March 1, 2021 Biz In 60

France's ex-president Sarkozy given jail term for corruption Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years in jail, with two of them suspended, over corruption charges. The 66-year-old who led France from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge for information on an inquiry into his 2007 campaign. Sarkozy faces a seperate trial later this month over the alleged illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. China's manufacturing activity drops for a third month China's manufacturing activity slowed for a third month in February as the Lunar New Year and a fresh wave of COVID-19 hit demand. Manufacturing PMI fell to 50.9 from 51.5 the previous month, the lowest level in nine months. The data comes ahead of this week's annual budget, which will include a recovery plan from the fall-out of the coronavirus crisis. Brazos Electric files for bankruptcy after Texas outage The largest power firm in the US state of Texas has filed for bankruptcy protection after last month's historic outages. Brazos Electric has blamed a 1.8-billion dollar disputed bill from the state's grid operator for blackout-related charges. State-wide power outages left more than 4-million people without heat or electricity last month.