The man behind Tauranga's failed Bella Vista development is fighting a New Zealand High Court challenge to declare him bankrupt, promising the court he has a plan to pay back a $1 million debt to a building materials supplier, the New Zealand Herald reported. Danny Cancian, former director of the now-liquidated Bella Vista Homes company, shed tears as he appeared via audio-visual link in the High Court at Tauranga yesterday. The 21-home Bella Vista development in The Lakes was evacuated by Tauranga City Council in 2018 over claims of construction deficiencies.

Sri Lanka's government imposed a weekend curfew on Saturday, even as hundreds of lawyers urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to revoke a state of emergency introduced following unrest over fuel and other shortages in a deep economic crisis, Reuters reported. The government's information department said a countrywide curfew would run from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday. Rajapaksa introduced a state of emergency on Friday, raising fears of a crackdown on protests.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered initiation of insolvency proceedings against realty firm Santasha Real Estate, the Business Standard reported. The order came on a plea filed by Vani Advertising, an operational creditor to the company that has claimed a default of Rs 40.77 lakh. Admitting the plea, a two-member New Delhi bench of the NCLT appointed an interim resolution professional after suspending the board of the real estate firm.

Thailand's economic activity in March came under pressure from rising coronavirus infections and higher inflation driven by increasing energy prices, after a recovery in the previous month, the central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Overall business activity was steady in March, while the baht depreciated following an escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) said. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy should, however, remain on the recovery path, senior BOT director Chayawadee Chai-Anant told a news conference.

Hong Kong's retail sales fell in February after 12 straight months of growth as a wave or COVID-19 infections hit the city and anti-epidemic measures weakened consumer sentiment and reduced the numbers of people going to shop, Reuters reported. Retail sales in February fell 14.6% from a year earlier to HK$25.2 billion ($3.22 billion), official data released on Thursday showed. That compares with a revised 4% increase in January and a 13.7% fall in last decline in January 2021. It is the steepest decline since July 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, when sales dropped 23.1%.

A quartet of outside law firms and accountants will help probe how banks ended up taking control of more than $2 billion at a key China Evergrande Group subsidiary, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last week, the highly indebted Chinese real-estate developer and its Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd. unit said lenders had enforced their rights over 13.4 billion yuan, or about $2.1 billion, of bank deposits pledged by the subsidiary to guarantee third-party borrowing.

As millions of people in Shanghai line up for coronavirus tests, authorities are promising tax refunds for shopkeepers in the closed-down metropolis and to keep the world's busiest port functioning to limit disruption to industry and trade, the Associated Press reported. This week's shutdown of most activity in China's most populous city to contain virus outbreaks jolted global financial markets that already were on edge about Russia's war on Ukraine, higher U.S. interest rates and a Chinese economic slowdown.

The war in Ukraine is making a bad situation worse for Japanese power providers struggling with the energy crisis, forcing more companies to quit the business, the Japan Times reported. In the last month, at least four companies halted power retail operations, as a surge in wholesale electricity prices makes it challenging to procure stable supply and turn a profit. At least seven temporarily halted taking on new customers for some plans. For the fiscal year ending Thursday, 14 Japanese power companies have filed for bankruptcy, according to Teikoku Databank.

The president of Britain’s Supreme Court said Wednesday that he and a colleague were stepping down from their roles on Hong Kong’s highest court because the administration of the Chinese territory had “departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression,” the New York Times reported. Their resignations will heighten scrutiny of Hong Kong’s British-style legal system, which the former British colony kept even after it returned to Chinese control in 1997.

Indian private lender Axis Bank has decided to bulk up its credit card and retail businesses with a $1.6-billion purchase of Citigroup Inc.'s local consumer banking arm, Reuters reported. The deal announced on Wednesday is Axis Bank's largest by far and would expand its credit card customer base by 31%, narrowing the gap with the third-biggest player ICICI Bank.