Amid the real estate crisis in China, another Shanghai-based property giant Shimao Group said on Monday that it had received a liquidation petition from a Chinese state-owned bank in yet another instance of creditors taking legal action to reclaim money from troubled developers in the world’s second-largest economy, CNN reported on Monday. A “winding-up petition” was filed against the company by China Construction Bank (Asia) on April 5 in Hong Kong, according to a stock exchange filing by Shimao. The petition is in “connection with a financial obligation of the company for approximately HK 1,579.5 million dollars (USD 204 million),” the filing said. Shimao said it will “oppose the petition vigorously” and will continue to work toward an offshore restructuring that maximizes value for its stakeholders. “The company is of the view that the petition does not represent collective interests of the company’s offshore creditors and other stakeholders,” it said. Shimao’s debt troubles date back to July 2022, when it failed to pay the interest and principal on a USD 1 billion bond. The company’s shares were down over 14 per cent in Hong Kong on Monday, having fallen nearly 40 per cent this year. China’s massive real estate sector fell into trouble after the government clamped down on excessive borrowing by developers in 2020 in an attempt to cool the property bubble. Since then, dozens of Chinese developers have defaulted on their debts, CNN reported. The industry has since become a drag on the broader economy, which is grappling with a slow recovery from three years of pandemic lockdowns and a series of headwinds, from record-high youth unemployment to mounting financial stress at local governments. In January, Evergrande, the world’s most-indebted property developer and the poster child of China’s property crisis, was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court. The liquidation order, made by the city’s High Court, came after the embattled Chinese real estate giant and its overseas creditors failed to agree on how to restructure the company’s massive debt during talks that went on for 19 months. There are still questions about how the collapse of Evergrande will affect investors, thousands of workers and homebuyers waiting for their apartments. Country Garden, another major developer that defaulted on its debt last year, received a liquidation petition in February from a creditor after not repaying a loan.  Source: The Print  

Fire broke out at a multi-storey building at Green Cozy Cottage on Bailey Road in the capital around 9:50pm on Thursday ( Feb 29 ). So far 46 people have died in the tragedy, most of them died from smoke inhalation than by fire burn. There was a clothing store on the third floor of the building. The rest were restaurants. The restaurants had gas cylinders in it. Gas cylinders made the fire intense and it has spread terribly. Amin Mohammad Group is one of the leading real estate companies. They constructed the building Green Cozy Cottage. The Green Cozy Cottage was managed by Amin Mohammad Property Management Services Limited  (AMPM) which is a sister concern of Amin Mohammad Group.  According to some sources, Amin Mohammad Group handed over the flats to AMPM in 2015.  AMPM holds all the rights of the building including it's security, safety measures, personnel for guarding, and lifts. After the tragic incident, Most of the senior officials mobile phones were found switched off. Additionally, executive director of Amin Mohammad Group, Mohammad Tanvirul Islam, left Dhaka by a Turkish Airlines flight early Friday (March 1), an intelligence agency and immigration at the airport said.  On the other hand, senior officials were absent in the head office of Amin Mohammad Group in the capital. The lawyer of Amin Mohammad Group, Zahid also refused to talk to reporters when contacted.

Kylian Mbappe has received an offer from Madrid. He will announce his decision to the 14-time European champions next week, according to ESPN sources.   French football superstar Kylian Mbappe has received an offer to join Real Madrid as a free agent next summer and another to renew his contract with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), but the France international superstar remains undecided on his future, according to ESPN.   However, this 25-year-old footballer has not confirmed anything to PSG or Real Madrid yet but sources say that the French star has already made a decision.  The first time Real Madrid came calling for him was when Mbappe was just 13 years old. According to Forbes’ latest World’s Highest Paid Athletes list, Kylian Mbappe is the third highest paid athlete in the world with total earnings of $120 million.  Kylian Mbappe’s tenure with Paris Saint-Germain F.C. (PSG) has always been accompanied by much rumors of potential departures as always Real Madrid has been the top rumored landing place. Real Madrid made a big offer in 2022 to appeal Mbappé, However, PSG was successful to secure him to another two-year contract, which will expire in August, 2024.

The root causes of poverty are complex, but witchcraft is usually not tabled as one. However in East Africa, attacks on senior citizens accused of bringing misfortune on their communities through magic are on the rise. Just days before Christmas, 78-year-old Eliza Supuni was bludgeoned to death near the town of Mulanje in the Southern Region of Malawi. Her motionless, bloodied body was rushed to a local health center just as she took her final breath. Supuni was pronounced dead on arrival. The perpetrators of the brutal killing were her three grandsons, who reportedly attacked the elderly woman with metal bars and stones, according to local eyewitnesses. "A post-mortem established the cause of death as internal bleeding as a result of fractured ribs on her right side of the body, secondary to assault," Innocent Moses, the police liaison officer for the district, told DW. Moses said that the three suspects then tried to flee to neighboring Mozambique, but added that they have been arrested in the month since the gruesome crime. He stressed that on the day of the crime, they allegedly injured two other elderly persons. "Their age range is between 19 and 23. They will be charged with murder," Moses added, highlighting that the maximum sentence they face is life imprisonment. But what made the three men murder their own grandmother? 'Witchcraft' as excuse for social ills There had been a series allegations saying that Supuni had been engaging in witchcraft — especially since one of her sisters had died earlier in the year during the delivery of her baby through Cesarean section. Health authorities described the death of Supuni's sister as a "natural death" — but this did not convince some of the locals in a country were cases of mob killings targeting senior citizens accused of witchcraft are still widespread. Elderly women and people with albinism are particularly at risk of facing such accusations. According to Malawian law, raising accusations of witchcraft is a crime punishable by law — however, that law is hard to enforce in what is one of the poorest nations of the world. World Bank data from last year shows that 72% of Malawians now have to survive on less than €2 ($2.16) a day — up from just under 70% in 2019. Many locals meanwhile associate this growing state of poverty directly with witchcraft: A 2022 Afrobarometer survey found that 74% of Malawians associate witchcraft with  suffering misfortune in life, including illness, poverty and untimely death. Attacks and killings not limited to Malawi As poverty rates continue to rise, so do the numbers of killings linked to accusations of witchcraft and magic. Records from Malawi's Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Community Development show that the number of witchcraft-related attacks and killings targeting elderly persons went up by a quarter from a total of 21 cases in 2022 to 29 in 2023. But the issue isn't exclusive to Malawi. Neighboring countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania also have their fare share of violent attacks on the elderly linked to allegations of witchcraft, as do nations in West Africa. "In Tanzania, the elderly continue to be accused of witchcraft, and constitute the majority of victims of killings over witchcraft suspicions. Elderly persons — especially those with red eyes — are repeatedly accused of witchcraft simply because of their age, which is a form of discrimination," says Anna Henga, Executive Director for the Legal and Human Rights Centre, one of the leading human rights bodies in the East African nation. Henga further says that African countries must do more and take deliberate measures to protect the elderly while also raising awareness about misconceptions. Felistas Phiri, projects officer at HelpAge Zimbabwe, agrees with Henga's assessment, saying that many people in her country do not understand how certain illnesses that primarily affect the elderly — such as dementia — work, and that they tend to interpret the signs and symptoms of such conditions as signs of witchcraft. "The older persons that were once seen as caretakers, as fountains of wisdom and knowledge are unfortunately now seen as wizards. They are stripped off of their dignity and importance. This is why we must continue to promote sustainable livelihoods for all older people," Phiri told DW. A 2015 report by the parent charity of HelpAge Zimbabwe, HelpAge International, ranked Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania as the 10 worst countries to grow old in, having measured issues like income security, social connections and the physical safety of the elderly.   No dignity for Malawi's elderly The Malawi Network of Older Persons' Organizations (MANEPO) recommends that social  security schemes, including a universal old persons' pension, should be introduced in the impoverished county. This would not only provide those having to live under the poverty line with somewhat of a lifeline but would also help proactively to deescalate this rate of killings, as income safety and stability — especially for senior citizens — would shield them from being accused of engaging in witchcraft to induce misfortune on others for their own alleged benefit. MANEPO says that accusations of witchcraft go as far as implicating innocent senior citizens of causing droughts and deluges. "Lack of appropriate social protection schemes to address poverty in old age, fractured social support systems at family and community levels, and the loss of personal dignity due to poverty make the elderly vulnerable to witchcraft-related accusations," MANEPO notes. 'Legalizing witchcraft' There are other approaches also being tabled to address Malawi's escalating witch-hunt: In 2022, a Special Law Commission actually made a surprising recommendation after reviewing Malawi's Witchcraft Act — which is a piece of colonial-era legislation dating back to 1911, still being applied in such cases today. The committee said the country should begin to recognize witchcraft as something that exists — in order to allow the law to be the stage to address such accusations rather than allowing for mob justice to take over. "People's beliefs cannot be suppressed by legislation," said retired Supreme Court Judge Robert Chinangwa, who headed the commission, emphasizing how deeply many communities believe in the existence of witchcraft and sorcery. Meanwhile, Michael Kaiyatsa, Executive Director for the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), said that continuing to criminalize witchcraft should help curb such attacks, adding that recognizing it as a real phenomenon, as was recommended by the Special Law Commission, would make the issue of delivering the burden of proof in a court of law problematic. "It is the good practice of law that for someone to be convicted, the prosecution might have [to deliver] proof beyond reasonable doubt. How is that going to be in witchcraft cases, as we know this is [meant to involve] supernatural powers?" Kaiyatsa said.  

China’s real estate market is undergoing a crisis with sluggish sales and a slow economic recovery. Meanwhile, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are rapidly gaining dominance in real estate sales, while private companies, including giants like Evergrande Group and Country Garden, face looming debt defaults. This power shift is raising questions concerning the Chinese regime’s intent to expand the SOEs and its implications for the broader economy. This phenomenon in the Chinese economy gave rise to the catchphrase, “The state enterprises advance, the private sectors retreat,” meaning that the SOEs are expanding and forcing out private companies. The regime would generally favor SOEs in policies and subsidies and, therefore, gradually eliminate competitors from the market. This trend signals that China’s real estate power landscape is facing a major reshuffling. Real estate contributes to around 30 percent of China’s GDP and is, therefore, critical to the stability of the country’s economy. Data shows that the total sales of China’s top 100 real estate companies from Jan. to Oct. amounted to 4.56 trillion yuan (US$624.7 billion), a decrease of 12.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The top five companies on the sales list were dominated by SOEs backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Topping the sales list was Poly Real Estate, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Poly Group, whose sales from Jan. to Oct. rose 1.4 percent year-on-year to 368.21 billion yuan (US$50.4 billion). This amount is 6.7 times that of 22nd-ranked China Evergrande’s 54.6 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion). In the second to fifth place on the sales list, all are SOEs, and three out of four of them had increased their sales volume in the past year. In China’s real estate sales rankings from Jan. to Oct., the pattern of the top 100 real estate companies is undergoing a complete remake. Country Garden, a privately owned company, fell out of the top five and ranked sixth, with its sales volume plummetting 49.3 percent year-on-year. Another private property developer, Sunac China, saw their sales plunge the most year-on-year by 50.5 percent among the top 50 companies. The real estate SOEs’ sales performance is even more remarkable in the land market. The amount of land ownership is a crucial resource for real estate companies to develop, which determines their future market share. However, due to the limited capital strength and the downturn of the Chinese real estate industry, the once-large private companies are no longer in a position to acquire more land. The CCP’s state-owned real estate companies are taking advantage of the situation to take control of high-quality land resources. According to data from January to the end of October, among the top 100 Chinese real estate companies, nearly 50 percent of them have almost stopped acquiring land, and most of these real estate companies are ranked in the lower half of the top 100 in terms of sales performance. The top ten real estate companies in land acquisition are all SOEs controlled by the CCP. SOEs also accounted for 66 percent of the land acquisitions, while private Chinese companies only accounted for 22%. This shows that the future dominance of China’s real estate market will be in the hands of these SOEs. Mike Sun, a North American investment consultant, spoke to The Epoch Times: “Seeing the difficulties experienced by private real estate companies, the SOEs seized the opportunity to acquire land for two major reasons. First, they wish to stabilize the market by having the CCP own most of the land in the country. The regime certainly does not want to see their land depreciate in value. Secondly, the SOEs have not suffered significant losses during the real estate crisis. So they are taking advantage of the decline of the private companies to accelerate their goal of expanding state ownership at the expense of privately owned companies, thus achieving dominance in the real estate power map.” Mr. Sun believes that the economic development model led by real estate development and urbanization since 1998 has come to an end and that the collapse of the real estate sector is inevitable. Since the second half of 2021, property prices in China have continued to fall, breaking the previous market trend of only rising prices. China’s economy has also been on a downward trend, with the youth unemployment rate hitting record highs at 21.3 percent in July. Some academics suggest that the actual figure could be as high as 46.5 percent. The real estate crisis in China is also starting to impact the financial sector, which may lead to a broader economic crisis.

Real madrid, the Spanish giant club that has dominated in European football.  According to the Forbes, Real Madrid's current market value is $6.07 billion. The second most valuable club is Manchester United, with a value of $6 billion, which has soared by 30% compared to the previous year.  In this list, FC Barcelona also holds a place. By winning La Liga, the Catalan club FC barcelona has shown great form recently. Their value has reached $5.51 billion.  English premier club Liverpool F.C. has secured a place in the list of the most valuable football club, surpassing Manchester City F.C. with a value of $5.29 billion. FC Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain F.C. also hold the 6th and 7th positions respectively. The value of this football club is $4.99 billion.  Lionel Messi's club PSG has a value of $4.21 billion.  Chelsea F.C., Tottenham Hotspur F.C., and Arsenal F.C. hold the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions respectively. According to Forbes, "Spanish giant Real Madrid CF has played 9 out of 5 Champions League tournaments in the final and had won each one. 

The club's forward had pointed out fans allegedly shouting racist chants at him during a match, prompting the referees to stop the game for 10 minutes. Real Madrid said the abuse constitutes a "hate crime." Real Madrid on Monday lodged a criminal complaint over racist abuse against their forward Vinicius Junior.  On Sunday, a match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia was stopped for 10 minutes after Vinicius pointed out fans who were allegedly shouting racist comments at him. Spanish prosecutors in Valencia opened a probe into the racist chants, according to the AFP news agency.  Real Madrid said it saw that the abuse constituted a "hate crime." It added that it filed the complaint with the State Attorney General's Office "in order for the facts to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable."  The probe came after the 22-year-old Brazilian forward received support from the Brazilian president, FIFA and fellow stars such as Kylian Mbappe. "I am sorry for those Spaniards who disagree but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists," Vinicius wrote on Twitter after the game.  Spain has 'a serious problem' Luis Rubiales, the chief of Spain's football federation, sided with Vinicius, admitting that racism was an issue in Spanish soccer.  "The first thing is to recognize that we have a problem in our country," Rubiales said at a press conference in Madrid on Monday. It is "a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country," he added.  LaLiga President Javier Tebas was, however, defiant. He wrote on Twitter that the league is doing enough, and called on Vinicius to inform himself "before you criticize and slander LaLiga." Rubiales criticized Tebas's comments, which he said were "irresponsible behaviour." "Probably Vinicius is more right than we think and we all need to do more about racism," Rubiales said. Brazil's government calls for action against 'episodes of racism' Brazil's government has meanwhile condemned what it said were "recurring episodes of racism" against Vinicius. The Foreign Ministry called in a Monday statement on sponsors and the government to take action. "Taking into account the seriousness of the facts and the occurrence of yet another inadmissible episode, the Brazilian government deeply regrets that, until now, effective measures have not been taken to prevent and avoid the repetition of these acts of racism," the statement said. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addressed the incident during a press conference on the G7 meeting. He called on FIFA, the Spanish league and other football leagues to take serious action "because we cannot allow fascism and racism to take over football stadiums." Vinicius was slammed a Red Card toward the end of the Sunday game with Valencia, after a mass altercation. Brazil's Foreign Ministry also condemned the Sunday incident as "racism," suggesting that the player's sending off was a racist act.  Addressing a seminar on African partnership on Monday, Brazil's Secretary General for Foreign Relations Maria Laura da Rocha said fans have "persistently" exercised racism against the Brazilian footballer.  "Vinicius Jr received a red card for not enduring all that. The red card should have been given to racism," she said. Another Vinicius complaint  Under Spanish laws, people convicted of racist behavior can be fined up to €4,000 ($4,403) and banned from stadiums for a year. But the country's penal code makes it difficult to prosecute such incidents in the first place.  Last September, prosecutors dropped a complaint of racist chants against Vinicius during another game. Prosecutors said at the time that the chants, which were fans calling him a "monkey," had "only lasted a few seconds."  According to the Interior Ministry, only three cases of racist acts were investigated during the 2021-22 season. With 23 goals this season, Vinicius is Real Madrid's second top scorer this season, behind Karim Benzema, who has scored 29 goals.  

The last Copa del Rey title was won by Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2014. After 9 years, Real Madrid wins the Copa del Rey title.  Los Blancos won the last Copa del Rey title in 2014 under Carlo Ancelotti. They got their title back to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium exactly after 9 years later. This time too, Carlo Ancelotti is the mastermind for Los Blancos. On Saturday, May 6, the victory of Real Madrid over Osasuna was 2-1 margin at Sevilla's Estadio de Olimpico stadium. Brazilian star Rodrygo Silva de Goes scored the both goals. And Lucas Torró Marset scored the only goal for Osasuna. Real suppressed Osasuna from the beginning of the match. It didn't take long to get the results for Real madrid.  Real Madrid scored their first goal in the second minute of the match. Brazilian forward Rodrygo did not make a mistake to score with a great pass from another Brazilian star forward Vinicius Junior.  The is the fastest goal for Real Madrid in the history Copa del Rey final in last 77 years. Which is also a record. After conceding a quick goal Club Atlético Osasuna also did the counter-attack.  In the 26th minute of the match, Real right back Daniel Carvajal Ramos saved Abdessamad Ezzalzouli's shot from the goal line. Then in the 32nd minute, Real could have scored from a free kick. But centre back David Olatukunbo Alaba's shot missed the net. The ball comes back from the goal post.  After that, Real Madrid went to the break with an one goal lead as they couldn't do any attack in the rest of the time of the first half of the match. CA Osasuna didn't take too much time to equalize after the break.  Osasuna equalized in the 58th minute of the match with Toro's long-range shot. After that, Real Madrid tried to score more. It was not too late to get the result.  At the 70th minute of the match, Real Madrid scored another goal. Toni Kroos long-range shot hit opponent defender's leg and Rodrygo got the ball and scored. So, Real Madrid won the Copa de Rey title with a 2-1 goal as they did not create any significant attacks in the rest of the period of the match. 

India and Bangladesh's first cross-border oil pipeline is the real manifestation of the wonderful friendship that these two countries share, Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner Andalib Elias said on Tuesday. "That's a real manifestation of the wonderful friendship that these two countries enjoy and the deep relationship of trust and mutual respect that the two Prime Ministers have with each other," Elias said. This statement came after Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina would jointly open the first cross-border oil pipeline on March 18 for transportation of diesel to Bangladesh, stated Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS). Confirming the news, the Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner said, "PM Modi and my PM Sheikh Hasina first initiated this pipeline a few years ago. On 18th March, it will be formally launched. The oil will start going through it. That's a huge step forward in the wonderful friendship that we have." Earlier, on Thursday, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister told reporters at a briefing, "Good news is India will send us diesel . . . the (Oil) pipeline has been completed." He added: "The two premiers will inaugurate the pipeline on March 18 (through video conferencing)." Momen's announcement came a week after he held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting last week, as per BSS. According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), officials in India would export diesel through the 130-km India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL), built at a cost of about 3.46 billion INR drawn from the Indian line of credit (LoC). The pipeline stretches 125 km inside Bangladesh territory and 5 km inside India while the two premiers joined the ground-breaking ceremony for the IBFPL in September 2018 through video conferencing. Bangladesh used to import diesel from India through railway carriages. The foreign minister said he also urged New Delhi to ensure an uninterrupted supply of essential products to Bangladesh, reported BSS. Momen said India gave high respect to the Bangladesh delegation throughout the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting reflecting the excellent Dhaka-Delhi bilateral relations.  Source: ANI

Many commentators in Pakistan believe that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry's arrest is the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government's tactic to distract people from the real issues plaguing the country, Inside Over reported. For the PTI, the leader's detention is a good excuse to play the 'victim' card and garner public support. In all this, Pakistan is facing more political unrest amidst a failing economy. The arrest followed Chaudhry's public criticism of the PDM government for allegedly planning to arrest former prime minister and PTI chief, Imran Khan. Chaudhry's arrest has strongly signalled that Pakistan's powerful military establishment may not support Imran Khan and his party in the upcoming provincial elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Inside Over. Imran Khan, following Chaudhry's arrest on January 25, called on Pakistan's judiciary to protect the fundamental rights of his party leaders. He made it clear that he would continue challenging the people behind his controversial ouster from power. Meanwhile, Geo-politik reported that Pakistan is currently at the beginning of the worst economic crisis since the country's formation in 1947. Pakistan may face a disaster like never before unless China or Saudi Arabia bail out the country. The Pakistani rupee has plummeted to PKR 250 against the dollar, and the currency had to forego 12 per cent of its value. The country's government has raised the price of petrol and diesel by Pak Rs 35 per litre.  Source: ANI