at the cornish seal sanctuary, there are a couple of spaces tonight, so dave and dan can bring in two pups from their garage. but any more that are found might have to be taken hundreds of miles to other parts of the country until there is more room. once these pups have recovered, they‘ll be sent back into the sea. but conservationists say if we‘re going to avoid an accommodation crisis next winter, we need to start planning now. jon kay, bbc news, cornwall. good luck to them. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i‘m nick marshall—mccormack and this is sport today,

live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: zidane signs a new contract, as his real madrid side crawl into the quarter—finals of the copa del rey. novak is back. the elbow isn‘t 100%, but it‘s good enough to beat dominic thiem. and this guy‘s dakar rally chances are all at sea, as his dreams are washed away. hi, there, wherever you are around the world. welcome to sport today. zinedine zidane signed a new contract which will keep him at real madrid until 2020. but he admits results will need to start going his way to keep him in thejob. zidane played an almost unrecognisable real madrid team, to struggle through to the copa del rey quarter