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☆ BBC won’t be ‘put off’ covering India by tax raids and censorship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —The BBC says it will not be “put off” from reporting in India after the government prevented a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from airing in the country and raided the broadcaster’s offices. Indian tax authorities spent three days searching BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai last week. We won’t be put off from that task”Davie added that the BBC “does not have an agenda.”Indian authorities have accused the BBC of tax evasion. Modi was accused of not doing enough to stop the violence, which killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. — Swati Gupta and Manveena Suri in New Delhi, Olesya Dmitracova and Martin Goillandeau in London, and Alex Stambaugh in Hong Kong contributed reporting.

Some staff members were asked to remain at the offices overnight on Tuesday, the BBC said. But the offices are now open for people to enter and leave as needed. A special investigation team appointed by India’s Supreme Court in 2012 found no evidence to suggest he was to blame. India’s main opposition Congress party described the ongoing tax searches at the BBC offices as a “brazen attack” on India’s free press. The raids raised fears of censorship in India, with several media organizations issuing statements condemning the government’s actions.

BBC News reported on television that people had not been allowed to enter or leave the offices. The raids come after the Indian government said it used “emergency powers” to block the documentary from airing in the country, adding that both YouTube and Twitter complied with the order. A BBC spokesperson told CNN that the organization was “fully cooperating” with authorities. The two-part documentary “India: The Modi Question” criticized the then-chief minister of the western state of Gujarat in 2002 when riots broke out between the state’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims. But the riots remain one of the darkest chapters in India’s post-independence history, with some victims still awaiting justice.

☆ Adani crisis: Billionaire scrambles to reassure creditors as market rout enters third week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The loans were backed by shares in Adani Ports, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission, which have collapsed in value. While the Adani Group has vehemently denied the allegation made by Hindenburg Resarch as “baseless” and “malicious,” investors remain unconvinced. Adani companies will be reporting quarterly results this week. Moody’s said Friday that the plunge in the shares of Adani companies was likely to reduce the group’s ability to raise capital. Another agency, S&P, cut the outlook for its ratings on two companies, Adani Ports and Adani Electricity, to negative from stable, citing the risk of higher funding costs or reduced access to capital.

New Delhi CNN —India has banned a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged role in deadly riots more than 20 years ago from being shown in the country, in a move critics decried as an assault on press freedom. CNN has contacted Twitter and YouTube for comment but is yet to hear back. The two-part documentary “India: The Modi Question,” criticizes Modi, who was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat in 2002 when riots broke out between the state’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims. The Indian government had declined to reply when contacted by the BBC, the statement added. The documentary explores an unpublished British government report obtained by the BBC, which the British public broadcaster said came in the form of a diplomatic cable.

CNN —An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude hit Indonesia’s West Java province on Saturday, the country’s geophysics agency BMKG said. According to the BMKG, the epicenter of the earthquake was on land and there is no potential for a tsunami. “In response to the earthquake that happened earlier, once again, remain calm, alert but there is no need to stop your daily activities,” Suharyanto said. It comes after a deadly magnitude-5.6 earthquake shook West Java on November 21, with a final death toll of 334. Suharyanto said 56,320 houses were damaged in that quake, more than a third of them badly.

CNN —A British comedian appeared to shred £10,000 ($11,000) in a video after failing to receive a response from David Beckham over his controversial role as a Qatar World Cup ambassador. On Sunday, Joe Lycett began tweeting an hourly countdown until his UK midday deadline (7am ET). At 12 pm GMT, he posted a video of himself shredding the money on www.benderslikebeckham.com, a website Lycett had been tweeting links to. CNN reached out to his representatives after Lycett appeared to shred money, but did not receive a response at time of publication. A Qatari official told CNN that the HRW allegations “contain information that is categorically and unequivocally false.”The 2022 World Cup in Qatar begins on Sunday.

CNN —More than 50 children are among 135 people killed in Sunday’s bridge collapse in India’s Gujarat state, according to a list of victims published by state authorities on Wednesday. Rescue workers conduct search operations after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. A shoe lies near a damaged suspension bridge in Morbi, India, November 1, 2022. Mourners take part in a funeral procession while carrying the coffins of victims who died after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the deadly bridge collapse in western India on Tuesday.

The WHO suspects that four of the syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup – have “unacceptable amounts” of chemicals that can damage the brain, lungs, liver and kidneys of those who take them. The deaths confounded medics until a pattern emerged: dozens of patients younger than five had fallen ill three to five days after taking a locally sold syrup made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals. CNN has reached out to Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, but has not yet heard back. All of the children had consumed Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ cough syrups, authorities added. One official told Reuters that the total number of deaths nationwide was “still being determined.”Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said this week that the cough syrups had not been registered in the country.

India has long grappled with an epidemic of violence against women and girls in the deeply patriarchal country. And campaigners say the alleged involvement of a woman in this latest case demonstrates the scale of internalized misogyny in society. ‘Loopholes in every corner’Dixit, the police official, said the alleged rape took place around three months ago in Mainpuri – about 270 kilometers (167 miles) southeast of India’s capital, New Delhi. But activists say in the seven years since its implementation, little has been done to empower women and girls, and violent crimes against women persist. Those beliefs appear to have played out in this case too, as the girl did not report her alleged rape for three months, according to Dixit.

New Delhi CNN —A 12-year-old boy is in “critical condition” after he was allegedly gang-raped and beaten in India’s capital New Delhi, according to a statement from the city’s police and a complaint lodged by the boy’s family to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Sain said in a video statement the alleged assault was carried out by three males – all minors known to the victim – including a family relative. The DCW is a statutory authority appointed to investigate matters concerning the security and safety of women under Delhi law. The case is under investigation, and two of the accused have been arrested, Sain said in the video statement. Protests in India against the high incidence of sexual assault, typically against women and girls, have become commonplace in recent years.

New Delhi CNN —Movie theaters in Indian-controlled Kashmir have reopened their doors, more than two decades after they were forced shut during an armed rebellion that saw multiple threats and attacks on crowded public places. The lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, inaugurated the disputed region’s newest cinema on Tuesday, in a ceremony marked with much hype and fanfare. The movie theater will open to the public on September 30, according to businessman, Vijay Dhar, who has partnered with Indian cinema chain Inox Leisure Ltd., to open the theater in Srinagar. In the late 1980s, a violent insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed the lives of more than 9,000 civilians according to the Indian government, though estimates vary. Last year, the government implemented a policy aimed to promote Indian-controlled Kashmir as a popular filming destination.

It would take effect alongside the European Union’s next batch of sanctions, which include a ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil starting in early December. Russia had already threatened to retaliate by banning oil exports to countries that implement a price cap. The Biden administration has been pushing for governments to introduce a price cap for months. The price at which Russian oil will be capped still needs to be hashed out. But the US Treasury official noted they would be more expensive, raising incentives for buyers to opt in to the price cap system.

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