India’s ‘Coffee King’ Found Dead Amid Financial Troubles - The New York Times

NEW DELHI — V.G. Siddhartha, a wealthy tycoon who beat Starbucks to dominate India’s retail coffee industry but faced personal financial troubles, was found dead on Wednesday, the police said.

The police had carried out an exhaustive search for Mr. Siddhartha, founder of the popular chain Cafe Coffee Day, who was last seen Monday evening on a waterfront bridge outside the coastal city of Mangaluru, in southern India. Fishermen spotted his body floating near the shoreline on Wednesday morning.

Hanumantharaya, a senior police official who goes by one name, said the police were still investigating the cause of death.

Mr. Siddhartha, whose family has been in the coffee business for 130 years, became one of the world’s biggest traders after opening Cafe Coffee Day in 1996, earning him the nickname “the coffee king of India.” The company and its subsidiaries, which recently expanded to other countries in Asia and Europe, employ more than 30,000 people.

But Cafe Coffee Day and its parent organization, Coffee Day Enterprises, were thrown into turmoil in 2017, when the Indian tax authorities raided company offices. They said they had found undisclosed transactions and illegal income, which Mr. Siddhartha denied.

This year, the company’s stock took another hit as Mr. Siddhartha struggled to pay various lenders, leading to a liquidity crunch.

Mr. Siddhartha, his wife, Malavika Hegde, and companies affiliated with them held over 50 percent of the equity in Coffee Day Enterprises.

On Tuesday, the company released a copy of a letter, purportedly written by Mr. Siddhartha, that was addressed to the board of directors. The letter, which appears on Mr. Siddhartha’s letterhead and bears his signature, said that he was facing “a lot of harassment” from the tax authorities, and that he took responsibility for “all mistakes.”

“The law should hold me and only me accountable,” the letter says. “My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur.”

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Mr. Siddhartha at one of his Cafe Coffee Day stores in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in 2015. The tax authorities raided company offices in 2017.CreditSam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Business owners in India have long had a tense relationship with the tax authorities. High-profile cases of corruption and fraud by tycoons have engendered public distrust toward entrepreneurs. But critics say that in the name of getting tough on cheats, the authorities sometimes resort to harassment to collect on tax demands, including from honest citizens.

The result is frustration on all sides. The government struggles to collect the tax revenue it needs to fund social programs and build roads and power lines. Businesses struggle to comply with vague tax rules and burdensome enforcement practices. And multinational companies shy away from investing in India, fearful of becoming embroiled in lengthy disputes.

The country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has for years promised to untangle the knot. Campaigning for election ahead of his first term in office in 2014, Mr. Modi’s party inveighed against the “tax terrorism” that it said had soured India’s image in the eyes of big foreign companies.

Since taking power, the Modi government has enacted a national value-added tax that was meant to ease the compliance burden for businesses. Mr. Modi’s surprise decision in 2016 to cancel high-denomination currency notes was intended to force tax dodgers to turn over the cash they had squirreled away to avoid taxes.

But many of the root problems remain, even as institutions such as the World Bank have acknowledged the steps India has taken to make it easier to do business.

The police said that Mr. Siddhartha, who was in his late 50s or early 60s, had told his family he was going to a holiday resort on Monday. But he then asked his driver to take him to Mangaluru, about 200 miles from the company’s headquarters in Bangalore.

As evening set in, Mr. Siddhartha asked the driver to stop near the 30-foot Netravati River bridge outside the city, saying he wanted to walk.

According to local news reports, Mr. Siddhartha asked the driver to meet him on the other side of the bridge and then got on a call. When Mr. Siddhartha did not show up or answer his phone, which was switched off, the driver filed a police report.

After Mr. Siddhartha’s body was recovered, shares in Coffee Day Enterprises fell nearly 20 percent. Calls to the company’s headquarters in Bangalore were not answered on Wednesday, and its stores were ordered closed for the day.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sadananda Poojary, the company secretary and compliance officer, said that Coffee Day Enterprises was cooperating with the Indian authorities and that the company was “professionally managed and led by competent leadership.”

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2019-07-31 10:26:53Z
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The body of Indian coffee tycoon V.G. Siddhartha has been found - CNN

Police confirmed on Wednesday that they had recovered the body of V.G. Siddhartha, founder of Café Coffee Day, from a river in the coastal city of Mangalore.

Coffee Day Enterprises — the chain's parent company — issued a statement expressing its condolences to Siddhartha's family and hailing his "matchless energy, vision and business acumen."

In a letter purportedly written and signed by Siddhartha, which Coffee Day released on Tuesday evening, the coffee tycoon said he was facing "tremendous pressure" from lenders that led to him "succumbing to the situation." The letter was dated July 27.

"I would like to say I gave it my all," the letter says. "I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me."

Siddhartha, 59, had "not been reachable" since Monday evening, Coffee Day said Tuesday. He is believed to have disappeared from a bridge over the Netravati river, where he got out of his car to take a walk, Mangalore police commissioner Sandeep Patil told CNN Business.

Siddhartha founded Coffee Day in 1993, and opened the first Café Coffee Day in the southern city of Bangalore three years later. The company has since grown into India's biggest coffee chain, with over 1,700 outlets across 245 Indian cities as of last year. By comparison, global rival Starbucks (SBUX) currently has 146 outlets in India.

In the letter, Siddhartha urged Coffee Day to continue running the business with new management.

"I am solely responsible for all mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility," he wrote.

Coffee Day said it could not verify the authenticity of the letter, but added it would thoroughly investigate. It named S.V. Ranganath, an independent director, as interim chairman on Wednesday.

The company's shares fell by the maximum daily limit of 20% for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, hitting a new all-time low.

Siddhartha owned 33% of Coffee Day Enterprises, according to a stock exchange filing last month, while his wife and family-owned entities hold another 21%. The company went public in 2015.

Coffee Day also has retail outlets in Austria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Malaysia and Nepal, and exports coffee to several markets including North America, Europe and the Middle East.

In the letter, Siddhartha listed the coffee chain as well as several other assets — including stakes in multiple tech companies and logistics firm Sical — that he said "can help repay everybody."

"My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody, I have failed as an entrepreneur," he added. "I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me."

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2019-07-31 08:06:00Z
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Bus strikes roadside bomb in Afghanistan, 32 killed, including children - Fox News

A roadside bomb tore through a bus in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 32 people, including women and children, a provincial official said.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said on Twitter that the Taliban planted the mine. He said all of the victims were civilians.

Mohibullah Mohib, spokesman for the police chief in Farah province, said 15 other people were wounded, with most in critical condition. The bus was traveling on a main highway between the western city of Herat and the southern city of Kandahar.

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No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Taliban insurgents operate in the region and frequently use roadside bombs to target government officials and security forces. The Taliban have kept up a steady tempo of attacks even as they have held several rounds of peace talks with the United States aimed at ending the 18-year war.

The U.N. report said 403 civilians were killed by Afghan forces in the first six months of the year and another 314 by international forces, a total of 717. That's compared to 531 killed by the Taliban, an Islamic State affiliate and other militants during the same period. It said 300 of those killed by militants were directly targeted.

The Taliban, who effectively control half the country, have been meeting with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad since late last year. They appear to be closing in on an agreement whereby American forces would withdraw from Afghanistan in return for guarantees that it would not be used as a launch-pad for international terror attacks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report 

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2019-07-31 05:56:41Z
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Sign of the times: China's capital orders Arabic, Muslim symbols taken down - Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Authorities in the Chinese capital have ordered halal restaurants and food stalls to remove Arabic script and symbols associated with Islam from their signs, part of an expanding national effort to “Sinicize” its Muslim population.

The Arabic script on the signboard of a halal food store is seen covered, at Niujie area in Beijing, China, July 19, 2019. Picture taken July 19, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

Employees at 11 restaurants and shops in Beijing selling halal products and visited by Reuters in recent days said officials had told them to remove images associated with Islam, such as the crescent moon and the word “halal” written in Arabic, from signs.

Government workers from various offices told one manager of a Beijing noodle shop to cover up the “halal” in Arabic on his shop’s sign, and then watched him do it.

“They said this is foreign culture and you should use more Chinese culture,” said the manager, who, like all restaurant owners and employees who spoke to Reuters, declined to give his name due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The campaign against Arabic script and Islamic images marks a new phase of a drive that has gained momentum since 2016, aimed at ensuring religions conform with mainstream Chinese culture.

The campaign has included the removal of Middle Eastern-style domes on many mosques around the country in favor of Chinese-style pagodas.

China, home to 20 million Muslims, officially guarantees freedom of religion, but the government has campaigned to bring the faithful into line with Communist Party ideology.

It’s not just Muslims who have come under scrutiny. Authorities have shut down many underground Christian churches, and torn down crosses of some churches deemed illegal by the government.

But Muslims have come in for particular attention since a riot in 2009 between mostly Muslim Uighur people and majority Han Chinese in the far western region of Xinjiang, home to the Uighur minority.

Spasms of ethnic violence followed, and some Uighurs, chafing at government controls, carried out knife and crude bomb attacks in public areas and against the police and other authorities.

In response, China launched what it described as a crackdown on terrorism in Xinjiang.

Now, it is facing intense criticism from Western nations and rights groups over its policies, in particular mass detentions and surveillance of Uighurs and other Muslims there.

The government says its actions in Xinjiang are necessary to stamp out religious extremism. Officials have warned about creeping Islamisation, and have extended tighter controls over other Muslim minorities.

‘NEW NORMAL’

Analysts say the ruling Communist Party is concerned that foreign influences can make religious groups difficult to control.

“Arabic is seen as a foreign language and knowledge of it is now seen as something outside of the control of the state,” said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Washington who studies Xinjiang.

“It is also seen as connected to international forms of piety, or in the eyes of state authorities, religious extremism. They want Islam in China to operate primarily through Chinese language,” he said.

Kelly Hammond, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas who studies Muslims of the Hui minority in China, said the measures were part of a “drive to create a new normal”.

Beijing is home to at least 1,000 halal shops and restaurants, according to the Meituan Dianping food delivery app, spread across the city’s historic Muslim quarter as well as in other neighborhoods.

It was not clear if every such restaurant in Beijing has been told to cover Arabic script and Muslim symbols. One manager at a restaurant still displaying Arabic said he’d been ordered to remove it but was waiting for his new signs.

Several bigger shops visited by Reuters replaced their signs with the Chinese term for halal - “qing zhen” - while others merely covered up the Arabic and Islamic imagery with tape or stickers.

The Beijing government’s Committee on Ethnicity and Religious affairs declined to comment, saying the order regarding halal restaurants was a national directive.

Slideshow (7 Images)

The National Ethnic Affairs Commission did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

While most shopkeepers interviewed by Reuters said they did not mind replacing their signs, some said it confused their customers and an employee at a halal butcher shop accused authorities of “erasing” Muslim culture.

“They are always talking about national unity, they’re always talking about China being international. Is this national unity?”

Reporting by Huizhong Wu; Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Se Young Lee and Tony Munroe

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-07-31 05:56:00Z
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China Abruptly Announces It’s Totally Released Most of the Estimated 1 Million Muslims Held in Internment Camps - Slate

This photo taken on June 4 shows a facility believed to be a reeducation camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, north of Akto in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

Greg Baker/Getty Images

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The Chinese government made the unexpected announcement Tuesday that it had released most of the minority Muslims being held in controversial internment camps across the country’s Xinjiang region. Two regional leaders told the media that as many as 90 percent of the ethnic Muslims being held had left the so-called reeducation camps, been given jobs, and “returned to society.” The government has offered no evidence of the release and has long refused to provide much information about the heavily guarded camps that have sparked international condemnation. Experts estimate the number of minority Muslims interned in Xinjiang tops 1 million.

The abrupt announcement comes as international criticism has ratcheted up over Beijing’s sweeping detentions in the region to stamp out simmering separatist aspirations and assimilate the some 12 million ethnic Uighurs living there. During a press conference Tuesday, government officials toed the line from Beijing insisting that the camps were vocational training centers, going so far as to call the detainees “students.” “Tuesday’s briefing—which was paired with an exhibition profiling Xinjiang as a travel destination and featuring performances by ethnic-minority musicians and dancers in traditional garb—is part of China’s campaign to counter Western-led criticism of its treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Gathering evidence to test their claims of numerous releases from the camps is likely to be difficult,” the New York Times reports. “Foreign journalists are closely monitored and controlled when they visit Xinjiang, and independent investigators and human rights groups do not have free access.”

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2019-07-30 14:16:00Z
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Murder in Italy: Rome police say officers "attacked immediately" by American teens Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth - CBS News

Last Updated Jul 30, 2019 7:47 AM EDT

Rome -- A commander of Italy's Carabinieri police force said Tuesday that two American teens accused of murdering an Italian officer set upon the officer and his partner as soon as they approached the pair and identified themselves as law enforcement. Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth are facing charges of murder and extortion in the stabbing death of Mario Cerciello Rega. The murder charges carry possible life prison sentences.

Providing further detail of the events that unfolded in the Friday killing last week, Carabinieri Commander Francesco Gargano said officers Mario Cerciello Rega and Andrea Varriale "were attacked immediately" by the two Americans.

"They did not have the possibility to use weapons and react," Gargano said, adding that the officers were attacked as soon as they identified themselves as Carabinieri police officers. That claim contradicts the Americans' own accounts to investigators. They say they didn't know the two officers were police, as they were in plain clothes.

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports the suspects were visited in a Rome prison by U.S. Embassy officials on Monday.

Documents released on Monday, in which investigating judge Chiara Gallo explains her decision to allow the continued detention of the pair, provided context of the fatal encounter. The document revealed that the teenagers had been drinking alcohol and that the judge believed they had shown a "total absence of self-control and critical capacity." She said they had "demonstrated an excessive immaturity."

Thousands mourn Italian cop allegedly murdered by U.S. teens

Surveillance video shown by Italian media, though not independently confirmed, purportedly shows the teenagers at the scene in Rome where they allegedly tried to buy about $90 worth of cocaine just before midnight last Friday. They are seen fleeing with a bag they stole after the drug deal went wrong.

An eyewitness said he saw them running away from the scene.

Two plainclothes officers from the Carabinieiri police force were called, including Mario Cerciello Rega, whom Elder has admitted to stabbing. He claims it was self-defense because he believed he was being strangled.

In the court documents released on Monday, however, judge Gallo noted that there were no signs of strangulation found on Elder, and said the multiple stab wounds inflicted on the officer were not indicative of "legitimate defense."

The teens also told interrogators they hadn't realized they were fighting police officers, but Gallo dismissed that as "impossible," saying the officers had identified themselves repeatedly verbally, and shown their badges.

Natale-Hjorth claimed during questioning that he did not know about the stabbing until after he and Elder had returned to their hotel room and had a nap. The teens have offered contradictory accounts as to who hid the murder weapon behind a ceiling panel in their hotel room.

Photo released of blindfolded teen suspected of fatally stabbing officer in Rome

A photo that surfaced of Natale-Hjorth blindfolded in police custody sparked cries of mistreatment earlier this week, especially as it emerged shortly after the police said he had confessed to involvement in the killing.

Italian officials were quick to call the blindfolding of the suspect a mistake by a single officer, who had been moved to a different post amid an investigation into their actions.

On Tuesday,  Rome prosecutor Michele Prestipino said stressed that the suspects were questioned by magistrates in a lawful manner, in the presence of lawyers and an interpreter. He said the questioning was recorded.

Prestipino said investigations were still underway to determine why Natale-Hjorth was blindfolded.

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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2019-07-30 11:39:00Z
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Brazil prison riot leaves dozens dead and almost 20 decapitated at Alatmira prison in Para state - CBS News

Prisoners armed with homemade knives are seen on the roof of a building inside the Alatmira prison compound during a riot at the facility in northern Brazil's Para state, July 29, 2019. TV RECORD/Reuters

Rio De Janeiro -- At least 57 prisoners were killed by other inmates during clashes between organized crime groups in the Altamira prison in northern Brazil Monday. Sixteen of the victims were decapitated, according to prison officials.

Para state prison authorities said a fight erupted around 7 a.m. between the Rio de Janeiro-based Comando Vermelho and a local criminal group known as Comando Classe A.

"Leaders of the (Comando Classe A) set fire to a cell belonging to one of the prison's pavilions, where members of the (Comando Vermelho) were located," the statement read.

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State prisons chief Jarbas Vasconcelos said the fire had spread rapidly with inmates held in old container units that had been adapted for the prison while another building is under construction.

The fire prevented police forces from entering the building for several hours, he told a news conference.

Policemen and soldiers are seen in front of a prison after a riot, in the city of Altamira, Brazil, July 29, 2019. REUTERS

Two prison staff members were held hostage, but eventually released.

"It was a targeted attack. The aim was to show that it was a settling of accounts between the two groups, not a protest or rebellion against the prison system," Vasconcelos said.

Authorities have not found any firearms following the riot, only makeshift knives.

Prison authorities said 46 inmates will be transferred to other prisons, 10 of which will go to stricter federal facilities.

Brazil's over-packed prisons 

President Jair Bolsonaro was elected on the promise of curbing widespread violence in Brazil, including in the country's often overcrowded, out-of-control prisons. 

The Associated Press obtained a July 2019 report from the National Justice Council that it says was filed by a local judge in charge of the facility, showing that the prison had 343 detainees. It is intended to house a maximum of 163.

Yet Vasconcelos said the situation did not meet the official requirements to be considered overcrowded. "It is not a unit that has a prison overcrowding, we consider overcrowding when it exceeds 210%," Vasconcelos said during the press conference.

The judge who filed the report described the overall state of the prison in the city of Altamira as "terrible."

History of prison riots 

In many of Brazil's prisons, badly outnumbered guards struggle to retain power over an ever-growing population of inmates who are able to run criminal activities from behind bars.

The killings echoed those of 55 inmates who died in a series of riots in May in several prisons in the neighboring state of Amazonas.

In early 2017, more than 120 inmates died in prisons across several northern states when rival gangs clashed over control of drug-trafficking routes in the region. The violence lasted several weeks, spreading to various states.

Para state authorities spent the afternoon in Altamira, drafting a security plan to avoid possible retaliations in the region. Police forces from the nearby municipality of Santerem were sent as reinforcement in the coming weeks.

A woman cries after receiving information that her brother was one of the inmates who died during a prison riot, in front of a prison in the city of Altamira, Brazil, July 29, 2019. REUTERS

Prison authorities said they had not received any prior intelligence reports of an upcoming attack.

The prison is run directly by the state, not a third-party private operator as in the Manaus prisons where the riots took place in May.

Last year, inmates had already set fire to another wing inside the same prison unit, according to the state prosecutors' office.

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2019-07-30 09:59:00Z
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