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The severe downpours have also left 2,400 tourists stranded in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim. Six people died in India’s Sikkim state and another four died from a landslide in neighboring Nepal’s Koshi province, according to officials. Bordered between Bhutan and Nepal, the northeastern state of Sikkim is known for its scenic Himalayan landscapes, boasting 28 mountain peaks, 21 glaciers and more than 200 lakes. The mountainous terrain of northeastern India is prone to landslides. ANI/ReutersChettri said approximately 2,400 tourists are stranded in various tourist spots in the state after landslides covered roads with debris and heavy rainfall damaged some bridges.

Persons: “, Hem Kumar Chettri, Chettri, ” Organizations: CNN, India’s Meteorological Department, Neighboring Locations: India, Nepal, Indian, Sikkim, Six, India’s Sikkim, Nepal’s Koshi, Bhutan, Government, Kalimpong, West Bengal, Neighboring West Bengal, Delhi

☆ India’s time zone: Why the world’s most populous country has a unique one
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

India’s half-hour zone dates back to colonial rule of India and the era when ever-faster steamships and trains were shrinking the world. The start of the 20th century saw some push from scientific associations to calibrate India’s time to GMT. That recommendation was rejected by the colonial government, which opted for a unified time that sat squarely in the middle: five and a half hours ahead of GMT. In 2015, North Korea moved out of sync with South Korea by creating “Pyongyang Time,” putting the country eight and a half hours ahead of GMT instead of nine. India’s colonial-era time zone decision making, however, reflected a chorus of political, scientific and commercial voices both from within the government and outside of it, Gordon says.

Persons: Hulton, ”, Geoff Gordon, Gordon, “, it’s, Wong Maye, Hugo Chávez, Nicolas Maduro, Terry Gilliam, Rube Goldberg, Maulik Jagnani, Jagnani Organizations: CNN, East India Company, Hulton Deutsch, University of Amsterdam, Madras, Washington D.C, Greenwich Meridian, Greenwich Observatory, Meridian, Royal Society, Prime Meridian, Physical Laboratory, Tufts University, NPL Locations: New York, London, Tokyo, Iran, Myanmar, Australia, India, British, Madras, Chennai, “, Bombay, Kolkata, Washington, London ., Greenwich, North Korea, South Korea, Korea, Pyongyang, Brazil, ”, Greenwich , London, China, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat

☆ India election 2024: The indelible ink behind the world’s biggest election
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Election Commission uses indelible ink, or “voter ink”, to prevent fraud or duplicate votes. Sujit Jaiswal/AFP/Getty ImagesMore than 960 million people are eligible to vote in India’s election, the world’s biggest. “Indelible ink serves no other purpose,” said Irfan. The company now supplies indelible ink to more than 35 countries, including to Ghana beginning in the late 1970s. However, Ghana’s election commission recently announced it would phase out the use of indelible ink, opting for biometric verification methods instead.

Persons: CNN CNN —, ”, K Mohammed Irfan, Manish Swarup, Deepika Padukone, Sujit Jaiswal, Irfan, “, Ornit Shani, Shani, ” Shani, Prakash Singh, MVPL, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, Mukulika Banerjee, Rakesh Nair, Banerjee, haven’t, ‘ I’ve Organizations: CNN CNN, CNN, Getty, Universal, Bloomberg, London School of Economics, Reuters “ Locations: Neemrana, India, Mumbai, AFP, Mysuru, Karnataka, Chennai, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, Mysore, Ghana, West Bengal

☆ Cash, drugs and booze among record election bribes seized by India
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A record quantity of bribes, including cash, booze, drugs and precious metals, has been seized by Indian election authorities in the run-up to mammoth nationwide polls that begin on Friday. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday revealed it had recovered inducements worth just over $550 million since March — the largest amount in the country’s 75-year electoral history. It marks a “sharp increase” on the more than $400 million in bribes seized by the ECI in the country’s last general election in 2019, the agency said. India’s political parties and leaders routinely preach against election corruption and inducements, but the level of monitoring and tackling of graft across such a vast nation varies widely. Anti-corruption groups had long complained that the system meant a lack of transparency in donations to political parties — allowing corporations to donate large sums without disclosure.

Persons: Narendra Modi, gratis, Modi, ” Organizations: CNN, of India, Bharatiya Janta Party, BJP, “, Indian National Congress, India, Kazakhstan, India’s, Bank of India Locations: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Lok, Maldives

☆ Why New Zealand spent a small fortune to kill one stoat
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Introduced predators kill about 25 million native birds in New Zealand annually, with about 4,000 native species threatened or at risk of extinction, according to the DOC. Under the program, the government plans to eradicate rats, possums (a marsupial native to the Americas), weasels, ferrets — and the pesky stoat. Chalky Island and the neighboring Passage Islands have been predator-free since 1999 following the first ever stoat eradication campaign, according to the DOC. And for Fleming, the recent stoat incursion only underscores the importance of the Predator Free 2050 plan. “If we eradicate stoats from Aotearoa (New Zealand) completely we remove the costs of incursions, and our wildlife can thrive alongside us,” he said.

Persons: Rebecca Teele, ”, Aaron Fleming, Liu Yang, RNZ, —, pesky, Carolyn M, King, hitlist, Stephan Morris, stoats, stoats ”, Fleming Organizations: CNN, country’s Department of Conservation, New, Zealand, New Zealand Taxpayers ’ Union, Southern, New Zealand, University of Waikato Locations: New Zealand, Fiordland, Eurasia, North America, “, New, Americas, Aotearoa

☆ ‘It felt so wrong’: Chumbawamba wants New Zealand politician to stop playing ‘Tubthumping’ at rallies
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But those headlines were soon eclipsed by Chumbawamba publicly condemning Peters’ use of its song. “Everything that Peters stands for is counter to Chumbawamba’s world view,” the band’s founding member and former vocalist, Dunstan Bruce, told CNN. Chumbawamba, which broke up in 2012, has asked its former record company, Sony Music Publishing, to issue a cease-and-desist letter to New Zealand First. In response to CNN’s request for comment, New Zealand First Party President Julian Paul said the party had nothing further to add. “As we rise, the dirt will start all over again,” he said during a party convention in July, according to a transcript published by New Zealand First.

Persons: Winston Peters strode, Peters, ” Peters, Chumbawamba, Dunstan Bruce, Winston Peters, Hagen Hopkins, ” Chumbawamba, “ Tubthumping, ”, Bruce, “, Peter Dungate, ” It’s, Eminem, Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Pharrell Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Nigel Farage, Hutton Supancic, Julian Paul, Emmanuel Heisbourg, Heisbourg, “ tubthumping, You’re, — Peters, ‘ Organizations: CNN, New Zealand First, Labour, New, National, ACT, New Zealand, General Motors, Sony Music Publishing, APRA, NZ, New Zealand’s National Party, rapper’s, Republican, Independence Party, UKIP, Southwest, SXSW UKIP, University of Montreal Locations: Palmerston, British, Nazi Germany, New, New Zealand

☆ Uber: Taxi drivers in Australia win $179 million from ride-sharing giant
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —Uber will pay more than 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers in Australia almost 272 million Australian dollars ($179 million) in compensation for losses they suffered after the ride-sharing giant entered the country in 2012, lawyers representing the drivers said Monday. It has also made “significant contributions to various state-level taxi compensation schemes” in Australia since 2018, according to the company. Uber now teams up with taxi drivers in many countries. “This caused loss of income to authorized taxi drivers and operators, and hire car operators. In a statement on its website, Uber Australia said ride-sharing regulations did not exist anywhere in the world when it launched more than a decade ago.

Persons: London CNN — Uber, Maurice Blackburn, Uber, ” Maurice Blackburn, “, ” Uber, —, ”, Elizabeth O’Shea, Letitia James, Lyft, Dhruv Tikekar Organizations: London CNN, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, New York Locations: Australia, — Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, United States, United Kingdom, York

☆ Cat’s fall into vat of hazardous chemicals sparks health warning in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Dhruv Tikekar | Mai Nishiyama | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Tokyo CNN —A city in Japan is on high alert for a cat that fell into a tank of hazardous chemicals before disappearing into the night. A trail of pawprints discovered by a worker on Monday led to a 3-meter-deep vat of hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical that can induce rashes and inflammation if touched or inhaled, officials said. Akihiro Kobayashi, manager of the Nomura Mekki Fukuyama factory, said a sheet covering the chemical vat was found partially torn when employees returned to work after the weekend. Hexavalent chromium, or Chromium-6, is perhaps best known as the carcinogenic chemical featured in the 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts. “Workers may be harmed from exposure to hexavalent chromium,” the CDC says on its website.

Persons: Akihiro Kobayashi, Nomura Mekki Fukuyama, Kobayashi, Erin Brockovich, ”, Julia Roberts Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Fukuyama City, Nomura Mekki, Workers, Factory, US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, “ Workers Locations: Japan, Fukuyama , Hiroshima prefecture, Fukuyama, California

CNN —The death toll from a fire in a five-story building in central Johannesburg has risen to 63, according to the city’s emergency services. The fire has now been extinguished, rescue officials said, and emergency services are conducting recovery operations. The building in central Johannesburg as seen on the morning of August 31, 2023. Johannesburg’s emergency services confirmed that the fire had been reported at around 1:30 a.m. local time Thursday. “Officials from City of Johannesburg Disaster Management have been activated to start facilitating relief for affected families,” it added.

Persons: Robert Mulaudzi, Mulaudzi, Michele Spatari Organizations: CNN, City of, City of Johannesburg Disaster Management Locations: Johannesburg, AFP, City, City of Johannesburg

The male cheetah, named Tejas, was one of 12 that were relocated from South Africa earlier this year, CNN News18 said. The relocation was part of a historic project to reintroduce cheetahs to India after they went extinct in the country 70 years ago. In March, Namibian cheetah Sasha died of kidney disease, and in April, South African cheetah Uday died due to cardiac failure. Just weeks later, South African cheetah Daksha died after a violent encounter with male cheetahs during a mating attempt. One Namibian cheetah relocated to India as part of a reintroduction program died from kidney infection.

Persons: CNN — India’s, CNN News18, Sasha, Uday, Daksha, Bhupender Yadav, ”, It’s, ” Yadav, Eli Walker Organizations: CNN, CNN News18, Tejas, India’s, Times, Cheetah Conservation, Cheetahs, Cheetah Conservation Fund Locations: Madhya Pradesh, South Africa, India, Namibia, Namibian, East, Saharan Africa, Africa

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